Training horses-When I round pen my horse-John Lyon's method...?

Question

Hi, I am training 2 ~5 year old Haflingers and have come across a problem I've never seen before! While round-penning one, asking him to go to the right, and then the left consistantly, he does well..Then when I ask him to do an inside turn, following John Lyon's method, he will stop with his head facing the fence, and move his head (looking at his tail) back and forth really fast....I tried to ask John Lyon's over the internet but to no avail..I talked to Perelli about it and they said it's a sign of confusion...So, I have consistantly going over the right and lefts, and it's seems to not be happening as much in the beginning of the work-out as it does when he is into it approx. 15 min. I always end the lesson after he's done the inside turn well a few times and so we are making progress...The other horses I've done this with have caught on quicker and have never shown signs like this..Is it anxiety? Have you ever had this happen to you? Any info. I would appreciate...!

Answer 1

I have seen a horse do that once.  Where they just seem to be terrified to move either direction.  I would take a look at where you are positioned.  As you know with the Lyon method, you are always in a position to push the horse.  If it feels comfortable doing inside turns, but not so good doing outside turns, you should take a look at your positioning in the pen.  It might be worried about where you are standing.  If it makes the turn, are you still in the correct position to push.  The time that I saw the horse do that move, the person doing the lesson was asking the horse to make the turn while she was not in a transition position and the horse refused to turn.  I had her move to the side towards the initiation of the turn and the horse complied immediately.

You might want a full lesson on outside turns only.  Let them be slow and deliberate, specially from both sides as sight might be a problem also.