Lunging tips.

benson21

benson21

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I lunge Donovan occasionally using a bridle, roller and lunge line, with side reins attatched very loosly.
I can slow him down using my voice, but is there any actual aids I should be doing? Walk is not too bad, but trot and canter we bomb around, motorbiking!!
 
benson21 said:
I lunge Donovan occasionally using a bridle, roller and lunge line, with side reins attatched very loosly.
I can slow him down using my voice, but is there any actual aids I should be doing? Walk is not too bad, but trot and canter we bomb around, motorbiking!!
Click to expand...
The whole point of lunging is to train obedience, bombing around is no good imho, he may have been taught by someone who decided he needed to let off energy.
Drop the lunge whip, see if he will respond to your body language and vocals, he can easily see a flick of the wrist or end of the lunge rein if you want to make him go faster, make every UP command sharp and make down commands slow and deep, I use ....aaand... to proceed the down, so he only needs to know if it is Walk or whoa which is whoahuhhhg huugh, mmh whooooah whoahhhhh whoahhh....
sorry, a kind of rhythmic sing song, sleep noise, calm and chilled.
I never use side reins.
When he is bombing just use a calm voice, SSSSSsteadeeeeeeeeeeee, Steadeeee, Steadeeeee....etc, again a kind of updown sing song, just a different word.
You can prevent him going fast by keeping him in a tight circle at the walk, and allowing him to widen the circle slowly, pull him back in if he starts to go faster than you want. SSSSSSSSteaddeeeee, whoa, if he flies off just keep calm and wait, he will run out of energy, at which point you ask him to ........... aaaand walk, walk on,,,,,,, terrot...... two circuits and walk................ and so on.
Make sure he will walk with you along a road, with halts when you halt, so he understands you are playing a nice game, and he has to be part of your team.
When you have him at the halt and you are standing in front of him, rub his face as a reward, then come to his shoulder and ask him to walk on, once he is turning round your vody you can ease out the rein and when he is at 10metres you can ask for a trot, if he flies off, just let him go for a few seconds before you ask him the SSSSSSsteady.........
 
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MrsD123 said:
The whole point of lunging is to train obedience, bombing around is no good imho, he may have been taught by someone who decided he needed to let off energy.
Drop the lunge whip, see if he will respond to your body language and vocals, he can easily see a flick of the wrist or end of the lunge rein if you want to make him go faster, make every UP command sharp and make down commands slow and deep, I use ....aaand... to proceed the down, so he only needs to know if it is Walk or whoa which is whoahuhhhg huugh, mmh whooooah whoahhhhh whoahhh....
sorry, a kind of rhythmic sing song, sleep noise, calm and chilled.
I never use side reins.
When he is bombing just use a calm voice, SSSSSsteadeeeeeeeeeeee, Steadeeee, Steadeeeee....etc, again a kind of updown sing song, just a different word.
You can prevent him going fast by keeping him in a tight circle at the walk, and allowing him to widen the circle slowly, pull him back in if he starts to go faster than you want. SSSSSSSSteaddeeeee, whoa, if he flies off just keep calm and wait, he will run out of energy, at which point you ask him to ........... aaaand walk, walk on,,,,,,, terrot...... two circuits and walk................ and so on.
Make sure he will walk with you along a road, with halts when you halt, so he understands you are playing a nice game, and he has to be part of your team.
When you have him at the halt and you are standing in front of him, rub his face as a reward, then come to his shoulder and ask him to walk on, once he is turning round your vody you can ease out the rein and when he is at 10metres you can ask for a trot, if he flies off, just let him go for a few seconds before you ask him the SSSSSSsteady.........
Click to expand...


^^^ This exactly!! ^^^ Perfectly put :D
 
the above advice is good. Bringing the horse onto a smaller circle and standing ever so slightly in front of the horses shoulder can ask the horse to slow down.

I use side reins. Can I ask why you bother if they are only attached loosely and therefore serving no purpose?

:) H x
 
Good question! i guess its one of those things that I was advised to use, then told that I had them too tight, so slackened them off, and now they look like they are not doing anything!
 
I have gone off lunging big time. I much prefer long lining now teaches a horse so much more than walk trot canter. And try and keep upright going round a circle.

With long lining Samba has learnt you dont have to go everywhere with your head up, infact she softens into a "outline" now, she has learnt to balance on small circles, shes got over her fear of the bit, we are working on cantering now. And she has now learnt to leg yield on the long line. You regualry change direction on the long line and can work the whole arena if you want.

Think of it as instead of a whip in your hand you have another rein and then as you get used to it try figure of 8s and some ground pole work.
 
I love lunging. It can create so much topline if done correctly.
When I lunge I look for a good rhythm, and alot of long and low and stretching. When they are using their back etc you can see what muscles they are using as when lunging correctly they lift their stomachs and you can see the muscles on their back bouncing.
If he is bombing around in trot and canter I would drop the lunge whip and make your voice commands and body language alot more subtle. It could be he was taught to bomb around and get rid of access energy, or your style of lunging is too "big" for him if you get me? Last mare needed alot of "Come on get going!!" where as this current mare needs alot more of a "just slooooow down there is no need to run, just relax" kind of a method. Its completely different.
Drop the whip for now and see if he settles.
I also find spiralling in and out in trot and canter can really help the rhythm, especially in canter it can really get them alot "bouncier".
Hope this helps.
 
I dont use a lunge whip, and he has only ever been lunged by me. I have tried long lining, but we got in a big tangle! we have an instructor coming on thursday to give someone a lesson on another pony, so think I might ask for a lunging lesson.
 
The whole point of lungeing is to work the horse and by using side reins building topline, they will not serve a purpose is they are slack this dosn't mean tighten them right up as this isn't good for the horse but gradually tighten them until your horse is working nicely round but not not round a pessoa is brilliant for make the horse use there hind end and building topline lots of voice command training you can do this when on the yard good luck hope it helped good luck! :)
 
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