Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
with solid 7-foot walls to ensure maximum control and safety in unpredictable situations.
Solid walls tend to make the horse pay exclusive attention to the trainer. Although this can
be an advantage with a snorty bronc, there comes a time when the horse must listen to the
trainer despite outside distractions. And a small pen like this is not as versatile as a larger
pen and thus may be suitable only for a horse farm that has many young horses each year.
A trainer will be less likely to get a foot hung up when riding in a solid-wall breaking
pen than in a post-and-rail, plank, or panel pen. Still, being slammed into a solid wall or
getting wedged between a horse and a wall can be dangerous. Scaling a 7-foot solid wall is
difficult for a horse and next to impossible for a trainer. In addition, the lumber required to
construct a solid-wall pen can be cost-prohibitive.
In contrast to a starting pen, a training pen designed for routine longeing, driving, or rid-
ing should be 66 feet in diameter to allow a horse sufficient space for balanced movement.
A 66-foot-diam-eter circle corresponds to the 20-meter circle used in dressage training.
Routinely asking a young horse to perform in a circle smaller than this can cause soreness
and stress and can lead to unsoundness. A larger pen can make it more difficult for a trainer
to control the horse. The walls of a training pen are often shorter and more open than those
of a starting pen.
This portable panel pen has solid walls on the lower portion that keep a horse's legs
fromgetting tangled in the rails. Note the scuff marks onthe bottomofthe panels in-
side the arena.
