LUNGING

[friskimagic]

Please help......... just bought a horse who was backed and turned away, now brought him back to basics but as he lunges perfectly and knows the job i m doing a sort of re fresher course. Problem is he is playing up sometimes as in not listening to me and doing what he wants and when i push him to trot or whoa etc a friend says im doing it all wrong and i should be telling him what hes doing wrong and NOT telling him what to do........... she says im wrong to make him walk hen he decides to trot but he knows what walk trot whoa ect means and i say hes ignoring me, i want him to walk NOT trot so why am i wrong to tell him to walk?????????? im confused what to do now

 

[Nollaig Shona]

Do you have an arena, or something where you can loose school him instead of lunging? He might be getting bored with the whole thing. Plus he could be "chancing his arm" to see how much he can get away with, so you need to change things up.

 

[Naryafluffy]

How exactly are you meant to tell him what he's doing wrong? 'Don't trot', 'Don't canter'
Horses are unlikely to recognise individual words and it's the tone that they respond to so if you want him to walk instead of trot then a long, low, drawn out WWWAAAAAAAALLLLLLLKKKKK would be correct. The thing to remember is not to get upset and angry when they don't walk/trot/whatever (although very difficult sometimes when they won't slow down), just keep plugging away with the tone of voice.
I know someone that just can't lunge her horse because she can't change the tone of her voice, so the horse has no clue what it's being asked for.
I agree with you, if you want the horse to walk keep asking him to walk, I would maybe also want your friend to explain how she would convey to the horse that it's doing something wrong.
When he's back in work and you're riding what will happen then if he's doing something wrong, how will you tell the horse this......you don't, you keep trying until you get the correct reaction and then praise, you don't just stop asking for canter if they won't canter you just keep trying (and hope you don't bounce out the side of the saddle whilst you're trying )