I just got a 16.3 hand horse. I love him to death. The first two days he was perfect to catch, and would walk fine on a lead line. He has only lunged once for me. So i know he can lunge. He wont lunge for me anymore, and now he stops every few steps and wont move until i pull im so hard he has too, or i do ten tight circles and swirves. Help? the post owner said he would test me, but i dont want these bad habbits to effect my riding. I will be riding him soon. (like two or three days) He is a pain to catch in pasture, but wont stop following me until i leave him in the pasture and im out the fence. He is still adjusting to his new home, but he is a good horse. I have ridden him before and he is really solid and calm, with nice gaits. What to do? I need to get him to trust me and get to know me, and stop testing me? any techniques i can use please?: D i am open to all suggestions.
ok, with the catching problem, there is a simple salution but will take time but you have to do it everytime or it wont work . i have 8 horses in my pastuer at home and i live on 180 acers so it would wear me out if i had to walk all my land to find my horses so what i have done is when it is feeding time i make a loud noise to tell them to come eat. my call is a loud yow. so every time if feed i use the same call so now when i want to ride i will use my call to signal my horses to come and they come to me looking for food so i will give the horse that i want a treat and than put a lead on him/her. or at first to catch her you can hold a feed bucket so that she thinks she is beeing feed and than put a lead on her.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com as for as the lunging problem i agree with every one else, put her in a pin and use a lung to tap her to get her to move forward. also make sure that you are standing in the right spot. when you go to lung her stand in the middle of the pin and stand like towards her hind end. this tells her to move away from you. if you stand at the middle or front end of her than you are telling her to stop.
remember horses move away from pressure. so when you stand at the hind end you are putting stress pressure on her to move forward. you do not always have to use physical pressure to make a horse move.
but that is what it sounds lik is that you are not lined up properly with her hind end to tell her to move forward to lunge her. try repositioning yourself when you go to lunge her and see if it helps.
Get a lunge whip. It doesn't hurt the horse and when they stop you either tap it lightly on their bum or you crack it. The horse will learn pretty fast that when it stops, the whip is not far behind.
I've got the perfect answer. Just click on the link below:) Many people have tried it and said it really helped with their horse's trust issues.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAoVTm96O ...
Did he pass the vet check sound and healthy? Lunging is very hard on their body, he could be having pain somewhere and is trying to tell you.
Otherwise, sounds like you already have it down. Make him more his hanches and make his forehand GO. He needs to bend his body in a arch around you-just as if you were riding him on a 20 m circle. He needs to bend his body. Get after him just as you were doing ~! You have it down and are doing the rite thing. Dont give up-be consistent and he will get it! Get softer with him each time so he wont turn into a hard @ ss. The softer you get with your voice aids, etc ... and back them up with a harsh aid if he doesnt respond, the more he will respond to soft aids-and the sharper he will become to responding to what you need him to do.
So get strong when you need to, and be soft when he is good. You have it down and are doing the rite thing!
I'm not going to say that joining up with your horse wouldn't be good, but this issue seems more related to dominance issues as well as trust. I also have a horse that loves to test people and you just have to be firm with him.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com When you're lunging, carry a lunge whip (personally I use a carrot stick). When he stops, firmly ask him to walk. This depends on how he was trained - if it's by voice, pulling on the lunge line or whatever. When you do this, act confident, don't be wimpy. If he doesn't move, flick your lunge whip in his direction meaningfully, there should be a sound produced. If this doesn't get a result flick him on the shoulder or hip. Don't softly tap, but give him a strong tap. You're not hurting him, just reasserting your dominance. This should hopefully be the extent of his refusal to move. If not, escalate the force of your taps on him until he gets the message. Usually this only takes once.
As soon as your horse moves off, relax your stance. Don't move the whip and try to not put much pressure on the lunge line. The reward for moving off is that you don't bug him. In the future, try to anticipate when he is going to stop and give him a strong "move off" cue.
