How do you introduce a youngster to the lunge?

benson21

benson21

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Tried to lunge Donovan tonight for the first time, he had no idea, bless him!
So, a few questions!:eek:
Firstly, he is a 4 yr old sec B, is it too soon to lunge?
Would it be better to start free schooling first?
Do you introduce lunging with a lunge whip?

As you can probably tell, I am a bit lost on this one. Benson was so easy to lunge and free school, so I am starting from scratch!:rolleyes:
 
Have someone lead him round while he is on the lunge rein so that he gets the idea. Have the whip there, but don't scare him. Build up to the person walking next to him, but not holding him, then further and further away until he is lungeing. Do this over a few days/sessions.
 
It helps also if you start off quite close to the horse, i.e horse walks a large circle and you walk a slightly smaller circle with them, almost as if you are leading them initially, that way you are in quite close control. As they get the idea you can move gradually further towards the middle of the circle.
 
I have always had someone walk round with them for the first few times while you give the voice aids.
I also find putting poles in to a square on the floor. You stand in the middle of the square your horse (and the leader) walk around the outside. This way it helps you to stay in the middle and stop the wandering around and also helps the horse to stay out.

I have also made sure that my youngsters can long rein as i find it helps with the voice commands and they are used to the long lines.

Don't want to sound patronising but make sure you wear a hat, gloves and don't put your hand though the loop on the end of the line.
 
I found that teaching the voice commands made the initial lunging a lot easier. For a few times I actually just led my mare around saying walk as we set off and trot when we got faster etc. After a while when I said walk on she would start off ahead of me which showed me that she was relying on my voice not just my movement. After I knew that she had learnt the commands I got a helper to walk in a circe with her around me- lunge whip behind her. After a few times around on each rein I took the helper away and she got the idea of walking around me by herself (it's definitely easier to start off in a round pen or mark a circe in a field e.g. with tires.
Sorry if that was a bit waffled- I'm by nooooo means an experiences trainer of youngsters but I just found that this is what worked for me with my section a :)
 
lauraandjack said:
It helps also if you start off quite close to the horse, i.e horse walks a large circle and you walk a slightly smaller circle with them, almost as if you are leading them initially, that way you are in quite close control. As they get the idea you can move gradually further towards the middle of the circle.
Click to expand...

This works for me too. I also use the lunge whip to move them away(on to a bigger circle not in front of me if that makes sense?) from me by pointing it at the horse's shoulder and use the voice command 'away'. Lots of praise too when they try for you.
 
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