Remember the Three Little Pigs and their houses? The house of straw, flimsy and unstable, ready to blow away with a gust of wind; the house of sticks, built with a little more stability, but still unreliable when the chips were down. The ultimate house, the house of bricks, was ready for anything, solid and dependable.

Wouldn't you rather have a horse of brick than a horse of straw or stick? You've seen the riders on the latter two, nervous about trailer loading, coaxing with carrots or grain; or tiptoeing around this obstacle or that. A brick horse on the other hand will pick up your slack and when he isn't sure about something will wait for your cue (with a mindset of how can I help you?) rather than follow his natural instinct to freeze, flee or fight.

In order to move your relationship with your horse to the next level and work toward having that Brick Horse, round pen work can be an incredible tool. This type of training is not meant to replace the training that you do for your discipline; instead, it will help you to build a solid foundation with your horse in order to assist you in any area of horsemanship, from the hunter/jumper show ring, dressage arena, fox hunting field, to the trails. You can benefit from working with your own horses, or hand in hand with your trainer to maximize your efforts. If you work on mindset so that you can help your horse be the best that he can be, you will find that as you help your horse, you'll be helping yourself. Most people acquire many tools from their trainers; round pen work can help you to work on your timing so that you are using them at the optimum moment. As you learn to deal with the moment, riding the horse underneath you, not four strides ahead of or behind you, the connection that YOU make with your horse becomes the reward; reaching the goal(the trophy or the ribbon) becomes the icing on the cake.