Teaching lunging :/

[Jenna1406]

I am looking into teaching my youngster lunging but had a go last night and we got a couple of circles on the left rein but she kept coming in to stand with me on the right rein and the more frustrating thing is she is not scared of the lunging whip to try and chase her forward. I got my OH to walk round with her and she would stay away but as soon as he tried to walk away she would stop or walk towards me.

We are at the beginning of teaching her this but want to be able to do it properly before going to far forward with her. My OH is going to try and get her going forward without me being there to see if that makes a difference but any nice suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Jenna

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Start off with long reining and take her out and about after initial work in the arena, you can work away with the idea of forward movement and a tap of the whip on the rump to re-enforce the walk on command if there is hesitation. Use verbal commands and she should be fine to walk round you, then all you do is widen the circle.
I don't lunge youngsters much to be honest as it strains the joints, long reining is the best thing to do. It teaches forward impulsion, listening for aids, bending and makes a kind mouth, the horse gets used to things tapping on the hind legs, and you can progress with backing as he already knows what you want. Once backed, I still don't use lunging, most people I see doing it have never had lessons and use it to get the freshness out of the animal, whizzing it round on a rope which is usually too short.

 

[be positive]

She probably needs a bit longer to understand what you want, some take a few sessions being walked with until they can go alone, she shouldn't be scared of the whip but should respect you and move away from the whip when you ask, if you are frustrated then she will be even less sure of what is required, the very first lessons in any stage of training are so important to take at the horses pace to allow them to fully comprehend what is required.
They all learn at different speeds if you are working with a well handled youngster you really need to be able to see things from their point of view, all her life you have wanted her with you, handled her, led her etc now you are pushing her away and telling her new things that will be confusing, do some ground work getting her moving away from you, in all directions, use the whip to guide her further away and she should start to realise she can be further from you, when lunging they usually get better if you trot fairly quickly before establishing the walk halt transitions, once they are going forward in trot it is easier to keep them out as long as you know they will slow down and stop when you want to, once they are trotting happily you can work on the refining it all and getting them really listening and doing transitions.

 

[Oscar]

I start mine lunging with a helper, BUT the helper must be hands off & silent throughout. The idea is the horse is listening only to the lunger but they are getting confidence from the helper. So I say walk on, the helper is next to the horse and walks on, they don't touch or encourage the horse but the horse sees them walk & they usually follow (as per leading), I say "stand" and the helper stops and usually so does the horse and so on and so forth so the idea is the horse is learning the commands. After a few days of this the helper moves a few inches away from the horse then further and further until the horse is happy alone. This is how I learnt in Germany and it's never failed to produce a happy athlete.

 

[Cortez]

I don't know why lunging isn't taught in riding schools (I used to run a 3 week course) as it's not something that is easy to do. Getting an isntructor to show first the horse, then you, what's required will be by far the most effective way to do go about it.

 

[Jenna1406]

Start off with long reining and take her out and about after initial work in the arena, you can work away with the idea of forward movement and a tap of the whip on the rump to re-enforce the walk on command if there is hesitation. Use verbal commands and she should be fine to walk round you, then all you do is widen the circle.
I don't lunge youngsters much to be honest as it strains the joints, long reining is the best thing to do. It teaches forward impulsion, listening for aids, bending and makes a kind mouth, the horse gets used to things tapping on the hind legs, and you can progress with backing as he already knows what you want. Once backed, I still don't use lunging, most people I see doing it have never had lessons and use it to get the freshness out of the animal, whizzing it round on a rope which is usually too short.

We have started long reining and she is getting more confident each time. Still needs me there to start with to give her reassurance. She will walk along behind my OH horse when we go for a wee halk along the road and will try being out in front on her own but again stops to look for reassurance. This as is everything is a working progress. I will continue on with the long reining behind OH horse to get her confident out and about (once OH horse gets his shoe put back on GRR)

She probably needs a bit longer to understand what you want, some take a few sessions being walked with until they can go alone, she shouldn't be scared of the whip but should respect you and move away from the whip when you ask, if you are frustrated then she will be even less sure of what is required, the very first lessons in any stage of training are so important to take at the horses pace to allow them to fully comprehend what is required.
They all learn at different speeds if you are working with a well handled youngster you really need to be able to see things from their point of view, all her life you have wanted her with you, handled her, led her etc now you are pushing her away and telling her new things that will be confusing, do some ground work getting her moving away from you, in all directions, use the whip to guide her further away and she should start to realise she can be further from you, when lunging they usually get better if you trot fairly quickly before establishing the walk halt transitions, once they are going forward in trot it is easier to keep them out as long as you know they will slow down and stop when you want to, once they are trotting happily you can work on the refining it all and getting them really listening and doing transitions.

I wasnt getting frustrated with her as I could see that she was really thinking about what was going on. She is a very well handled youngster and she has done everything to date that I have asked of her.

When I am leading her in now I am asking her to move forward without me moving and making her stay at arms length away from me.

I start mine lunging with a helper, BUT the helper must be hands off & silent throughout. The idea is the horse is listening only to the lunger but they are getting confidence from the helper. So I say walk on, the helper is next to the horse and walks on, they don't touch or encourage the horse but the horse sees them walk & they usually follow (as per leading), I say "stand" and the helper stops and usually so does the horse and so on and so forth so the idea is the horse is learning the commands. After a few days of this the helper moves a few inches away from the horse then further and further until the horse is happy alone. This is how I learnt in Germany and it's never failed to produce a happy athlete.

I think this might be the way to go is to have someone walk around at the side of her just a couple of circles on each rein until she gets the idea. I am not that keen on lunging her but I am wanting her to get used to going away from me with each thing we do. She obviously has some dominance over me so might have to let the OH step in for some of it.

 

[Jenna1406]

I don't know why lunging isn't taught in riding schools (I used to run a 3 week course) as it's not something that is easy to do. Getting an isntructor to show first the horse, then you, what's required will be by far the most effective way to do go about it.

I know how to lunge but never taught a youngster to lunge before hense why I am asking for advice. My RI is going to watch the next time that we try it (which probably wont be until next week) to see where we can go from here. It might be that I need to take a step back with this part of the process.

 

[Prince33Sp4rkle]

there are so many steps that need to be in place before you actually lunge and then it should be a no brainer.

*does she walk on from a "WALK ON" and a click? and halt from a "aaaaaaaaaaand whoooooooah". if she doesnt then you need that in place in hand.

* can you walk backwards with her facing you and she is willing to follow you and doesnt stop when you turn to face her?

* once she can do the above stand with her behind you, between you and the fence line and ask her to walk on through the gap so she has to walk toward you, through the gap past you and then circle round you and come though it again.

*you need to be able to yield the shoulder as well as the quarters. If you point at her hind end she needs to move away in a large turn on forehand and if you point at her shoulder she needs to move away in a large walk pirouette almost.......if you can point the whip at her shoulder and tell her "out" and she will yield the shoulder, and she knows how to walk past you through a gap, keeping her circling is dead easy.