More Lunging Help!?

Question

Well, thanks to all who gave advice on the last question I asked about lunging, I can finally get Zoe to walk, trot and canter on the lunge. She definitely knows what she's doing :) The only thing I can't work out, and have never come across before cos I couldn't lunge to save myself is how to slow her down.I can easily move her up a gait, but I can't work out how to move her down one.

I've tried lowering my whip, dropping my whip all together, and voice aids, but she just keeps trotting round in a circle like the trooper she is.

If i move in front of her girth line she'll slow down and turn in towards me, but thats not quite what I'm after, I 'd like her to carry on in a circle.

Also, are there any training aids I could incorperate into the lunging? At this stage she's only getting ridden once a week by my instructer (due to my broken arm) and she seems to be focusing on dressage, but she'll move on to jumping soon. Can i lunge her over cavaletties? What can i do for the dressage?

Answer 1

You might try bringing her into a smaller circle around you, and use voice commands (such as "walk" to go down from trot, "trot" to go down from canter as the first asnwer suggested) repetively until she responds the way you want her to. the smaller circle will enable you to use some pressure through the lunge line and also make her concentrate on you.

Once she has learnt the voice commands she should become push-button and you can push her out onto a larger circle and repeat, but if she "forgets" bring her back onto a smaller circle until she gets it right. It might take awhile but she should get it, my horse only needs the lunge whip to keep him at a steady forward speed but responds to whoa, walk, trot and canter whenever I use them whether on him or on the ground. Once she gets the real hang of it, depending on her age and level of education & fittness you can go from walk to canter which will help with your dressage training. Transitions are really good (walk to trot, trot to canter, canter to trot) and the more you can incorporate into your lunging the better both for her education and fittness and also to keep her interest up.

You can lunge her over poles and cavallettis, try 4 grounds poles set equally out on the quadrants around the circle first and then you can increase heights once she gets the hang of it, but i would suggest when going up in height to reduce the number of poles 2 equally spaced or just one small grid.

You could also use side reins with elastic give in them to help with topline muscles if she's not working round enough for you but only use if you have used before and don't use when jumping or riding.

good luck!

Answer 2

Since you have her doing all the forward motions, then you need to put her on a lead and when you say whoa pull on her lead kinda firm towards you . You may have to snatch hard the first few times, but she will get the meaning. When she stops tell her to come in and pull the lead towards you untill she walks to you.Then tell her to stand and wait a minute, then back her up a few steps(telling her to back). She will learn these keys. It helped me when I was at a show and the boy who was with me was unloading my stallion. My stallion leaped out of the trailer and knocked him down. Just imagine a stallion running around with about 150 other horse and mares in season. I yelled whoa and stand and he stopped dead in his tracks. I was able to walk up to him and get him.Thanks God he did or it could have been a disaster.

Answer 3

To slow her down, you can try "shaking" or "jiggling" the longe line. You can also send "waves" down the line. If she really doesn't slow down, you could try to give a little tug on the longe line, but she sounds like a really good girl, so she should listen pretty well. Mainly, you just need to get more comfortable longeing.

Yes, you can longe horses over cavaletti and/or jumps, but you need to be REALLY experienced and good at longeing before you do that, because you can scare or hurt the horse. If you do want to longe her over caveletti, ask someone else very experienced, possibly that trains young horses, to longe her. Make sure that you don't do that without a trainer!

Good luck!

Answer 4

Give her voice commands like eeeaasy  and quit asking for a gait. she'll slow down to eeeeasy if she knows what it means. reward her when she obeys the command right away so that she understands that she is doing the right thing. Another thing you can do it get her to know voice commands such as:

walk, trot, canter, and of coarse whoa for stop

Answer 5

Just take all pressure off and eventually she will learn that when you take the pressure off she doesn't have to keep going, and once her feet stop moving go and pet her.

Answer 6

The main key here I think is time. keep asking her to slow down and eventually she will, whether it's from listening to you or just because. As soon as she does immediatly reward her. She'll catch on very fast.

Another key to lungeing successfully is to remember that horses primarily function off body language. If your body is tense, projecting energy she'll keep going.

I use various commands while lungeing, all work off voice commands but the voice commands are used in conjunction with body language:

Walk -- point off with my hand in the direction they are to go, slightly lift my whip and step towards the shoulder, walking in small circle with them. If I want a slighly faster walk I walk faster always directing my energy to a point directly behind the shoulder.

Trot -- lift with directing hand, raise whip a little more and direct stronger energy towards them.

Canter -- same as above but again with stronger cues, more aggressive/assertive body language.

Whoa --  step to a point directly forward of the shoulder, tipping my body to where I'm more facing them, lower pointing arm, drop tip of whip and stop.

To slow in any gait I use "easy" and just slightly soften my body language. To drop to lower gait, call gait out and actually pause my body movement momentarily.



Reverse -- stop body movement, reverse hands on line and whip, point in oposite direction. They should, with practice, immediatly reverse without changing gaits.

With the proper use of regular body language i.e. always useing the same body language for specific things, before long you can have horses that will free lunge around you, following all commands without the use of line, whip or even the called out voice commands. The key is practice and never varying the your body language.

Answer 7

I use voice commands for the different gaits.  

Go to work...get away from me and out into the circle

Waaaalk on...walk

Trot...trot

Hup...for a lope

Whoa...Stop

Switch...reverse

Each of my commands is very different and the horse learns what each command means.  I use them consistently.  Starting at the slower gaits.  This also transfers to when I am in the saddle.  I do western...and we mainly use our legs for guidance and a neck rein to reinforce the leg commands.  So it works out well.

The voice commands do work great on the ground though.  Someone else will have to help you with the english dressage and jumping.

**EDIt...barbwire reminded me of another one I use.  It is the word 'easy.'  For me though...that means to slow down but don't transition the gait.  For example...in an extended trot, I would say 'easy' and the horse would slow down to a jog.

Answer 8

When I ask for a downward transition with a horse that doesn't do them on the lunge consistently I try to set myself up for success by using a corner of the arena.  I send them up flat against one of the wall and I'll block them toward the corner.  They'll slow down, I'll identify it with a voice cue, and a hand motion (I hold my hand out) then tell them how smart they are and send them back on the circle.  For example, I'll put them on the wall while they're trotting, I'll send them toward the corner, they'll slow down to a walk while I say "walk" and put my hand up, then once they're walking I'll put them back on the circle.  I also pull back on the lunge line like a rider is pulling back on the reins (this takes practice and it doesn't sound like it will work but it really does)

I've been lunging about 20 different horses of different training levels this year and these little things have helped me.  good luck :-)