(gentle music)
And whoa.
Good girl.
Welcome.
Today, we're gonna be talking about lunging our horses.
This is a wonderful skill to be able to have.
Lunging helps you to be able to build your horse's top line
without the weight of the rider,
it helps you to be able to build a stronger relationship
and better communication with your horse on the ground
before hopping on your saddle.
So it's a wonderful tool to develop.
And today I'm gonna be walking you through, step-by-step,
some of the basics in your lunging,
so that you can have success with your horse working
with this at home.
So the first step is to organize our line.
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So I like to organize my line by taking it
and folding it in half like this.
So I just gather it up into my right hand.
And once it's all gathered up, it'll look like that.
And that way, if my horse goes to pull,
those loops can pull out really easily
and it's not pulling and getting wrapped around my hand.
So once my line's all organized,
I'm just gonna set it into my left hand.
I'm gonna be sending her to the right.
Put my thumb over the top of my whip like that
and I'm gonna have my fist facing up to send her.
So now let's talk about sending our horse.
This is the most common area that I see mistakes happen
when we first learn to lunge.
So the most common mistake
is that the handler's pulling the horse,
trying to pull them the direction and moving backward.
And what happens is the horse ends up coming in
and crowding the handler,
because not knowing that the handler's encouraging
the horse to come in by moving back.
So what you wanna do instead
is always move towards your horse.
So you wanna keep your body up,
nice, strong, upward posture,
and you wanna move in towards your horse,
so they're moving away from you.
So when I go to send, I've got this forward posture.
I'm gonna point with my belly button
and my hand where I wanna go.
So I'm gonna be pointing up like this.
And I'm gonna stay on the side of my horse
that I want her to go from.
So I'm gonna be staying on her right-hand side,
as that's where I'm going to be sending her from.
So once you're in correct position,
you wanna watch your horse's front legs.
Your horse goes the direction that her front legs are going.
So I'm looking for them to cross over.
So I'm gonna point, pick up, ask her to step out that way,
and I'm looking for those front legs to cross
and her to step away like that.
So now we've got our horse going around us,
we wanna have them in the lunging triangle.
So you can see that here,
that Scarlet's right in between my left hand,
which is my driving hand, and my right hand,
which is my directing hand.
I wanna be standing in the middle of her withers right here.
And this allows me to be able to keep her going
at a nice, steady pace and have good control.
(gentle music)
And whoa.
So the next thing we're gonna talk about is the stop.
Pretty cool, huh?
So my cue to stop is going from my lunging triangle,
which is this position,
to just turning my shoulder like this.
And you can use a verbal cue like ho, or whoa,
if you want to as well.
But I teach my horses to stop straight
on the lunge like this,
because I later put them in long lines
and it helps me when I transfer them into the long lines
to be safer that they know this cue to stop straight.
So when I first started off teaching this,
obviously your horse is not going to stop right away.
And so here's an example of what to do
if your horse is not stopping for you.
So she's going around and I have her
in my lunging triangle here.
And then when I'm getting ready to stop,
I'm gonna take my whip, which is in my left hand,
and I'm gonna put it under my arm like this,
so this hand is free.
Then I'm going to turn my shoulder to her shoulder,
and let's say she doesn't stop.
So I'm gonna encourage her to keep walking here.
If she didn't stop, I would gather my line.
So she's kinda confused, 'cause she's like,
"I know I should stop here."
I would just gather my line and walk up to her like this.
And when I get up to her and she turns like that,
I would just turn her straight,
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like that, and then reward her.
And I would just do this a few times.
So then I would send her back out.
If she was just learning this,
I'd let her go back out right away
and I would just repeat it again.
So I'd step up.
If she didn't stop,
I'd walk up and gather that line, stop her.
And you could even move her back a step
to encourage her to say, no,
we just want you to stand there,
and then I would reward her.
And then I would just repeat this
until she stops every time I ask her
by just turning my shoulder.
So again, she goes back out.
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And as soon as I turn my shoulder,
step in front and stop, she should stop just like that.
Good girl.
So now that we know how to stop our horse,
let's talk about doing transitions.
Transitions are a great way to be able
to build your horse's wind and improve their focus on you.
So we can do an upward transition,
where we're going from walk to trot,
or we can do a downward transition,
where our horse is trotting and we go to walk.
Good girl.
So let's talk about how we teach this.
So when we're first doing an upward transition,
I'm in my lunging triangle here
and I'm gonna bring my energy up,
I'm gonna tell my horse and trot,
and then I'm going to lift my whip, swing with my whip,
and if I need to, touch her just above her hock.
And then when I ask her to do a downward transition,
which is to slow down,
I'm gonna turn my belly button in front of her nose.
So I'm going from my lunging triangle like this,
I'm gonna turn slightly this way.
I'm gonna say and walk, so I'm bringing my energy down,
and then I'm going to give and take with my right hand
if she doesn't slow down.
And if she really was running,
I might wiggle a little with that line
and slowly bring her in on the circle.
So now let me demonstrate this for you.
So I'm gonna send her out here to the right
and we're gonna start off
by just having a nice forward walk.
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Okay, so now I'm gonna ask her to do her transition up.
So I've got her in my lunging triangle here,
I've got my whip down on the ground, so pointed down,
that's my neutral position.
I'm gonna bring my energy up, and trot.
And if she doesn't go,
I'm gonna pick up my whip and trot.
And there was a good transition up.
So I'd like her to go right when I change my body
and say the words, so we're gonna do another one.
I'm gonna turn my body in front of her and walk.
She doesn't walk, I'm gonna give and take a little here
with my right hand, so I'm squeezing, releasing.
When she walks, I'm gonna release her.
So now we're gonna do another upward transition.
So we're gonna be walking.
And as I come past you here,
I'm gonna ask for the upward, so and trot.
And now we're gonna do our downward, and walk.
And the more transitions you do with your horse,
the smoother they're gonna get
and the more attention they're gonna give you.
So next, we're gonna talk about changing directions.
So the normal way I change direction
is just to stop my horse and then just take my whip here,
put it in my other hand, organize my line,
and just simply lift and send her the other way.
So this would be the most common way
that I would change direction.
But there's another way you can change direction
that is really fun to do
and can cause your horse to think a little bit more
and just break up your normal routine,
and that would be going long,
and I ask my horse to change
by bringing my whip under my line into my other hand,
point up with my directing hand,
and just send the shoulders through.
And then I can switch again,
bring this hand up, and send the shoulders through.
This is a really fun exercise
to be able to break up your routine
and just work on your horse's responsiveness
and your ability to handle that line
and that whip nice and smoothly.
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So there's a lot more
that I could talk to you guys about on lunging.
This is a wonderful subject with a lot of variety in it.
So whether we're lunging,
getting her horse to stretch more over their back
on the lunge, or lunging over obstacles for confidence,
or we're using poles and cavalettis,
just a lot of diversity that you can use this tool for.
If you'd like more videos on lunging,
let me know in the comments below.
I hope you keep enjoying your horses over this next week,
and I'll see you in the it's video.
(gentle music continues)