lungeing problem

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arty21

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Hi guys. Its me again with more questions for the group.

Hope you all remember the tale of tilly the well loved but manic irish x tb who bucked of my daughter several times then got replaced by a 5 year old irish wall eyed cob with a nature to die for. Well it seems that all is not rosy in the camp. Poppy (the wall eyed cob) has been a driving horse and is not too good at lungeing. Which is great cos poppies owners are exactly the same. Crap at lungeing. Our trainer can lunge her with no trouble but when we hav a go disaster strikes and she just turns her bum on us.
Questions. Are we damaging the horse by lungeing her badly?
Is one day aweek with the trainer enough to teach her.
As usual all at the yard have very adverse opinions so we have to come back to the oracle for the answers.

Thanks guys and ladies

John
 
DO you lunge her with two reins or one.

Have you tried someone walking at her head?

Can you drive her foward by holding a lunge whip in one hand and lunge rein in other?
 
That is a good idea, and worth looking into. But we know we are crap and she is good. The manic irish x tb we could lunge cos she knew what we wanted. But poppy is very green and needs instruction. And we arent to good at that.

:-( john
 
Only lunge with one rein. And she's great with someone by her head. A whip. wow. we tried that and she doesnt like whips. ONly time we had any life out of her is when we showed her a whip. j
 
It sounds like she knows she can get away with it and is taking the p**s.

I would get the instructor to watch you lunge and give you some pointers.

We keep driving horses and all ours lunge perfectly. We normally start of by free lunging and then introduce a lunge rein when they have got it.
 
You may be right but knowing the horse she seems to be clueless so I think its more us than her. She just wants to please, or am I being stupid?
So as total novices and a bit thick too , what is free lungeing.

j
 
Lungeing is a fantastic way of schooling any horse but if done in the wrong hands it can be unpleasant for the horse and bad for the schooling. To improve a horse's schooling you would have to lunge at least 3 times a week but lungeing is a discipline in itself i.e. the lunge line you hold is used in the same way that one would use the reins when riding, by squeezing, giving half halts, blocking, flexing etc then the lunge whip is used to replace your leg! if you want to move the quarters out your just push the whip to the area where your leg would usually sit for this command (behind the girth) As for turning his bum on you, again, you can prevent this by flicking the whip at the side of his hip but you must be quick to anticipate when he is going to do it so that you can flick him just before he turns at you. Hope this gives you some idea what correct lungeing involves.
 
If i were you and you really havnt a clue lunging i would leave it to the experts for now,try and watch whom it is that lunges her for you and get them to talk you through it,have them getting her going nicely on a regular basis on the lunge so she understands what is expected,then get a few lessons!
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!It really isnt to difficult to learn,you could stand in the middle with the person that is lunging for you and slowly take over!!!Yes they will start to take the preverbial if they learn that you are not 100% sure what you are doing,especially as she is green,she will soon realise how easy it is to fob you off!!(she may be willing to please but they soon learn how to get out of doing work!!!)Hope this helps abit!
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When you say she 'doesn't like whips' - what does she do? Horses often are not too keen on the whip to start with, until they realise that you are not going to hit them with it & they get used to it being there. I think having a whip to drive her forward with is the best way of stopping her turning her bum on you. Make a triangle between you, the horse and the whip. Start off in walk, keeping the rein fairly short and the circle small. Then as she gets the hang of it you can increase the size of the circle and gradually move up to trot etc. Be firm with her, even if it means she zooms off occasionally or does the odd buck & kick!
 
I got my instructor to give me lunging lessons, as my mare kept doing this.. in the end we decided i was just crap, and i now use two lunge lines and get on much better than with just the one. With one, your position to drive the horse and maintain the head at the same time is really important and i just couldnt keep it up! Putting a second lunge line through stirrop or roller before you go round the back as this stops it falling too low. The second lunge line can also act a driving force when you dont use a whip. My mare settles much better wiothout a whip as i find with one, all she concentrates on is the fact i have a whip!
 
Having struggled for nearly a year to lunge my cob who I thought was clueless, green and nervous I can sympathise with you. I've taught a lot of horses and ponies to lunge(including some nervous rescues and horses other people couldn't get to lunge)) but I just could not make my horse go forwards anything other than walk was a struggle (I was using a Lunge cavasson and two lunge reins)
I eventually asked my RI for help and she battled for 40 minutes with my horse having the hugest temper tantrums and barging, dragging, spinning, bucking etc before she eventually got him going. Turns out I was being too soft (blushes) he still tries it on if I'm not concentrating but is perfect 99% of the time. I use one rein, lunge whip, bridle and a roller and side reins.
Trainers are sometimes read how our horses are behaving differently than an owner can as owners tend to be biased
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and your instructor should be able to tell you if she's just taking the pee because you're not sure what you are doing.

My advice is let your instructor to keep lunging her once a week and also get them to give you and your daughter lessons in how to lunge and supervise you in case ypou have any problems until you are able to manage it on your own as if she is lunging nicely for your instructor chances are she is taking the pee out of you and your daughter because you are not so experienced.
 
Whips are something I have found driving horses don't like. I used to ride one and if you tapped him with a whip, he was off! My friend has one who bronks when you tap him with a whip haha! I would have thought that being a driving horse she would have been very good off your voice as they are mainly voice trained? But I suppose that they are mainly longreined / lunged with two reins? I would agree with the video, it looks soo different when you see yourself do it and see what your doing wrong.
 
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