How to teach a horse to lunge

[merrygoround]

-Quote JB-
“Go back to walking in hand, and get REALLY good at stopping on a straight line. Use the whip in front of you, which means to his inside eye. Work hard on teaching him to move his shoulders away from you - first at arm’s reach, then from farther and farther away. Teach him that “whoa” means “whoa right here right now don’t move your feet”, and THAT automatically means “don’t turn in don’t turn out”” Unquote

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While I have no problem with most of that statement," whip to inside eye" is worrisome. A schooling whip to inside shoulder is safe enough, and will get the job done of teaching him to move the shoulder away.

There is still a point in time when the person has to make the decision to send the horse forward on the longe. while using but not over using the whip. This takes timing and coordination, and is not something a first time longer want to be trying on a green horse. As I wrote in this post;

Bad Kicking Habit
Started by FirstTimerHere, Jul. 6, 2019, 02:02

You need a mentor or trainer.

[JB]

@merrygoround

-While I have no problem with most of that statement," whip to inside eye" is worrisome. A schooling whip to inside shoulder is safe enough, and will get the job done of teaching him to move the shoulder away.

I guess my wording doesn’t sound like I intended

If the whip is at his shoulder, he can’t see it, therefore must feel it before he can react to it. I don’t mean “use the whip near his eye” - hold the whip in your outside hand (so left hand if leading on the right) and hold it in front of you so he has a chance to see it before he starts swinging his head and then front end into you. Nothing wrong with some movement in eyesight, when you’re that close, to encourage keeping the front end from coming into you.

This is the in-hand work, close proximity, before you ever send the horse to even arm’s length

[merrygoround]

If a whip is pointing at, or about to touch a horse’s shoulder, be assured that he can see it. Their vision range is interesting.