Building the ideal relationship in the round pen
By Scott Wehrmann, Double Diamond Ranch, Blair, Nebraska
When we talked with the folks at Saddle Up and found out that this issue would focus on equipment and gear, we got to thinking about all the tools we use every day. Ropes, halters, snaffle bits, hackamores, saddles, bridles all have their place. But for me, the round pen is an indispensable tool. They have been used for thousands of years, but in the last few decades they have become very widely used, and often misused. A lariat, halter or a snaffle bit can be used to communicate our wishes to the horse in a considerate way. Each can also be torture devices when used with little understanding of the horse and how he learns.
Scott Wehrmann with a paint in the round pen.
In the round pen I will present ideas to the horse that build toward a true partnership, which is the ideal relationship between the horse and rider. This partnership is based on mutual trust and respect. Almost all horses are ready and willing to take me up on that partnership. If from the start I am the master and the horse is the slave we will have a sort of adversarial relationship…I’ve created a conflict. As Ray Hunt used to say, “The horse doesn’t know what win or lose is until the human shows him.”
We want to build confidence and understanding, help the horse learn, and perhaps most importantly, learn from the horse. I want the horse to know and understand way down deep inside that I am not just willing to be subtle, but I’ll require it from myself. And I’ll require it from the horse. Tom Dorrance said that he felt the biggest obstacle people have with horses is the human ego. He didn’t mean that one horseman considered himself better than another, he was referring to the idea that we are somehow the superior being as compared to the horse. He really did mean mutual trust and respect, equal partners. Horses universally agreed with him about that. I’m sure lots of horses see humans as irrational, small, slow, weak, petty, dull, and dumb. With a mean streak. But hardly the superior animal.
Here are a few of our 2010 Azteca foals.
I prefer a pen about 50 feet in diameter. I want to be close enough to the horse so that I can influence his thoughts and movements easily and subtly. A pen a bit too small can make the horse feel crowded, like we’re going to cram something down his throat. A pen a bit too large leaves more room or distance between human and horse. This allows, and even encourages, the human to do too much. The person can move too quickly, too abruptly, and get away with it because of that extra cushion. A good pen requires the person to be more thoughtful or deliberate about his approach, challenges him to present himself in a way that is both effective and considerate.
At the start, I like to just allow the horse to be himself for a few minutes. Just watch. Is the horse dealing with any physical issues?
Soreness? Is he excited, afraid, a little bit mad? Bored stiff? Allow them to express themselves, and listen. You will need to adjust your approach to the horse. No matter the breed or discipline, we’re going to ask for all the same exact things. Yet the way we ask may be completely different for different horses. What is completely appropriate and necessary for a grown Belgian would probably send a young Arab or Thoroughbred over the fence. As the horse learns and changes from moment to moment, what was completely necessary and appropriate a moment ago is now massive overkill. You’ve got to adjust. Do less and less and less, and yet get more and more from the horse.
Horses out to pature.
At first, I set things up so the horse cannot possibly make a mistake. If he is already going around the pen to the left, I just ask him to go left. How hard can that be? Use all the pressure you need. That may be a tiny little puffing up of your chest and shoulders. Maybe raise a hand. With a horse that someone has dulled, you might have to do a whole lot more. Do as little as possible, but as much as needed. You must be effective. Then, when you feel the horse is about to respond to your request, release that pressure. Shrink your body a bit, or maybe back away a little. It is the release of pressure that the horse learns from, not the pressure itself.
With some horses, like a fresh mustang, just being in the pen with them might be about all the pressure they can take. Slow down your mind, your hands, your feet. In just a few moments, he will understand you mean no harm, and that he does get release and relief when he goes along with your idea. Right now, I don’t mind if the horse walks, trots, gallops, bucks, jumps, farts or kicks, runs around with his head over the fence, or anything else. He will feel that release as long as he did something even remotely similar to what I had in mind…go left. Let him express his opinion. I could get after him and tell him to shut up and do as he’s told, whack him on the butt with a rope or whip, run his butt off. If he wants to kick out at me, that’s fine. I don’t need to discipline him or correct him. That would likely confirm his opinion that I am a bit of jerk like that “other trainer.” His opinion of me does matter. I want to actually change that opinion. I always love to hear it when their opinion is that I’m the greatest thing ever. When we can go left with no fuss, we’ll change direction and go right. He may challenge me on direction; that is no problem. Just get him going to the right in any manner he chooses. Be sure to release when you feel he is about to make it. At first he might think it is just some happy accident that you’re both going the same way. When he challenges you on direction, he is giving you the opportunity to show him that you are actually making the decisions.
When we can go left and right, we’ll start asking for specific gaits. Very little is done at the lope. We’ll pick it up a few times going each way, but only a few strides are needed. This is not about working his bone and muscle or lungs, but gray matter. We’re trying to get to his mind through his feet. Later, the flow goes the opposite way, but for now, just move his feet. Do absolutely as little as possible to boost him up to a trot, and release when he is about to make it. Let him go. He doesn’t need to hold the trot, just get it. If he slows down it gives you another chance to ask.
Scott Wehrmann with an Azteca foal.
When I’m ready to ask him to slow down, I think of having a lariat on his neck already, though I’m still just holding the rope in my hands. I will pull on that imaginary rope just enough to slow him to a walk. I may make a mistake and pull too hard and stop him. If I pull way too hard I might turn him toward me. At first, this is all my problem. I have to adjust to him, figure out just how much pull it takes, and for how long, to get the response I want. Before long, he’ll realize I am adjusting to him. Then he will start adjusting to me. Our ideas are becoming the same. In just a few minutes, most horses will be going left or right at a walk, trot, or lope, stopping broadside, or hooking on, making the transitions up and down, turning in toward you to change direction, or turning away as you like by pushing on that eye.
If the human can focus in on the horse, and manage to release the pressure when the horse thinks about the transition, you are telling the horse his thought was correct. Soon he will be very, very interested in your thoughts. You have established a two-way flow of information and learning. Most horses have their intelligence and extreme sensitivity used against them. When they realize you are working with them, using that sensitivity for them, they will become even more soft and fluid, but athletic and responsive at the same time. You’ll realize, and maybe be surprised, because you suddenly notice the horse is no longer kicking out, humping up, making noise. The transitions aren’t impulsive or jerky any more. He’ll have a soft, quiet expression. And his mind is completely on you.
When you can drive them off, hook them on, and change eyes equally well, the next thing is to ground drive them. Many of us have seen this done to start a colt using a surcingle, or maybe have them saddled. Usually a snaffle bit is in their mouth, with long reins attached that go back through the rings or stirrups, and back to the human.
This is basically what I do, but without all the gear. Just loose, in the round pen, with nothing at all on the horse. You’ll look and feel a bit silly at first holding imaginary reins that are attached to an imaginary snaffle bit but soon you will be able to walk along behind and off to the right side of the horse, get a bit more right behind his tail, and pull on the right rein…I know, I know, there isn’t actually a rein there. Give it a try anyway. The horse will bend and turn right. Good, now keep walking across the pen, push on that right eye and turn left…you disappeared from his right eye into his blind spot and reappeared behind him in his left eye. He has “changed eyes.” Now you’re behind and a little off to the left. Stay on the rail for a bit; let him gather his thoughts as you gather yours. Now get over a little more behind his tail and pull on that left rein as you’re walking along. He will bend left, and turn left across the pen. Push on that left eye, driving him across the pen and to the right. You’ll disappear from his left eye into his blind spot, and reappear in his right eye. Challenge yourself, and the horse. See just how little you have to do to stop him, square. Start again, go around the pen with him, turning this way and that, maybe make a figure eight. You can get creative and set a couple of buckets out, drive in and around and between, maybe run a slow motion barrel pattern. Imagine you’re on the horse, riding along. Riding is a series of driving, hooking on, and changing eyes.
This combination of hooking on, driving off, and changing eyes will help the horse become very, very confident and sure about everything and everyone around him. You may find that a horse that was really scared of something like traffic on a road will now be OK with it. No, you didn’t actually work on de-spooking him or “desensitizing” him. It is amazing how many problems simply cease to exist. Now you don’t have to fix them. They’re already gone.
Now you’re getting to his feet through his mind. When you go for that first ride on a colt, he will immediately associate the feel and sight of you on his back with the ground driving. He’ll be OK.
Years ago when I first saw Ray Hunt do this with a horse, it was with a real outlaw-type stud. Ray didn’t seem to do much at all, and yet in literally ten or fifteen minutes start to finish, there he was driving that horse anywhere he wanted. He was grinning, and rolling that toothpick from side to side. He just kind of set his hands, and asked the horse to stop. That stud just dropped his hind right down. “Let’s see if we can pick up a soft feel.” He just eased back on those imaginary reins, and the stud dropped his nose down and in, and held it there for a moment until Ray released the imaginary reins and imaginary bit from fifteen feet straight behind him. That stud was putty in his hands from that moment on. I’ve tried this with every horse I’ve ever worked with since, and never have got it working like Ray did. But I know it is out there, it is possible. My friend Buck Brannaman published his groundwork book and video years ago. In it he goes through this process with a black filly, and says “When this is going well, something truly profound changes way down deep inside the horse, and it changes forever.” That is true.
We work with all our horses this way in the round pen. We raise Azteca horses which are quite rare, especially in this part of the country, and we are often asked “Why an Azteca?” Many folks we encounter have yet to meet one.
We’ll start with the idea of Heterosis, or “hybrid vigor.” Whether the goal is to breed better horses or beef cattle or any other species, crossing two unrelated bloodlines can produce offspring that outperform either parent. The Azteca was founded on the idea of crossing the Iberian Andalusian or Lusitano with the American Quarter Horse to produce a horse with exceptional cow sense, movement, presence, beauty, and athleticism yet at the same time to be quiet, steady and able to handle most any situation.
Scott Wehrmann in the round pen.
The Iberian Andalusian and Lusitano breeds are some of the most ancient breeds, used for centuries as war horses, mounted bull fighting, handling cattle on the open range, and as the preferred mounts of royalty. More recently they have excelled at dressage, especially in the Spanish or French styles. While evaluating a horse is far more subjective or subtle than simply weighing calves at weaning, from the very beginning the Azteca foals have an undeniable “something” about them. A few years later, well into their education, that “something” becomes even clearer.
Over the last fifteen years or so we have been more and more influenced by the horsemanship styles of Tom and Bill Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, Bryan Neubert, and other fine horsemen who have worked to preserve the methods and philosophy of the Californio vaqueros.
This requires a patient, thoughtful approach to educating a horse from the time he first encounters humans through getting him started riding, then progressing through the snaffle bit, hackamore, two-rein, and finally straight up in the bridle. Every step is built on the previous ones, and is taken with the next steps in mind, and how they all fit together to produce a horse that is truly versatile. We want an all-around athlete who can work cattle, handle them on a rope in an arena or out in the open, be capable of fine precision riding, all the movements and flexions with true collection and self-carriage, and do it with graceful elegance.
While our original intent was to breed and train ranch horses capable of competing at the national level in cutting and reined cowhorse events, many of our horses find homes with people who need a good, safe family horse. They want a quiet, respectful partner to love and grow with. They want to go trail riding, or to horsemanship clinics and events, or just enjoy sharing their life with a horse.
Our broodmare band was built on the old AQHA foundation blood of King and Poco Bueno. We bred these mares to our stallions Marsala Badger and Lil Wildcat, both sons of Peppy San Badger and fine bridle horses themselves. These mares are then bred to our PRE Andalusian stallion Cicerone, producing about twenty Azteca foals each spring.
1999 PRE Spanish Andaluasian Stallion, Cicerone. (Living Images by Carol Walker)
Our Aztecas have turned out to be the ideal horse for us. We want them to be sure of themselves and the world around them. From the very beginning, we try to build this confident, quiet, calm way of being. We want them to be sharp and responsive, able to turn on the power when we ask, but shut it right off again. There are active associations in the US, Mexico, and Canada dedicated to registering, promoting and preserving the Azteca, and the International Andalusian and Lusitano Association will register them as well.
Our Andalusian Stallion, Cicerone was brought to the United States from Spain in 2005. He has proven to be everything we hoped for and more. He is quiet and gentle, affectionate and respectful. Absolutely anyone can handle him either on the ground or in the saddle. He loves to be challenged, and especially to “win.” He has unbelievable stamina, an inner strength that just keeps growing. His foals show these same qualities and are just as beautiful, athletic and intelligent.
Could an Azteca be your ideal horse? Please feel free to write or call or stop in some time. You’ll get to meet our Azteca horses and see if an Azteca is ideal for you. We always enjoy getting to know fellow horse lovers and hear about your horses. If this style of working with a horse’s mind is something you’d like to know more about, we’ve got plenty of time and room to do it. If you don’t have a round pen, you can borrow ours for a while. Visit our website at www.DoubleDiamondRanch.info or call us at 402-709-7439.
