Horse petrified of whip when lunging?

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little_mistress13

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She only has to see it and her eyes widen and all her body stiffens.

When I try lunging she walks ok but constantly stares at the whip. If I try and get her to move a bit quicker she goes into wild animal mode and tries to run in different directions freaking out which puts me off what I am meant to be doing so in the end it's as if I have a giant puppy pulling on his lead around the paddock.

When I put the whip down and go up to her she is so on guard I have to show me hands otherwise I cannot go near her. Even if I have a stick in my hand I cannot go near her.

Obviously I have never whipped her. I haven't even got to tap the ground just have it behind her. She used to be a cart horse before I had her so do you think this is the problem? Maybe she was whipped badly to go?
 
I have small ponies and often lunge them with a schooling whip as a long whip seems overkill. You could always lunge using the end of the lunge rein to drive the horse on though, that can work well
 
I rarely lunge with a lunge whip - just a schooling whip my new mare is a tad too clever though - she has worked out just how long my whip is and circles at just that radius ignoring ' out' signals so I had to dust off the lunge whip (literally..) if your horse is scared of a lunge whip don't use one...
 
There is a point called "the threshold". There will be a distance at which she will be terrified of the whip and a distance at which she couldn't care less. The latter may be 100 yards -- 200 yards, but it will exist. In between is the threshold.

You need to bring the whip a little closer each day from the "couldn't care less" distance. When she begins to exhibit any body language that she is getting upset. stop, put the whip on the ground, go to her and give her a scratch and a kind word and maybe a few treats. That's enough for the first day. Repeat that every day (just once a day to start with) and you will find she will tolerate the whip a little closer each time. This is "eroding the threshold". With patience and taking things slowly, you will eventually be able to drag the whip over her and touch her all over with it without her bothering. It can be done!

We do this with all our youngsters, Monty Roberts style, starting with a supermarket carrier bag on the end of a long stick. Finally, graduating to an old coat on the end of a stick which is dragged all over them, even covering their head. Sooner than you'd think, they will tolerate being stroked all over, especially the legs. In fact, two 2yo colts behaved perfectly for the farrier for their first trim the other day and this is pretty much all the handling they'd had so far as their feet was concerned.

Last, do NOT over face them. Do as much as they will reasonably tolerate but never enough to cause panic. Your job is to teach them that they have nothing to fear and you won't achieve that if you push ahead too fast.
 
It really is worth desensitising her as Dry Rot has outlined, you just never know when you might need that extension to your arm that the lunge whip provides. BTW a lunge whip is an inert object, there is only one way she could have been so frightened and that is abuse of such a whip in her past at some point - maybe loading, that is a common time a lunge whip is used excessively?
 
My daughter's Appie is frightened of the lunge whip too. All whips in fact - but we have worked, as dry rot says, to deal with carrying a whip on board. And we can do that now as long as it is short - not a schooling whip! But lunging just wasn't worth the flight to me. He lunges beautifully off my body and voice. I know it isn't the PC / BHS way - but that was one fight that just didn't seem worth having with him. We have plenty of others!
 
WelshD said:
I have small ponies and often lunge them with a schooling whip as a long whip seems overkill. You could always lunge using the end of the lunge rein to drive the horse on though, that can work well
Click to expand...

I lunge my 16'3 with the end of the lunge line if I need to drive him forward, I don't think we even own a lunge whip. I do lunge regularly.
 
I think I should add that desensitising can be over done -- sometimes with amusing results!

The young girl who occasionally helps out gets lessons from an instructor with one of my ponies. The pony had had enough and decided to plant. The instructor suggested the girl should carry a stick, not to use but just to show it to her. We both laughed and I couldn't resist saying, "Much good that will do!" Instead, we decided to make the lessons shorter and try to vary them so she would not get bored.

Another way to help desensitising to a specific object is to put it near a feed bowl or water trough and leave the horse to work it out for itself.

Here's a picture some here may have seen before. Horses hate having something large and flappy around their bums but this one could not care less. Consequently, they take backing almost as casually and there is never a scene. Every progression is gradual and kept as free of confrontation as possible. Our foals are already being gently leant over at five months!

A vet wanted to examine a 2yo's eyes and wanted the pony taken into a dark place. I suggested we throw a coat over it's head. The vet was visibly shocked, saying she would not put up with it. She did -- and the vet disappeared under the coat and completed the test.

fearna3_zps2dfa2e83.jpg
 
Dry Rot has the right idea. :) to save a little time why not tie a cheap lunge whip to the fence near where you leave hay in the field for a week or two. Then she'll have all day to think about it. The threshold distance thing will still apply.
 
One of our horses was terrified of lungeing and the lunge whip, she would just gallop round in circles. We had some natural horsemanship lessons and she is a changed horse. We didn't use the lunge whip in lessons or desensitize her, just did lots of groundwork. The vet came out a couple of weeks ago for a lameness work up, she wouldn't trot so he handed me the lunge whip (we have been lungeing without it) I explained that she may freak out. She was absolutely fine with it, I guess she trusts me now through all the exercises we have done. I was so pleased with her :)
 
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