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In the Round Pen - The Basic Circle

This is the 'basic' maneuver in the round pen.  You want the horse to move in a circle, along the perimeter of the round pen or picadero at a sane speed.  

If the horse is tracking left, your left hand will be the 'pulling hand' and your right hand will be the sweeper hand.  The sweeper hand is aimed just behind the horse's tail as if you had a sweeper arm sweeping them forward.  It can help to have a whip with a lash to aim at this spot so as to remind yourself where your hand is pointed.  (DO NOT SNAP THE WHIP!)  With your pulling hand, pretend the horse has a pull string coming from its sternum and your arm is long enough to reach out in front of the horse, like 10 feet in front of it, and pull on that pull string.  The two hands work together - the one pulls while the other pushes.  Eventually you want to get to where the horse goes forward at the slightest hint of a pull. 

The two hands working together remind me of rotating doors.  You have a little 'slice' of space you have to stay in as the door rotates and moves you from outside to inside or vice versa.  That is kind of like what you do with the horse.  You keep it in that little slice of space and as you turn the horse moves along as if it's got partitions behind and ahead of it.

Notice that you don't stand in the center of the circle.  You stand a little bit 'behind' the horse, to the right of center.

The more you push-pull, the faster the horse goes. Start with a simple 'go'/'walk' and after a circle or so let off with the push-pull to allow the horse to stop on it's own.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• You do not use a lunge line because you want the horse to sense it has a choice in what it can do.
• You do not run the horse for '20 minutes' until it's exhausted!  this is a dance.  a conversation.  an interactive communication.  if the horse asks to stop and you miss the cue, you get major penalty points -- lots of ticky marks in the 'what-an-idiot' column.  (You don't want those.)  The horse now distrusts you.
• You do not snap the whip.  Again, if you snap the whip and the horse deems it was unfair, you get major penalty points -- lots of ticky marks in the 'what-an-idiot' column.  (You don't want those.)  The horse now thinks you'd make a good door mat.  Don't go here!
• If you have an obnoxious horse and/or this is a total disaster, get professional help.  

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