The Round Pen vs the Square
Most trainers in South Africa use a 20m round yard/pen for their horse training. The main idea seems to be for the trainer to get the excess energy off the horse. In a round yard, every horse’s natural reaction is to run around the fence. While it may appear that the horse is being taught to move in a circle, the plain fact is that he’s just running around the fence. When a previously unhandled horse is in a round yard, they run faster and faster. When this happens, there’s no way of stopping the horse other than jerking on the rope. In a square yard however, the horse will stop in a corner and then you can approach him.
I do many interesting things in my picadero, which is a 14m square fenced area, and I especially enjoy using the corners and the short straight lines for in-hand work, especially at Liberty. There’s an interesting energy inside the picadero, the small working area combined with the corners create instant energy in almost every horse.
Work in a picadero differs in many ways from ordinary lunge work as it is highly concentrated and meaningful. It has nothing to do with letting the horse move around a bit.
It furthers the trust/respect balance in the relationship, builds concentration, strength and improves reaction time. It aids in the gymnastisizing of the horse, develops his lateral bending and horizontal flexion. It sets the stage for a readiness to work/interact with us and, finally it is possible for the horse to retain his sense of joy and fun throughout the work.
The horse, through the work at liberty, can adapt to the stresses of movement in his own way, but nevertheless remains within our sphere of influence. It teaches both the human and horse to communicate with one another through the use of the finest most subtle body language. We can naturally only expect the degree of sensitivity that we show him and we can only expect the degree of concentration from him that we ourselves demonstrate.
The first and most important thing is to go to every horse and show him that you’re not going to hurt him. A frightened horse must never be chased because chasing him will frighten him even more.
In every training situation, the biggest advantage of a small square yard is that you can approach every horse and show him that you’re not going to hurt him. You can’t chase a horse relentlessly in a square yard, because he’ll stop in a corner. Therefore, you won’t be tempted to use fear or fatigue as one of your training tools.
The Square - It does things you cannot do in a Round Pen, and if you really want to take the pressure off it easier in a square pen.
