LUNGING ADVICE NEEDED

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nat_a_528

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Hi bit of advice needed, trying to restart my tb and in the process of starting to lunge but he keeps coming into me and wont walk around ? I am using a lunge cavesson not a bridle. any ideas????
 
I'd try and keep him moving forwards, if you can get him moving in small circles around you, make the circles bigger once he's got the idea
 
Can you get someone to walk at his head until he learns he must stay out or you can use your lunge whip to flick at his shoulder to keep him out.
 
Attach a lunge line, extra long one to out side bit, thread through outside stirrup and round his bum and you can use that to push him on and keep him out till he gets the idea.

I found it in a monty roberts book and taught my youngster how to lunge this way.
 
Echo what Bambridge says, go for the long lining option. You might need a helper to get you going initially, not all horses get it first time, but it's it's a much nicer and calmer way to go.
 
We had this problem, and it wasn't fun. As we have an enclosed school, I just took the lunge line off, and we have loose schooled from then on. I'm pretty c*** sorting lunge lines tbh, so this way is much safer for us.

One thing I have done is used body language.This may work in getting the horse to turn out from you too - if you stand really big and upright, and really stare into the horse's eye/s, and really stand you're ground, he may well get the message and back off out of your space.

The other, less eloquent way to do it is (taught to me by a friend) - make sure you have a coupling on a bridle, use your voice LOUDLY to give commands, and constantly keep the whip cracking at the shoulder, NOT behind it, or he will just turn in. If he does turn in, get even more vocal and cracking the whip right at his shoulder, without any let up, say out loud "Right, you pick which way you're going, but you ARE going back on the circle". Then let him decide which way he's going to go, and just go with it. Eventually, you will regain control, as he ain't going to win.

Do make sure you wear a hat and gloves ! Will you let me know by pm if this helps, or if you need any more advice ?
 
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I really dont like the English way of lunging, I have copied a post here from Fluffalina, who I think covers most of what I think needs to be said.

Hi - a lot of western horses are worked in round pens, which are really common in the US, and most of the good western training facilities in the UK will have one, so you tend to find that round penning is generally used more than lunging.
That said, lunging is very useful when training the western horse, and the basics are more or less the same.
There is one big difference though. Because the western horse is asked to take a lot of responsibility when being ridden (for example, we ask for the gait and speed then the horse continues until cued otherwise) and we don't micro manage, we need to set that up on the lunge also. So if we ask our horse to lope on the lunge, for instance, once he is loping we don't continually talk to him, and give him layers of instruction, something I have noticed that a lot of English riders tend to do. The idea is that you cue the command, the horse does what he is asked, and you don't have to keep asking while he is doing what you have asked him to do. If you can instil this in the young horse, that will carry over when he is being ridden.
The other thing you need to be aware of is to try to replicate the voice commands that will be used when he is under saddle. Generally most people use 'walk on', with a cluck sound for trot/jog and a kiss sound for canter/lope. To stop is 'whoa', and you should aim to have him stop from a lope in a stride, pick up the lope from walk, and generally do everything you'd expect him to do under saddle.
If you lunge from a rope halter you can turn him on the move (we rarely use cavessons etc) toward you (in a round pen we usually would want the horse to turn in when changing direction, rather than outwards, as it's more respectful to have their head toward you, rather than their back end!)
Hope this is of some help.....!

The other thing which I think is poor about English lunging, is waving a whip at the horse to make it go away from you.

In building a relationship with a horse, particularly a youngster, they often approach you for reassurance when un confident, to then drive it away from you with a whip does nothing to build your relationship with it, quite the reverse I feel.
 
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you could try long lining / reining instead (double line lungeing in some books) simply attach the long lines to the sides of the Cavesson.. some lead them back to roller but it is quite possible if you have a calm accepting horse to not use a roller at all.

This means you have an outside rein / line to help keep the horse out.. and you can break it down by taking up a half way to driving position.. about 7 - 8 o clock from the quarters..

Long reining means you can do changes of rein and school figures too
 
shysmum said:
We had this problem, and it wasn't fun. As we have an enclosed school, I just took the lunge line off, and we have loose schooled from then on. I'm pretty c*** sorting lunge lines tbh, so this way is much safer for us.

One thing I have done is used body language.This may work in getting the horse to turn out from you too - if you stand really big and upright, and really stare into the horse's eye/s, and really stand you're ground, he may well get the message and back off out of your space.

The other, less eloquent way to do it is (taught to me by a friend) - make sure you have a coupling on a bridle, use your voice LOUDLY to give commands, and constantly keep the whip cracking at the shoulder, NOT behind it, or he will just turn in. If he does turn in, get even more vocal and cracking the whip right at his shoulder, without any let up, say out loud "Right, you pick which way you're going, but you ARE going back on the circle". Then let him decide which way he's going to go, and just go with it. Eventually, you will regain control, as he ain't going to win.

Do make sure you wear a hat and gloves ! Will you let me know by pm if this helps, or if you need any more advice ?
Click to expand...

Personally, I'm not keen on this method at all.
 
AndySpooner said:
Hi - a lot of western horses are worked in round pens, which are really common in the US, and most of the good western training facilities in the UK will have one, so you tend to find that round penning is generally used more than lunging.
That said, lunging is very useful when training the western horse, and the basics are more or less the same.
There is one big difference though. Because the western horse is asked to take a lot of responsibility when being ridden (for example, we ask for the gait and speed then the horse continues until cued otherwise) and we don't micro manage, we need to set that up on the lunge also. So if we ask our horse to lope on the lunge, for instance, once he is loping we don't continually talk to him, and give him layers of instruction, something I have noticed that a lot of English riders tend to do. The idea is that you cue the command, the horse does what he is asked, and you don't have to keep asking while he is doing what you have asked him to do. If you can instil this in the young horse, that will carry over when he is being ridden.
The other thing you need to be aware of is to try to replicate the voice commands that will be used when he is under saddle. Generally most people use 'walk on', with a cluck sound for trot/jog and a kiss sound for canter/lope. To stop is 'whoa', and you should aim to have him stop from a lope in a stride, pick up the lope from walk, and generally do everything you'd expect him to do under saddle.
If you lunge from a rope halter you can turn him on the move (we rarely use cavessons etc) toward you (in a round pen we usually would want the horse to turn in when changing direction, rather than outwards, as it's more respectful to have their head toward you, rather than their back end!)
Click to expand...

Brilliant Fluffalina! Thanks Andy for posting this,
 
it just takes time... it would help if you had someone to help you at first until he understands being out on the circle.i wouldn't suggest cracking a whip/waving a whip at his shoulder though..once he is on the circle, standing in line with his shoulder is usually enough to keep them out. when i've lunged a horse the first few times i usually stand in a line with where your lower leg would be to help encourage them to go forwards and out onto a bigger circle.
 
Andy, I wasn't keen on doing that either, but at that stage he was turning in and rearing right beside me.I was scared :eek: My friend did this with him, and it worked for them, but not for me, as I just wasn't forceful enough (don't have it in me), hence chucking the lunge rein and trying loose schooling. A revelation.

I did some loose schooling today just using a swinging lead rope, and he was brilliant - in fact, I dropped the rope, and just used the body language, I was sooo chuffed. And at the end, when I went passive, he came and followed me round like a little star. We are soooooo much happier now !
 
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