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Teaching a horse to lunge

1K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  BiologyBrain 
#1 ·
I tried teaching both of my horses to lunge this weekend and failed miserably. I have Clinton Anderson's book and followed his method. I stood with the horse facing me, pointed high and left and swung my carrot stick towards the horses shoulder for pressure. Neither horse would turn, they both wanted to back up.

I eventually positioned myself perpendicular to the horse thinking that might be easier to just start that way and work on turning later. So again I pointed high and left and twirled my stick behind them as incentive to move. Cali did nothing. She felt no need to move whatsoever even when I tapped her on the rear end. She stood with her leg cocked. Cisco is such a sweet and willing horse on the ground and he kept taking it as a cue to yield his hindquarters. Poor guy spun in circles most of the time.

I know I'm the problem, but I went over and over what the book said and I'm doing it exactly as asked. The problem I think is that my horses see or feel pressure near their front end they take it as a signal to back up. At the back end it means yield hindquarters (or in Cali's case just stand still). The book says to keep with the horse until they do the right thing, but my arms were so sore from pointing high and twirling the danged stick that I had to stop.

So does anyone have a better or different method for me to try? Videos are good, but well-written instruction is nice too.
 
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#2 ·
do they lead well? if they do, then they know what a feel on the halter, a slight pull, is telling them. so, you are applying pressure, but there is not "feel"on the halter telling them what to do with that pressure.

you do what you tried first, but use your leading hand, which is holding the lead line, to put a foward pull on the rope, even if they react by backing up. by forward, I don't mean pulling back toward yourself. I mean, in the direction you want their front legs to step toward when you are asking them to go from facing you to stepping out sideway so that they then become perpendicular to you.


so, you face the hrose, she faces you. you want her to go to YOUR left , her right, on a circle around you. but she is facing straigt at you, correct?
you put a feel on the line by lifting your hand and literallin pointing at the spot out on that circle where your horse will put her front legs when she steps out on the circle. cluck to her, put a slight tug on the line to get the idea across, apply zero pressure with whip at first. see if you can get her to follow that rope feel and look in the direction you are indicating. if you get her to look, or cock an ear that way, ease off and let her stand. reward her for just "thinking" in the direction you tell her to think with your LINE, not pressureing her from the side with a whip.


once you can lift the line and put a slight pull OUT and forward (not back toward yourlsed. I can't stress this enough), and you get her to kind of look over that way, THEN add a tiny bit of pressure to see if you can't get her to move her feet over, too.

one or two steps, and you can let her stop, and reward. she did what you asked; she stepped out on the circle, moveing her shoulders away from you. this is a small but very important thing, and really, it's a part of teaching a hrose to LEAD more than a part of teaching them to lunge. so, get it down by itself first.

then, you send her thought out, ask her feet to follow, and then turning your body slightly so that you , too are facing where you want her to go (in this example on a circle around to the left of you) you ask her to keep walking with a litte bit of a cluck in your voice and the whip behind, hand up directing her to go to your left . never pull the line in toward you until you WANT her to come in toward you.
 
#3 ·
What I do is

lead the horse in the circle you are going to use, second time round drop behind his shoulder, use your voice to keep walking. The lunge whip is on ground in centre of circle at this point.

drop back a bit more and a step away from horse, encouraging with voice. Normally you stand just behind shoulder, but when you start you need to exaggerate the move, remember he has no idea what you want.

I keep moving back and out till I am near centre of circle, about level with rump. If he wants to trot let him as long as he is not pulling you. If he pulls, start again.

When he is moving forward, pick up the whip keeping it well behind him. He will eye it suspiciously but only bring it gradually forward as he accepts it until it is in the right place.

I don't worry about the facing in till I have the forward movement, starting the other side in the same way.
 
#5 ·
^Made sense to me Tiny. I know little about CA specifics. I remember Parelli's way of explaining teaching driving was 'Lead it(point lead hand in direction, put a little pressure on halter if necessary). Lift it(the stick/whip/rope in your other hand). Swing it(the stick/whip/rope). Touch it(if horse doesn't respond to previous signals, let the swung stick touch him).'

I'll add one more, that Parelli didn't say, but does nevertheless(he likes to stick to the fluffy 'touch it' & 'cause don't make' & uses the word 'promise' when he punishes lack of compliance...) Hit it(smack the horse hard enough with the whip *to be effective*, to get it to move away from the pressure). I do believe in the principle of 'be as soft as possible but as firm as necessary'(to be effective). I don't think that punishment, even strong, is necessarily a bad or wrong 'tool' in teaching personally, but I do find that if you're clear & consistent with prior lessons & 'phases', then you rarely have to go to 'phase 4'. But if you use that sort of method & don't ever go past 'touch it' to be effective with that whip, you're only 'nagging' & desensitising the horse to your antics.

WendyJane, I'd elaborate on the 'does your horse lead well', and make sure that not only do they lead well(softly, consistently without resistance), but that they understand how to yield to pressure in other ways on a short lead/up close first too. Can you push on their neck or shoulder with your fingertips & get them to yield their forehand away? Can you do the same on the flank or rump to yield the hindquarters? Can you put some 'pressure' out behind them - with whip or rope or such - to have them move forward? Pressure in front - you standing in front or walking towards them - to get them to stop or back up? Can you use 'implied' pressure - eg bodylanguage - to get them to yield up close? Ie can you point at the hip to move it away from you?

Once you get all that, just increase the distance until it's 'lunging'. That's what lunging is for me - teaching & reinforcing the horse for moving where I ask, yielding to my pressure, at a distance, just as he does up close.
 
#6 ·
This is an off-the-wall kind of thing, but it may help a little too. It deals with the whole 'getting the horse to go where you point' thing. I use a 12' lead with my rope halter., but it could be shorter. As I'm walking and leading my horse through the field (arena/whatever), she's just behind me on my right, I take the rope in my left hand point left then gently tug the rope left as well. I keep bumping the rope until she follows it. She moves to walking just behind me on my left, so then, I transfer the rope to my right hand, point right, then gently tug the rope right bumping until she moves to walking just behind me on my right again.

Sometimes when she's walking beside me, I ask her to slow down, let me pass her, and then go where I point using the same method. Then I ask her to speed up to walk beside me again. I like being able to lead my horses from any position, so I do weird things like this.

Doing it this way doesn't confuse the horse by having you facing the horse and focusing on the their haunches or their forehand and 'blocking' them inadvertently.
 
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