Rio In The Round Pen

I decided I needed to start Rio in the round pen. But since I can't take Rio to a round pen, I have to use the pen she is in, so it is not exactly a round pen. It's more of a rectangular pen, more narrow up by her shed and it widens to 24 feet by her water trough. I knew when I started round penning, that she would try to run into her shed and I would have to get her out and try to keep her at the widest part of the pen. And I knew the first day was going to be challenging, but it ended up not being as challenging as I thought. Of course I have not used a whip around her and she is so reactive it was not hard getting her to move off of pressure. Mustangs are super reactive anyways, they kind of have to be from living in the wild. So once I put my whip up behind her, she was off cantering up to her shed. Well, I had to get her out of there so I went right outside of her shed and put my whip in and pushed her back out. After about 6 or so times of her going into the shed, she started to figure out that she needed to stay out with me. She started trotting a circle around me and every now and then she would run up to the shed, then I would get her out. I started reversing her direction by stepping ahead of her and switching my whip to my other hand to push her around. Boy does she move quick! She was really paying attention to where I was, what I was doing and she responds very quickly to pressure! At some point I had to crack my whip to get her to move forward, and the sound did not bother her, she actually got a little lazy and wasn't responding to the sound. But once she figured out what I wanted she would trot off. I changed her directions every few circles until I knew she was relaxed, when I saw her slow down, put her head down a little and lick her lips. I then stopped my movement, put my whip down and said whoa. She stopped. Ok, so that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We did this for a little bit until she was nice and relaxed and then I called it a day. 

Day 2 in the round pen went a lot smoother. She only tried running into her shed a couple times, but never went all the way in so it was easier for me to move her back to the widest part of the pen. All photos and videos in this post were taken by my OH from his cell phone, which does not have good picture taking capabilities. So photos are blurry and the video is grainy. 

Day 2 in round pen.

Rio was staying in a circle around me and she was doing inside turns as well as outside turns. When I ask her to whoa and she stops, I want her to start looking at me and eventually will want her to face me. So anytime I got a look from Rio, I would back up a few steps to remove the pressure and let her rest. Then I would get her feet moving again. She picked up the whoa very quickly. And if she didn't look at me right away, I would move her forward. So anytime she stops and looks, she gets rewarded, since this is what I am after.

Day 3 in round pen.

Day 3 we did the same thing. She did very well in staying in a circle around me. I was quite happy with her progress and how well she was getting all this round pen stuff. And at one of her whoa's, Rio turned in and faced me, exactly what I want her to do! Eventually once they learn to face you, they will take a step or two towards you where you can eventually touch them. This is the goal I am after. I want her to respect me, see me as her leader and of course the most important thing, trust me. She already knows I am not abusing her, hitting her with the whip or that I am not going to hurt her.

Day 3, Rio facing up to me.

My OH took this video of day 3 in the round pen. You will (barely due to blurriness) see that Rio is moving in a relaxed trot around me and that when I stop, put my whip down, say whoa (you can't hear me) Rio stops. She does look at me a couple times. I let her rest for a reward, then I move her forward again. You will also see how small my area is to work in, but there is nothing I can do about that. I keep her at a trot, no cantering until she is gentled enough to take out to the normal round pen.





I am so happy with how she is doing. She is super smart and picks up new things quickly. Gentling Rio is going slower then I thought it would. I should have started her in the round pen sooner, but I thought she was going to be easier to gentle. But she just can't let go of her wild instincts. We will get there.... I have all the time and patience she needs to get this done and get it done right!