Round Penning: First Steps to Starting a Horse

"Round penning" is the first step for horses destined for any riding discipline! Whether you ride western or English - basics are basics and they are first introduced in the round pen! Here's a quick overview of what you'll learn in "Round Penning: First Steps to Starting a Horse" (the video).

A brief overview of the material covered in this course: Why round pen training is so necessary for every horse, the equipment you'll need, how long it'll take, how it's accomplished, and so on.

Horses believe that "whoever causes the other to move" is the boss. So, with that in mind, we begin our round pen training by controlling the speed at which our horse moves, when it can stop and stand, when it can turn, and so on. In this very simple fashion, through a series of steps taught in a particular order, we begin gaining respect -- and control.

Answers to common questions student trainers may have at this point.

In this video, you will learn to teach your horse inside and outside turns. These will help solidify the control you have over your horse (on the ground) but also go a long way to teaching your horse respect for you as leader -- and rider. Want to catch your horse? If you kiss - and it turns to you - that's an "inside turn." Got a pushy horse? Teach it to respect your "space" with "outside turns."

The next step in your round pen training, this video teaches you to teach your horse to politely move both its hips and shoulders away from you as you approach (something you'll need when you later teach it to lead); you'll also learn to teach the horse to "come to you."

You've begun building a good and strong foundation on your horse. After round penning, here's what comes next in the training life of your horse.