used to have one 'made' from large straw bales a-la the old richard maxwell videos - worked a treat to give us somewhere safe to work the horses - it became the fodder for a bank holiday bbq bonfire some years back so now we are in limbo until we can afford a proper one. Logic behind them is sound though. Great investment I believe.

J

Hi

We use ours a lot - loose schooling, lunging and riding. Saved all our sanity over a wet winter, when everywhere else was a bog, so would recommend some kind of allweather surface. Find it very useful to get the horses used to scary stuff like umbrellas, flapping bags, etc in a safe environment. Some horses just don't get join up though - my baby show pony is so laid back, or lazy, he can't understand why he should have to go away from me. All our horses love to have a roll in the pen after a hose down or bath as a big treat, but then you do have to make sure they understand that rolling isn't part of work!

Other than to stop you wreking your arena surface with excessive circling that you do when lunging i dont see the point in them at all. i do all my lunging and ground work and riding in my 20x40 sand arena, if i loose school my youngster i can and she has gotten so good off my voice and body language that even if she is at the other end of the arena she still stops, goes, and turns, and thats without ever stepping in a round pen, just with lunging working inhand and some long reining. if i decided i needed a smaller area to work in i have enough jump wings and poles to section off an area of my arena

Hi,

I was trained using the John Lyons training techniques and as a result, I swear by a round pen.

It is the perfect training environment to start any horse. From about 8 months old, I train my youngsters to give to pressure and respond on the ground. It's amazing what you can achieve with the proper body language.

I do agree, it's almost impossible to learn from a DVD or demo. I spent 10 days training in KY focused on the groundwork (roundpenning, sacking out and bridle work). All of these techniques can only be done properly in a round pen, except perhaps bridle work.

If you want to start training any horse under saddle, ie. start, stop, side pass, flex, etc... a round pen is a perfect training environment since the horse cannot build a lot of speed and it should be built in such a way that it is one of the safest areas to start any horse.

As you can probably imagine, I also have one standing in the field. Mine is 60ft diameter which is perfect for riding and bridle work but a bit too big for good roundpenning. I would say that 50ft is a nice middleground solution.

Cheers,

Paul

I quite like my round pen, although its not really round anymore. I moved it into more of a rectangle. I was finding the stress on my babies joints could of not been good (not that I use it that often)and I find with them having to straighten and then bend around the corner, its helping to suppe them up more.I have also had a good response when clients have used them in a rectangle shape when they are bringing horses back into work from back issues, lameness etc.

I agree, if in the wrong hands, they, like most stuff with horses, can cause a problem, but used with sense, are fine.

I would also have a all weather surface put in mine when we move as it saves on sooooo much wear and tear on the arena surface, esp with liveries using it for lunging and loose schooling.