Quite shocked by what I saw today..

[DaisyDoll]

A woman at my yard has 2 nice youngsters, one a 3yo and one a 2yo. She has decided to back them both at the same time for convenience, which I thought was a bit off as the 2yo is very immature IMO. Anyway today I witnessed the 2yo's first session.
She brought most of the jumps into the school (I was riding Daisy at the time), started thinking she was going to jump her, (erm wtf!? First time being lunged?) but she then proceded to build a 10m x 10m (roughly) pen in the top corner. She brought the horse in and put the entrance pole up too, so they were basically in a small enclosed square of jumps about 1m30, so no chance of her jumping out.
She then took a lunge whip and used it as you would on a broken horse, but extremely violently as the poor thing had no clue what to do and kept trying to run into the middle, for which she would be chased with the whip.
After a lot of bucking and a few rears she got the idea and started to go out on a small circle.
Although she did seem to get what she wanted eventually it just seemed to be very counterproductive and cruel to try and work her as though she was already broken, she isn't a mind reader and needs to be taught what to do.

Sorry for a bit of a rant but it really upset me and I wanted to put it down somewhere

 

[kirstyl]

Wouldn't be my way of doing it!

 

[Vicki_Krystal]

its not the correct way for a first time of being lunged but sometimes building an enclosed area within a school can really help.

 

[Holly Hocks]

Sounds like she's watched some video of join up and is attempting to do a p155 poor attempt at a Monty Roberts!

 

[TheEquineOak]

Sounds like she's watched some video of join up and is attempting to do a p155 poor attempt at a Monty Roberts!

My first thoughts too

 

[Fire_Fly]

I thought join up as soon as I read the pen bit. Perhaps she expected to have both of them backed in an hour.

 

[Toffee44]

Argh what is this woman doing with a 2 year old???!!! Hes two years old aka a baby so let him be a baby in a field doing baby things. Hes gonna have a life time of being ridden so why force it on him now. Someone should explain that patience can go far with a horse!


Argh yet another example of too many people owning horses who arent horse people!!!!

 

[dressedkez]

The Monty Roberts / Pirelli type of starting has a lot to answer for - especially amongst the uneducated.......it was always going to come to this - sadly!!

 

[Tinypony]

Oh, don't be daft. Putting a horse in an enclosed area and chasing it over jumps with a whip has f-all to do with Join Up. However I've seen it on "normal" yards, fortunately not with a 2 year old. It's what some people think is a way of working horses. Daisy Doll also says that it was the horse's first lunge session, which would suggest the poor horse was on a lunge line. Since when was Join Up done on-line?
I don't think that we can blame Monty and Parelli for the idiocy that has always been seen at livery yards the length and breadth of the country.

 

[Vicki_Krystal]

Lol you cant blame Join up for everything guys!

We have quite often put small fences accross the centre line of the school when lunging babies - specially big strong ones that 'drift' off the circle when they lose the fence line to guide them.
Its just a visual aid til they get the idea - usually after a few days and then normal lunging can commence.

It does sound like this woman is doing it all wrong though.

 

[Tinypony]

Why would anyone lunge an immature 2yo over jumps anyway? That's the real problem here isn't it?

 

[flyingfeet]

Monty doesn't use whips, so definitely cannot blame him for this one

Shame these people don't buy the dvds and do it properly!

 

[Tinseltoes]

Geez some people just dont have a clue.My horse was started lunging at 6 and he hadnt got a clue. They need to learn the correct way.

 

[Spyda]

Hmmm... am I missing something? Not sure how breaking TWO horses at once saves time? How does that work???? Surely both need same amount of individual time spent on them??! Why is she in a rush with the 2 yr old? Is she planning to sell it next year or something. Poor thing. My rising 4 year old is still bumming about at leisure. I won't be working her until next spring when she's four.