Beginning stages of groundwork/natural horsemanship!

Cookie and I are only in the very very beginning stages in lunging but I am pretty proud of how far we have gotten in only a few weeks. When she was sold to me her previous owner told me the reason for selling was because she would not lunge on the line without charging full speed with teeth bared and all. As you can see that's no longer the case, We still have a lot farther to go but its nice to feel like I am finally making some kind of progress so I thought it was worth sharing (:


The trainer I am learning from uses a lot of Clinton Anderson methods but of course with a mix of her own tips and tricks

She's very pretty, just a question though. Why is she on such a short line? A short line tends to limit movement in what I've seen so just curious.

I start out with her on a full like away and end up pulling the line in over time, Bad habit Im still working on breaking.

I have to agree on the too short of line comment. That is awfully rough on their joints and such. You have another 4' of line hanging there, let the poor horse have a little more.

As I just said, Its a bad habit of mine I am working on breaking. I pull the line in over time without realizing it.

I'm still scratching my head at selling a horse over the fact that it doesn't lunge properly.

That one made me scratch my head too.

I was VERY skeptical about that being her reason for selling but I have had no other problems at all with her at all and am just going to count myself lucky

How is she feeling? I'm not a vet but she looked pretty lame to me at the beginning of that video at the trot. It might be because of the tight line but her range of motion and the head bobbing sent up tons of red flags.

I really like Clinton Anderson but I don't see much of him in the lunging. It looks like you are working in a round pen, have you considered trying free lounging? That might help with your "bad habit" of pulling the line in since you won't be able to do that :) Will also give her freedom to move properly and comfortably!

She is not lame, as stated more than once she was on a short line so obviously her range of movement is limited. As for the head bobbing its something she has always done. She carries her head very high and has never learned to yield to pressure in the bit or at all for that matter so the idea of keeping her head low or bending at the pole is a really foreign concept to her so the bobbing is normal.....for now.

Free lounging something we have done and she does pretty well, the person I am learning from saw no harm in me trying it on the line so I am just starting to feel my way around and learn right and wrong. I by no means expected to be perfect right away, but we will get there and I am lucky to have a pretty tolerant horse (: