Round Pen vs Square Pen Horse Paddock: Which One is Suitable for Your Horse
Oct 19, 2023 | Super Equestrian
Suppose, you had bought a horse a few years ago, that was very close to your heart as it was your first purchased horse. You used to let the horse graze and roam freely in a large area of Pasteur.
One day you had to move from the Pasteur for an urgent matter leaving your horse alone. After coming back to the Pasteur, you could not find your horse anywhere.
At some point, you realize that someone has stolen it. You were very disappointed after that incident. Recently you have bought another horse for yourself. Now you are thinking of building a horse paddock to ensure the safety of your horse while roaming or exercising outside.
But you are worried about which paddock would be suitable for your horse, round pen or square pen horse paddock?
Don't worry anymore… If you read this article, you can decide which paddock will be suitable and convenient for your beloved horse.
Why are horse paddocks important?
Paddock is a constricted and fenced area, where the horses can move and graze freely, perform different exercises, train, and communicate with other horses in a group. The paddock is useful to separate the horses for breeding or providing them space to recover from injury as well.
Sometimes, other aggressive horses can harm your horse by kicking it out, that time you can place your horse in a paddock to ensure its safety and protection. If you train your horse in a paddock, they will learn to stay within a boundary or limitation, this way they will get the chance to develop their behavioural pattern.
What is Round Pen and Square Pen Paddock
Round pen horse paddock is a confined space, which is surrounded by a fence of circular shape without any corner or edge.On the other hand, the square pen paddock is the training area enclosed in a square-shaped fence with four corners.
How Can You Compare Between Round Pen and Square Pen Paddocks
If you want to compare between a round pen and a square pen paddock, you need to consider the characteristics and quality of different features of both paddocks.
In the case of a round pen paddock, horses can move consistently without stopping anywhere. They might feel stressed due to continuous moving without any breaks. But horses pause their movement when performing in a square pen paddock, which is relaxing for your horse.
Sometimes, they try to mount up over the square pen, but with a round pen they can not mount up over the fence. Due to this reason, horses get injured while roaming into the square pen, considering this issue round pen is safer than the square pen.Since square pen paddocks provide more space, horses in a group can easily do exercises in that area without any conflict.
In addition to that you can ensure different kinds of training approaches in a square pen such as riding, jumping, or turnout, and some other types of exercises.
You can interact with your horses easily in a round pen paddock for having a small space, so, it is convenient to train young horses in this paddock by easily communicating with them.
In round pens, horses can perform a limited number of initial stage training sessions such as different types of groundwork, as it provides a limited space. If you want to know about some popular horse's training approaches, read this article natural horsemanship vs positive reinforcement: which training approach is right for your horse.
Now, can't remember what the turnout process is?
Turnout is one kind of activity by which you can teach your horse to follow your instructions, in this process, you can guide your horse to enter the paddock from its stall via opening the gate by itself. If you purchase a new horse and train it for the first time, you can use a round pen because you can handle the horse easily in this paddock.
When instructed in a square pen you will face difficulty in controlling your new horse as it will move randomly from one corner to another as the square pen provides more space for moving.
Horses need to twist their body when performing different exercises, if you provide a square pen paddock they can comfortably twist their body deeply into the corner, but a round pen paddock does not provide this benefit.
Suppose, you have a plan to purchase some more horses and that's why you want to increase the size of your paddock in the future, then you can select a square pen paddock.
But why?
You can expand the paddock by increasing extra panels or fencing materials with the remaining paddock. A round pen paddock can not provide you with this additional benefit. The construction material of both round pen and square pen paddock is wood or metallic panels but their shape is not similar. Round pens paddock requires curved shape fencing, but in case of square pens, you must use horizontal fencing.
The shape of these two paddocks influences the cost of construction. But how? If you want to make curved fencing for your paddock, the cost will increase due to maintaining this specialised shape.
Round Pen vs. Square Pen: Pros and Cons
Both round pen and square pen paddocks have some pros and cons. Let’s have a good understanding of the pros and cons of round pen and square pen paddock:
- Round pen horse paddock
| Pros | Cons |
| 1. Provide limited space for training and exercises. |
| 2. Building a curvy panel requires a skilled individual having specialised knowledge and experience, that's why the installation process is costly. |
| 3. Because of this limited space, you can not keep the required accessories for riding here. |
- Square pen horse paddock
| Pros | Cons |
| 1. You need to carefully monitor your horse in this paddock because there is a lot of space where it can often climb over fences out of your sight. |
| 2. In most square pen paddocks, the corner posts are sharp, where horses are likely to be injured. |
| 3. Because of the large space in this paddock, sometimes it becomes a problem to control the horse for the rider. |
What Factors You Should Consider When Choosing Between Round and Square Pens
When choosing a perfect paddock for your horse, you must consider your preferences based on safety, convenience, how well the horses perform in that paddock, and finally your affordability.
When choosing between round and square pen paddocks you must give importance to your budget, if you afford any kind of pen, then you can think about other factors.
The next important thing to consider is the number of your horses. If you have more than two or three horses, you can choose square pen paddocks, as it will provide more space. But you must monitor all the horses carefully in that paddock because horses can get injured when trapped in the edges of the paddock.
Then you can think about which shape of paddock you can clean easily. You can easily clean the round-shaped paddock by moving it in a circular motion at a time. With square-shaped paddocks, you need to clean each edge separately and clean the corners deeply by inserting a sponge or clothes, which will take more time to clean thoroughly. So, considering your time and patience you can choose the paddock.
Sometimes, most of us become worried about the durability of the paddock, when purchasing materials or providing installation costs.
If you don't compromise on the quality of construction materials, you don't have to worry about durability, no matter what the paddock is. Again, most individuals prefer square paddocks for young horses, it depends actually on you and your horse's convenience.
So, always focus on your preference before taking others' reviews when choosing the right paddocks.
How to Maintain the Pen Paddocks Properly?
Maintenance and cleaning of the paddocks are very important to make a hygienic environment for your equine partners. Let's examine the strategies to maintain the pen paddocks properly:
Clean the paddock every day to remove wastes and debris from it, which can spread doors and pollute the nearby area.
Always monitor the fence to ensure whether it requires maintenance or not. If you find any kind of damage in the fencing, immediately repair it because predators can harm your horse or sometimes horses can escape from the paddock as well.
You should take special care of the paddock after it rains. Try to keep the soil clean and dry. After removing the waste from the soil you can spread wood chips on it so that it can absorb the excess water.
Apply good quality fertilizer into the soil to increase the grass growing so that horses can eat the grass easily from the paddock without moving outside.
To Conclude
Selecting a paddock for your equine companion is a critical thing if you do not have a proper idea about the characteristic features of different paddocks. This article focuses on every factor to select a perfect paddock according to your requirements.
If you have any opinion regarding this article please comment, and feel free to share this with those who are confused thinking whether a round pen paddock or a square pen paddock might be more suitable for their horse.
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