Lunging my 3YO

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lastphoenix

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Hello, I started lunging my 3YO about 3 weeks ago, he does approx 5 mins each rein and wears a saddle and bridle with a cavesson and i have now introduced loose side reins.
He works very well in all 3 gaits but i am finding him VERY strong. He really pulls to the outside, hes only on the cavesson as i dont want to attach the lunge rein to his bit yet!
Has anyone got any ideas on how i can stop his pulling. I would be really grateful of any suggestions or tips! i am considering just going on to long reining and forgetting lunging for a while.
 
Pull and let go, hard, several times in quick sucession. Repeat that pattern as necessary- generally does the trick
 
How big is the circle you're trying to lunge him on? Try lunging him in straight lines for a while until he gets used to it then bring him in on more of a circle when he's got some muscle etc
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Definitely lunge on 2 reins, he'll be pulling because he can't balance himself and needs to use the rope (and therefore you) to balance on. I would not recommend jabbing him through the rope several times then letting, it's very unfair on a youngster and he could well fall over!
 
I would just start long reining. As others have said circles are hard work and require balance. Let him build up some muscle long reining first.
 
3 weeks and he is already lunging in walk, trot and canter? that is good in one respect but personally I think you and your horse might of got a tad bit ahead of yourselves there.

Yanking him in the mouth or from the cavason is not the way, after all he is dong as you ask, going forward, not turning in (I presume) which is all good. I would take it one step at a time, yes he should not be pulling you and hopefully he should not also be flying round neither (not that you said he is) so I'd take things one step at a time, you younster needs to learn a happy medium and therefore I would go back to walk, make sure he is not doing this is walk before you start asking him to trot etc, he will not be supple enough to lunge well during trot or canter and that is propably why he may be pulling, otherwise it might just be because he's being silly which is not acceptable neither and had to learn not to pull during walk. Confusing the situation with double reins, side reins etc may not help. Take it steady, its better to take a few months getting it right than to rush things and it all go wrong, 5 minutes each way acheiving a good walk without him pulling is better than putting him through all his paces in 5 minutes with him pulling.

Just be patient, he'll get the hang of it as long as your doing everything right, just a bit at time, its a 3 year old after all.
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3 weeks and he is already lunging in walk, trot and canter? that is good in one respect but personally I think you and your horse might of got a tad bit ahead of yourselves there.



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I do the bear minimum lunging- that means they walk trot and canter within a week and then they are got on. I dont think the OP sounds to have put unreasonable stress upon her horse.

A quick pull and let go is the most effective and least stressful way of stopping a horse leaning on your hands
 
Everybody has different ways which work for them and the individual horse and I am not questioning nor criticising how soon a youngster should be doing what they do and how soon, because it is hard to gage or give advice unless you are there in person to see what the specific problem is or have worked with that particular horse.

I do feel that if they have got to the stage where the horse is pulling you all over the place after 3 weeks during trot and canter then going back and taking more time to get it right in walk etc is better than having to correct a problem now, in a faster pace.

You may be able to lunge and back a horse in week which is great but 'perhaps' you have had more experience than minmin in which case I wouldn't like to see someone who may of possibly created or done things a little too quickly to be careful not create further problems, I'm not saying what you suggest is wrong in anyway I'm just explaing why I personally think it might be the wrong way to tackle it because your 'quick pull hard and let go' might not be the same as what another person thinks it should be or does, which is why I suggest going back to basics and finding out the cause rather than the cure.
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As other’s have said – at 3 he is not yet really very balanced on a circle. I have recently started doing the same things with my 3 yr old and he is now very confident in all 3 gaits however I have done a LOT of walk, trot and halt work before we even built up to canter…not just from the POV of helping him build up strength and balance but also to teach him to listen to voice commands properly. When I started going up into canter work I would literally do a quarter or half a circle and then back to trot/walk. This is because his balance in the faster gait wasn’t great and so by bringing him back down a gear he had the chance to re-balance himself (On the occasions when he would not listen and kept cantering he would indeed become strong – but not because he was being strong, but because his body kept trying to drift out further and further)

By taking it easy and slowly and thus working on his balance and responses he has now built up to being able to canter full laps and in general lunge like a ‘grown up’. That said, when he tires he will start to drift again and so I immediately bring the work back down to walk work so we don’t get into any arguments.
 
It sounds to me as if he is unbalanced on the circle (of course, he will be after only three weeks) and is leaning on you for support.
In other words, he is not coping with the work you require, at the quality you seek.
You either accept it, or go back a step or two in his training, and teach him to lunge in balance in walk, trot and canter.
Or why don't you ride him away as he is, and only do walk/trot in straight lines til he copes better?
I have to say, my 3yo is in the field, being a baby.
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Thanks everyone, i will definately take all your ideas into consideration. I think i will take a couple of steps back and try to get it right in walk and trot and do some long reining in straight lines! i might even take him out for a walk leading from my old boy, just down the tracks. cheers once again!
 
Sounds like a much better idea Minmin, walking out 3 times a week, just taking it steady, does them the world of good, hardens the tendons, gets them used to traffic, kids, people gardening, birds flying out of bushes...all the things you need to them to be sensible with when you eventually start riding out not to mention builds there fitness slowly without them even noticing!

You could long rein but I personally think you should stick to one thing at time, rather than asking them to learn learn two different things otherwise it all gets a bit messy and too much for them to take in and learn and you won't be able to perfect them at one particular thing but thats personal preference.

I also like to do a session of ground work/obedience as a refresher once a week to keep them in right, also introduce them to spooky things, umbrellas', plastic bags, balloons, tarpaulin, puddles, tires etc...again once at a time, its quite fun and rewarding and you'll end up with spook free horse, but just be careful how you do it without frightening them...you build a bond with your horse too and they learn to trust whatever you through at them.

Keep things simple, short regular sessions every other day and you'll find that your horse will enjoy the little bits of work that you do, without it all getting too much as at 3 there attention span is still limited and enjoy him being young.

Good luck and don't forget to share some pictures!
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I should have said on my above post that I had first got him used to walking out in hand on the roads lots. Not long walks but long enough that he got to see ‘the big bad world’ and also learnt to respect the person walking beside him. It has been fab for him as not only did I get the chance to teach the voice commands for walk, trot and halt in hand but as the above posters have said, it has hardened his tendons nicely. An additional bonus to doing this means that I am 100% confident that I could take him past almost anything and not have any dramas as he completely put his trust into me and knows that I won’t tell him to go anywhere that might hurt him.
 
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