38/ JANUARY 2013 THE RIDER 20 Steps In The Round Pen
By Russ Krachun “Kozak” Horsemanship - Steps One And Two Of Twenty Steps was no, it is not natural.
Hello again horse owners and horse lovers, I am very excited and happy to come back to you again to introduce and explain my “20 steps in the round pen”. My idea and mis- sion is to explain and teach peo- ple how to be safe and build a better way to communicate with this gorgeous and magnificent animal.
I have discovered the 20 steps to prevent dangerous situ- ations between you and your horse, to become safe with your horse, and to prevent many problems or issues that we build with our horses. For example, many horses may not want to go forward on the ground or under saddle, they pull back, buck, kick, resist trailer loading, have head shyness issues, or don’t respect your space and on and on. Many issues are created when the halter is introduced for the first time, the horse throws its head in the air and runs away, or when saddling by gen- tly putting on the saddle and the horse bucks and we get hurt. If we start from the lunge line what is going to happen? A big wreck! The horse does not trust us yet, so we have to chase the horse to put on the halter. We cre- ate issues! We finally
catch the horse and put on the halter and start on the lung line, we teach the horse to pull back; again we create issues. We tie the horse, and the horse learns how to rear up and pull back. After that we take the whip and start to crack the whip and ask the horse to go forward; the horse goes forward, pulls back and rears up, runs away from us and we teach our horse to be afraid of our body as well as create unsafe and abusive rela- tionships. We have also worked in the round pen with longe whips, running the horse around in the round pen, and asking the horse to turn inside and to face you, we then walk away from the horse in order for the horse to join up. What Then?? Then I said to myself,
When I studied working in the round pen, I always thought that something was missing!! That is when I discovered my “20 Steps”. I asked myself in each step. Is it safe? Is it easy to understand for the horse? And most importantly, is it safe and easy to understand for the people that I intend to teach? Each step in my “20 steps in the round pen” connects to the next step. The results of each step help to get a better understand- ing, helps to build respect between the person and the horse and it also brings your horse to the next level of horse- manship.
We have to start our com- munication between our horse and ourselves without accidents and bad habits, it is very impor- tant for our future partnership. The horse will memorize good and bad right from the start, we do not want to create bad habits for the start. It is very hard to fix bad habits and mistakes, remember safety is number one.
communicate with the horse because he may be upset and pay more attention to this dan- gerous space. Lets also talk a bit about the connections between the panels, they also can be dangerous. It is impor- tant to have connections that can be easily taken apart if you have a situation. I prefer to work in a portable round pen with rubber connectors. The connectors are safe, easy to set up and take down or the most important part, if you have a dangerous situation that you can cut the connectors apart to save your- self or the horse.
Stop... I do not want to take chances in my life. Something is missing here, I don’t want to be hurt, and I don’t want my horse to be afraid. I want trust and respect between myself and my horse. No more unsafe chances!!! I want to find an easy and safe ways to succeed with my horse and create a safe and more enjoyable horseman- ship. So, if you believe in horsemanship lets use easy and safe solutions for both the horse and human to understand.
Before we even start, I would like to talk about the round pen. What type of round pen is safe for me and my horse? I prefer to start a wild or domesticated horse in a 6 or 7 foot tall round pen. When the horse wants to escape from pressure the horse may try to jump over the round pen, it can hurt himself or damage the round pen. The most important thing is that you can also be hurt because you are surrounded by steel panels. If the horse jumps through the round pen, the horse can be caught and drag the pan- els. I would also like to have the panels closely connected with no space between each panel, so that if the horse decides to kick, he will not be stuck between the panels. Also if you build your own round pen, don’t build a post inside your pen. The horse may dam- age it’s knee, or you may dam- age your knee when you ride in the pen. Be careful when you work in the portable round pen when you work with your horse at different speeds. The horse’s legs can slip under the panels. The horse may become afraid to work against the panels and lean inside towards you. The horse may not respect your space. This may cause problems to
I would also like to talk about the footing in the round pen. It is very important for you and your horse. We create many dangerous situations and mistakes when we put the round pen on grass footing. The horse can slip and damage himself, break a leg, or pull muscles. With this mistake we create many issues with our horses, such as not consistently going forward. The horse will always remember this spot, and will lean inside or change the direction, or kick out, as he may fall or slip again. He may even run faster to escape this area where
In the past what we have done with the horse is not natu- ral. Ask the horse to go for- ward, put on the halter, bridle, saddle or even to desensitize or sensitize our horse, because the horse could not survive in the wild after this. So what is right and what is wrong with what we are doing with these beautiful animals? There is no answer, only the horse can give us the answer. Because the horse will not lie, if they like you the horse will tell you, if they do not like you the horse will tell you right away by using their body lan- guage.
So let us put the horse in
ing still and let him catch his breath. In this step it is not important how he will turn inside or outside from us in the round pen, we will concentrate in having him just go left or right directions consistently. We often forget to say thank- you to our horses when he accomplishes what we ask. The thank-you is the release of pres- sure. Don’t Forget! So, we can control our horse without aggression, pulling on the rope, cracking whips, or yelling or by showing fear with our body lan- guage. Yee Ha !! With this understanding, we have accom- plished our communication in the round pen with our first step.
the injury may have occurred. We also make mistakes by using small fine grave in the footing. The horse may not want to go forward or escape from the round pen.. The small fine gravel can be abrasive to the sole of the foot making the horse sore and not willing to work. I have also seen hard ground in the round pen. You can imagine how much com- pression the horse has in his joints, legs, body, shoulders, hips and spine and we still want the horse to work for us. So lets avoid all of these mistakes, and start the horse the right way for you and your horse.
the round pen and see what will happen. We do not have to put the halter on the horse because he is not going to be further than 25 feet away from us, and he will not pull or rear up because he is free. We don’t have a lunge line on the horse, he is free. He can come closer to you and cut your personal space, but we don’t trust him yet and he doesn’t trust us, so we keep him against the wall. So how can we control our horse if it is free? We do this by controlling his feet from the left and right directions going forward. It is natural for us to have a flag or a whip in our hands, but I always try to ask my horse to read my body language and ask him to go forward by leaning forward, clucking and pointing my hand in the direction that I am asking him to go.
Step # 2- Extended Touch Why do we call this step extended touch? Because the horse is not allowed to come into our space yet, the horse
start the horse in the round pen they throw the rope on the hips of the horse to make the horse go forward. I am completely the opposite. I do not believe in this. To move away from tools is not my goal. My goal is for the horse to listen to my voice command and to read my body language. My idea of the sec- ond step, the EXTENDED TOUCH is when I throw the rope on the horse is that the horse should stop going for- ward, stand still and accept the lasso when I throw it on him and face me. That is how I start to build trust, respect and under- standing of each other in this enjoyable horsemanship. (insert picture # 0292)
For the first time that you
Step One - Teach your horse to go forward consistently in the Left and Right Directions I always ask myself, why do we have to start the wild or domesticated horse in the round pen? Why is this round pen so important? From the time that I was six years old until now at thirty-eight, I believe that I have found the answers. I know I will still find more and more answers as I continue with my horsemanship. When we put the horse in the round pen, the horse cannot run away from us. Right away, I asked myself, is this NATURAL? My answer
If the horse does not go forward with my body pressure, I will use my flag, and when the horse starts to move forward, I will place my flag behind me so that the horse will realize that he should move from my body pressure and not from the flag. You may have to apply this many times so that the horse will realize what you want from him. It is very important from day one and step one in the round pen to teach your horse to understand your body language and not move away from the tools used. In this step it is very important to move the horse from both the left and the right directions because the horse uses each side of his brain separately. Each step in the round pen will translate in the future relationship between us, so let’s teach our partner to respect us, trust us and love us and not to be afraid of us. I concentrate in this first step for him to go forward from the left and right direction consistently when I ask. It is very important to be consistent. Your horse may be upset at the beginning, but in a short period of time he will understand you and you will give him release by stand-
does not trust us and we do not trust the horse yet. We have not built the leadership between our relationships with the horse. To accomplish the second step we need the help of the first step to go consistently to go forward in the left and right directions. So how do we start to touch our horse for the first time? We will use the lasso, because it is an extension of my body.
Many times when people
ask your horse to go forward, do not throw the rope on your horse, take the rope in your hands and act like you are going to throw it. Your horse may become upset and run fast in the round pen. Continue to pretend to throw the rope until your horse becomes calm and travels at the same speed. Repeat this
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