Starting a Young Horse Part 11

I was so glad that the unhappy experience had not set us back too far in what my goals for this horse had been. I still had not put a bit in the horses mouth, so I hooked a set of reins to the halter and after going through the exercises for the day, I again mounted the horse, but this time I ask him to step off by shifting my weight just a little forward. One step was all I was asking, but if we got more that would be alright too. He stepped off slowly, a little unsure of exactly what I was asking, but I was reassuring him that everything was going well and he did not mind me being on his back. Once he reached the rail of the pen, his step came at a little faster pace, but then he quickly decided this was a comfortable place to be. I changed directions with him, went around the pen this way for a couple of laps and asked him to stop. Again, verbally saying whoa and shifting my weight slightly toward the back. Then I got off, walked to the center of the ring, ask him to come to me, and took the saddle off. Again, we stopped on a good note.

This horse had followed me around the round pen, and come to the center when asked, but I had never really led the horse. There was one more thing I wanted to accomplish this day and that was to get him out of the round pen and into a stall.