paging the lunging gurus

[enjoytheride]

I think that long lining or double lunging this horse before he knows how to lunge on a single line would be a horrible mistake. When you get the outside line under his tail and he takes off across the arena you will regret it. O when he feels the outside line and starts to spin. You don’t just use the outside line to pull the horse out on the circle, the same basic principles apply with both styles of lunging and if you are having trouble reteaching him to lunge properly you will not be able to teach him to long line.

You need a pro to help you and something besides just a halter to re teach him to lunge properly.

[merrygoround]

With hardened sinners, I come out loaded for bear. They are wearing a bridle and a proper cavesson with a leather covered steel noseband, that has ringed side pieces that allow it to be snapped up and down. They are in comfortably adjusted side reins attached to a surcingle.

They start off at a walk, and then progress at command to a trot. Any racing off is dealt with summarily with a snap of the longe line that causes the cavesson noseband to give a thump on the nose at the same time acting on the bit somewhat as the rein would. If the horse comes back in the first thump and command to Walk! fine, let him walk for a few steps and go back to trot. Continuing the tear around gets repeated thumps and a increasingly smaller circle, until he has to walk. He is then praised and the whole activity is repeated. It takes practice to handle longe line, and whip, which you always need even in a small circle to keep him out of your space. The handler also needs to be able to place the whip at will. I find snapping the whip in front of the horse non-productive.

Longing takes as much work, practice and sense of timing as does riding. Developing those skills is not something you learn with spoiled, hardened sinner, at least not easily.

[mvp]

@ merrygoround and for the OP:

I think the two of us have described something similar.

Again, at least for me, the goal is not just that he go slow. Rather, the goal is that he get obedient and focused. It does take some skill and timing as merrygoround points out. You need to be able to handled the bight of your line and whip accurately.

But, really, with a bridle or lunging caveson and a whip, you can make this horse take the path and direction you want. If he has to start out on a tiny circle where anything but a walk is hard, then fine. He can earn a bigger, easier circle when he shows you that he can keep his head in the game. Or for the worried “gotta move!” horse, let him trot around on a slightly larger circle, so long as he’s at a consistent pace that you (more or less) dictate.

All the emphasis on teaching a whoa or transitions doesn’t make so much sense. If the transitions help him focus, or help him discover that a long walk is easier than changing gaits all the time, they are working for you.

[beau159]

[QUOTE=awaywego;8880186]

His ground manners - ASIDE from lunging - are really quite good. He is the one who you can count on in the barn to be polite.

Focus and spooking seem to be part of the issues that carry over to lunging from under saddle.

I have lunged him in pretty much every set-up: halter, bridle, cavesson, with whip, without whip (!! very much grasping at straws trying to get him to calm himself down). The paying attention thing is a big part of the struggle. He’s a classic over-thinking TB, so we struggle with spooking and boredom in general. [/QUOTE]

If he has good ground manner while leading, build on that. Slowly. Sounds like you are making too large of jumps in training with him.

If he’s not ready to listen while he’s on a 20 foot line, then don’t give him 20 feet. Start with 5 feet. Get him to listen to you and pay attention. If your session can only be 5 minutes the first day, so be it. Tailor his learning to his personality needs.

The #1 move I teach first is to disengage the hindquarters. They need to move the hindquarters away from you when you ask. When he can consistently do that, then teach him to move the shoulders away from you. And when he can consistently do that, then move the ribcage (both shoulders and hindquarters) away from you. He should also clearly know what the word “WHOA” means and obey you when you tell him.

When you can accomplish this with him right next to you from both sides, then teach it to him when he’s 5 feet away.

And slowly progress each day with short sessions until you can completely control him even though he may be 30 feet away from you.

It’s all about BODY CONTROL, and progress slowly in your training so you can set him up for success.

When I lunge, personally, I am not lunging to get the sillies out of a horse. Sillies are for romping in the pasture on their own time. When they have that halter on, now it’s time to listen and it’s time to work. No monkey business is allowed. I lunge them for the purpose of making sure they are paying attention to me, and listening. So we do lots of direction changes, gait changes, stops, turns, etc. Because I want their focus on me and I want them moving their body how I have instructed.

If you don’t think of lunging as lunging, and rather think of lunging as an “extension” of leading (and expect the same ground manners), then the control part really becomes quite easy.

[Jarpur]

I am a major fan of ground-driving. Fortunately, I trained with a judge/clinician who taught me techniques I’ve used on all my horses over the years (including starting several greenies from scratch). Also, whenever I’ve had the opportunity to participate in a clinic with a trainer with special expertise in ground-driving and/or in-hand work, I always ask that my lessons focus on that as I value it so much. But, as much as ground-driving is one of my personal horse-training cornerstones, I wouldn’t recommend that someone unfamiliar with it attempt it from reading about it - as opposed to in-person instruction - from the safety aspect alone.

However, I agree with beginning with small circles, at the walk, and utilizing the corners of the arena (so that the fencelines help contain the horse mentally as well as physically), rather than standing at X and working the horse around me.

An exercise I learned that I have found very handy (and could be done on a lunge line) is to walk down the long side of the arena for several yards (or even merely feet), then turn the horse into the arena around me in a very small circle, then head back to the fence and continue in the original direction.

Timing is everything - I bring the horse in off the fence before the horse “loses it” and can no longer maintain the appropriate walk. Eventually, I work up to walking the horse down the side, but allow a trot on the circle, then resume the walk as the horse reaches the fence; then work up to trotting along the fence and on the circle.

The horse never gets up a big head of steam along the fence because the circle is coming up shortly; the horse never gets up a big head of steam on the small circle because the fence is coming up. As time goes on, with the horse calmed and under control, the circle size can be increased.