As you work through this part, you'll find yourself backing in a small circle, and the horse continuing to turn as he walks toward you. As the horse improves, your position should change. Move closer to the shoulder, so that the horse is walking more with you, and less toward you. If the horse seems to stall out, remember to talk to the hip to get the horse moving. When he responds well with you "leading" him by his shoulder, then ease yourself into position by his head, as you would if you had a lead rope in your hand.
When the horse responds perfectly in a tight circle, you can begin to enlarge the circle. That is the next step toward being able to move in a straight line. Remember to cue the hip to get him moving, and the nose to ask him to turn toward you. You're likely to get excited at this point, thinking that you have the horse leading invisibly. Though you're on the right track, he'll learn to lead coming out of the outside turns, not the inside turns, as you'll see in a minute.
Sooner or later, you'll lose the horse. He'll move away from you, as if he's done playing. When that happens, move him around the pen a few steps at the walk or trot, and begin again. Don't scold him at any time.
Next, you'll use the outside turn to get the horse to turn to the right. Begin by standing about 6 feet from the horse's head, at about a 45-degree angle from it. Kiss to him, and step toward him to ask for one step to the outside. Try to make your cue subtle, so the horse doesn't feel chased away. You want the horse to step onto his right front leg, not to step forward. If he gives you more than one step away, cue his nose for an inside turn. Eventually the horse will stop turning to the outside when you stop cueing him, rather than you having to depend on the inside turn to bring him back into position.
Continue working with that, until you can move closer to his head and still get the response that you want.
Now we'll use the outside turn to get the horse moving forward with you. Position yourself beside your horse, and ask for an outside turn, as before. Continue asking for one step, and then another and another. Initially you'll have a tight circle, but when you feel that you can, enlarge the circle, even adding a few straight steps before returning to the outside turns.
Come to Me
We'll now go from the advanced class back to round-pen basics to teach the horse to come to you.
Cue the hip to tell the horse to move forward to the left around the pen. Move ahead of the horse so he's coming toward you. He'll continue walking a step or two before stopping. Walk up to him to pet him, turn and walk away. He might follow you a step or two. If he does, that's fine. If he doesn't, that's fine, too.
Repeat the exercise, making sure to ask the horse to look toward you, so that he doesn't anticipate an outside turn. Now, instead of petting him every time, pet him every other time, or just now and then. Congratulate him for any small improvement, such as walking three steps toward you, instead of two.
When you ask him to move forward, do so with a light cue, and vary the timing. You don't want him to get the idea that the pattern is to stop, then hurry away.
As the horse improves, you're going to ask him to walk toward you. When he stops, step to your right, and ask him to look at you, as if you wanted an inside turn. Kiss to him and ask him to step forward. Take another step to your right, and kiss again, quite like you did when you were working with inside turns. Eventually, you'll get the turn and most likely one step toward you. That's a big breakthrough.
Continue working from both the left and right, until the horse will come on cue. Remember to do things one at a time-cue his hip to get him moving, then ask the nose to move in the correct direction.
Now you can combine the elements, making it look more like a dance. Ask the horse to come to you, then ask for a few inside turns, make the circle slightly larger, then an outside turn, then a larger outside circle, and so forth.
Leading your horse without a halter is one of the most rewarding things you can do with him, and you'll be tempted to leave the round pen to show off. But you'll need more practice before your horse will obey in a different classroom. When your horse performs 100% in the round pen, you can start to introduce small distractions. When you take him outside the pen, his performance will drop to about 50%, so getting this down pat will require plenty of practice. The good part is that practice is fun when you're working on perfect ground manners.
