Spooking and ... round pen

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

At 10:52 AM 9/21/00 +0200, Tracey wrote:
>My "new" horse was a notorious spooker - impossible even to walk down the 
>road without a 360 turn or ten - and the round pen just did nothing for him.

One thing that I think gets overlooked in some round pen failure situations 
(for instance, mine) is that some *people* don't work well in a round 
pen.  Not every human is suited for round pen work.

I hate working in round pens and as a consequence my horses don't gain as 
much from me there as they might.  I usually do work youngsters a time or 
three in the pen, but I don't use the pen as a common problem solving 
location/tool.  I have found that I can accomplish just as much elsewhere 
as in the pen.  That includes on the trail as Tracey suggests, as well as 
in feed pens, in the pasture, at the trailer, in the yard, etc.

Don't anyone get their hackles up about it, but the round pen isn't the 
end-all and be-all answer for every problem, since there are two important 
variables in round pen work:  Horse AND human.  If they both don't want to 
be there it just ain't agonna work.  Lif




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