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By Larry Trocha
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Dear Friend and
Horseman,
I just received an
email from one of my Inner Circle members who is in the process of
building a new arena. He was asking my advice on size, what type of
fencing etc. I think his questions are good ones, so I’ll answer them
here in this newsletter.
First, let me say that
everyone has their own preferences. The type of facility I like the
best, may not be what you like. When it comes to arenas, there is no
right or wrong.
I do my best job of
training in a certain kind of arena. Another trainer my not get as good
of results in that same arena. So, when I give you my opinion on arenas,
keep in mind that’s all it is—an opinion.
Breaking Pen
The ideal breaking pen,
in my opinion, is 50 foot square with 7 foot high fencing, with a 2 X 12
running along the bottom and 6 inches of sand footing. Oh, I can just
hear every one of you screaming in unison—SQUARE! Why not round?
Why, because if you get
into real trouble on a bad bronc, you can ride him into a corner and
maybe save yourself.
In a round pen, once a
horse starts running off or bucking, he’ll just follow the fence line
and keep on going. You are going to have to be a hell-of-a rider to stay
aboard. Corners are also good to help supple a horse’s ribcage and teach
him to stop and turn on his hocks.
Seven foot fences are
good because a horse can’t get his head over it. He won’t try to jump
out of the pen. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to back-off of an
uneducated colt because he threatened to jump out of the pen.
I hate for a colt to
get away with something like that. It just reinforces his flight
response. Also, with the fence that high, in an emergency, you can grab
onto it and use it like an escape ladder to get off the back of a bad
bronc.
The fence should not
be a solid wall. I want the horse to be able to look out and see the
world. I also want to be able to climb out if necessary. Use planks or
pipe set close enough together so the horse can’t get his head through.
I like 6 inches of sand
footing for two reasons. #1. If I get bucked off, I’ve something soft to
land on. #2. It’s deep enough to tire a colt out quickly. When a wild or
rank horse runs out of air, he will start trying to figure out what the
trainer wants. Most people never think of this stuff because they have
never had to deal with truly wild or rank horses.
Cutting Arena
My ideal cutting pen is
100 feet square, with 6 foot high fences and 4 inches of sand. Again, I
know you’re freaking out that I prefer a square pen over a round pen.
Actually, I have a130 foot round pen that I work cattle in. But, the
only reason it’s round is because it was already built that way when I
got here and it would be too much of a hassle to change it.
I don’t like a round
pen because it encourages a cow to follow the fence line and run round
and round. Running round and round with a cow doesn’t teach a horse
much. I want the cow to stop, turn and give the horse something
interesting to do.
In a square pen I can
stay right with a cow and have the corners encourage her to stop. In a
round pen the fence encourages the cow to go under a horse’s neck. To
stop the cow, you might have to get way out ahead of her, and that isn’t
a good thing to do on a young horse. It can shake his confidence.
Most cutting trainers, myself included, work
with the herd in the center of the arena. They cut a cow out of the
center and drive it to the fence. When the cow tries to get back the
herd, in a round pen you end up going in circles and that teaches some
horses to fade off the cow too much. In a square pen, it’s easier to
teach the horse to hold his line.
100 X 100 feet is big
enough to do whatever you need to do with a cow. I’d say 120 X 120 is
the largest I’d want to go. Anything larger than that and it takes too
long to drive the cow to the fence. You end up spending all your
training time driving. Again, I want to spend most of my training time
teaching a colt how to stop, turn around and rate a cow.
If you do decide to
make your cutting pen round, I think 120 to 150 feet in diameter is
about right. Four inches of sand will give your cutter enough “cushion”
for the hard stops without being too deep and causing strained tendons.
Reining Arena
If you plan on training
big-time reiners, you’ll need a big-time arena, at least 100 X 200 feet.
Remember, you will need to teach the horses how to stop well in
different types of ground. I’d want no more than 2 or 3 inches of sand
so my horse could learn to slide a long way. I’d want to teach him how
to stop well in deeper ground too.
I’d want 6 foott high
fences so when I’m fencing my horse he couldn’t get his head over. To
tell you the truth though, you might be able to do a better job of
training a reining horse with no fences at all. Train him to lope
circles and spin out in the pasture. Maybe have a patch of good stopping
ground out there too.
You’ll still need an
arena to teach your horse to
lope freely from fence to fence though (fencing). A lot of reining
trainers don’t use a fence around the perimeter of the arena. They will
have a row of pipe panels set up at each end of the arena to teach the
horse to fence but the sides of the arena will be open. I really like
this kind of set up.
Barns
and Stalls
Before I end this
newsletter, I want to say a few words about the way some people stable
their horses. Some horses are kept in dark stalls with no view for the
horse to see out. The poor horse is forced to stand in solitary
confinement with nothing to occupy his mind but four dark walls. When I
see this kind of mistreatment, I absolutely go nuts.
How would you like to
live like that? Imagine living your life in a 12 foot square room with
no window to the outside world. Imagine how depressed you’d get spending
most of the day, every day, in a dark room. It would be just like living
in a solitary confinement prison.
I personally know
people (including trainers) who stable their horses like this. They
claim to love their horses. They claim to be horsemen. Bullshit! No
“real” horseman would treat a horse like this. A simple window cut in
the back wall of the stall would solve the problem. Unfortunately, these
people are just too damn lazy (or cheap) to do anything about it. It
really tees me off.
OK, I'm finished
ranting and raving about this. I'll step down off my soap box for now.
Until next
time, have fun training your horse.
Larry Trocha
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
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