Round Ring: Copper's First Session: Bonding or Joining Up

Anyone that has never considered how instinct governs a horse's world I would suggest that you read this before going on:
http://thecarolinacowboy.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-instinctal-horses.html 

Started a new horse today (10/20/2012) in the Round Ring, he is a 5 year old Quarter Horse gelding by the name of Copper.  Today was his first day in the round ring.

All he wants to do is put some distance between him and me.

He does not know why he cannot out run me, he cannot reason that he is on the outside of a circle inscribed by the round ring and I am on the inside, he just knows that he cannot get away from me.

By putting him in the round ring I have changed, manipulated if you will, his environment to make it easier for me to use his Instinctual ability to learn from his environment (this is his learned instinct which lets him adapt and survive), and teach him what I want him to learn.

After letting him run for a bit I start making him change directions.  At first he will try to turn in to the rail, away from me to change directions, but I want him to turn to the center of the ring and toward me.  So I run in front of him and make him turn back.  I am using the horse's feet to get into his mind.

After a while, how long depends upon the horse, he will change direction when I ask him, and do it toward the center of the ring.

I have my open hand pointing in the direction I wish for him to go, and the whip in the other hand pointing away from that direction, or as someone says, making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard.  I apply what ever pressure necessary to get him to move in the direction i wish, and at the speed I wish.  At first I may have to slap his butt with the whip, then just slapping the ground will be enough, before we were done today the only pressure I had to us was clucking with my mouth.

At first he will stay very close to the rail, and will run at the canter.  I could not get a picture of this but he will start chewing, and though he was a cow chewing his cud, but he has no cud.  Nobody really knows why they do this, it is instinctual,  and no they are not starting to think it over.  Knowing why or not does not matter but it is one of the signs you should look for, for it means that the horse is moving toward accepting your will over his own. It now that I let him start walking instead of making him either canter or trot.

At this time the horse may, and usually does, start making his circles smaller as he goes around the ring.  The next thing to look for is the horse dropping his head to the ground, as though he was smelling it, he is not, nor does he know that he is trying to tell you that he is a grass eater and no harm to you, it is an instinctual move and he does not know why he does it either.  This and the lip chewing are both examples of his inborn instincts.

After he does this I start asking him to come to me.

With some horses, if it has taken a long time getting to this point, I end the lesson here, where he is turned his head to me and not trying to run away, let him go and play and eat for the rest of the day.  But Copper got here relatively fast, so we went on to the next step, and that is him coming to me and following me around the round ring.  You can tell by his color why he is called Copper.

First I will send him around the ring several more times, and then put my hand out for him to come to me.

If he does not walk to me, I will make him run around again.  

Let him come back down to a walk

And then ask him again.

I may have to repeat this severely time before the horse figures out what I am asking.

Remember the horse is not human, he does not like you he accepts you.  He will never see you as another horse, you will never be his leader or in human terms his alpha, but he will respect you, and by condition him you can teach him to do anything a horse can do.

For some horse the following around, bonding as some people call it, will not come in one session like Copper did, but if you do your job right they all will.

 In the next session Copper will learn to stand still, untied, and let himself be brushed and saddled.

A word of caution  a round ring should be looked upon as a classroom not as an exercise ring.  Running a horse too long in small circles is bad for its legs. all of that lateral pressure pushes the bones out of alignment and puts great stress on the tendons and ligaments.  The same is true for lunging, it too should hot be done for exercise for the same reason.  Just because a horse is not limping does not mean that it is sound and without pain, if you horse need exercise ride it that is a lot more fun for you and the horse.


Suggested reading:
The Instinctual Horse
Round Ring: First Session

To see a slide show of all the pictures taken during this session go to:
Slide Show


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Rexx