An alternative to a circular pen is a small arena or school. However, this has the disadvantage of having corners where the horse may retreat and stop moving. Obviously a circle has no corners, so the horse does not have the same incentive to come to rest in a corner.
The trainer should not use a lunging whip or any other method of incentivizing the horse to go forward. The whip represents a fearful stimulus, which the horse could associate with the trainer. This can ultimately impede the building of trust between the two.
In the meantime, carefully review your gestures, body language, and tone of voice (covered more in Part 2) to improve your technique and correct an inadvertent mixed messages you were sending out.
Remember that the horse will almost always mimic you. If you’re jumping everywhere and shouting, the horse will respond by running and acting aggressively. Maintain relaxed body language and don’t show fear. If you show fear or hesitation, then the horse will take this as a sign of submission from you, and it will take a lot longer to join up.
A horse may take fright at objects perceived as being waved around, so presenting a uniform silhouette poses less of a threat.
You may also want to talk to the horse in a gentle voice as you do this to help calm the animal.
The process of moving the horse away presents you as lead mare.
Flicking on the long line now has the effect of geeing the horse forward. Encourage the horse to move in a circle around you.
After 5 or 6 circuits (if using a 50-foot diameter pen), change direction by blocking the horse using body language, but not actually getting in the way. After another 5 or 6 circuits change direction again, and start to coil the line and maybe drop eye contact down to the neck/shoulder.
The fact that the horse is relaxed but looking to you for instruction means the horse has started to trust you. Now you are both ready to move onto the next phase and test that trust.
If everything goes according to plan, when you turn your back and walk away, the horse will step toward you and follow. This is the same way a foal follows the mother when she moves off. You want to reward this behavior so that the horse is more likely to repeat it in future. [2] X Research source If things don’t go to plan and the horse ignores you, start working the animal in a circle again and go back to the beginning. However, if the horse is starting to tire, stop and try again another day.
