First you have to teach him to go around you.
Pressure and release is the A and O of horse training, and it works here
too. Get a set of signals, keep them consistent and be quiet when your
horse does what he is supposed to do. |
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I raise both
my longe arm and whip arm as my signal for go. I am touching the
whip to his butt just a little. |
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He starts
moving forward and I immediately and very obviously let both my arms drop
(Pressure and Release). |
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He turns his
head in, wanting to stop, and I bring the whip out to keep him moving
forward. |
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He is moving
out real nice and I drop the whip behind me in reward. |
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He's getting
the idea and I let him out a little, just enough to still be in easy reach
should he give me trouble. You can see his head is turned in, looking for
his chance to stop, and my whip is out a little, instructing him to keep
going. |
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He is
obedient, and moves off nicely, and I immediately drop the whip behind me. |
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These signals that I am
teaching him here are the ones that will save my butt when I get to the
trouble spots. |
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Next, you'll want him to move at the end of
the line. |
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It is
natural for Goof to attempt to lean on the line, especially into the
direction where the other horses are. The gate is to the left and his
buddies are behind the video camera. He is leaning into both directions.
Watch his head. You'll see that I don't pull
on the line in constant pressure, but in a series of gentle, but insistent
tugs.
On the sides where he is not leaning, I keep
the longe line loose and my body position relaxed and rewarding.
Additionally, as long as he's moving forward,
the whip is behind me.
This is
something that will take days to explain, with a little headway made each
time. But if you're consistent, your horse will soon travel around the
longe line without leaning on you. |
The most common longe line problem...Stop
and face
Pressure and Release fixes this problem, too. As long as your horse is
faced towards you, pressure him with the whip to move. As soon as he moves
into the right direction, release all pressure and let him go. |
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Goof stops
and faces me. I gently and insistently wave the whip, moving toward
him slowly to increase the pressure of my command.
He refuses to take a step, so I additionally
raise my line arm, keep stepping towards him, and also move towards his
side a little to make the command crystal clear.
He thinks about it for a few moments, but
then decides it might be a good idea to move on. I immediately drop my
whip behind me.
He might decide to move into the wrong
direction. At that point, I additionally put pressure on the halter.
I usually have to walk up and get to the correct side again, but during
all that I try to keep the halter and whip pressure on as good as I can,
until he starts moving into the right direction.
Using this insistent Pressure and Release
method will teach him not to face any more very, very soon. Matter of
fact, that same day, once we got the other side explained, he sweetly
trotted around without facing up once. |
The most annoying longe line problem... Run
Backwards Drama
Yes, horses can be drama queens, and I handle them just like the human
ones... with a blank face "Grin". |
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Most of this is pretty self explanatory. But
let me just point a few things out. As he runs backwards, I try as
hard as I can to stay relaxed. My shoulders are down, I try to keep up
with him but not go towards him any more than I have to, my whip is behind
me. He finally stops (somewhere between 4 and 5), and I calmly use my go
forward signal to get him to move out again. In picture 5, he's moving
nicely, and I have already dropped the whip behind me again.
This little drama takes quite a bit of energy
for a horse, and if you can keep from getting sucked into the Hoopla, they
will not try it very often. It's just a lot easier to do what he's told.
 If
your horse knows how to longe, but you are having problems, the first
thing I'd check is your position in relationship to your horse...
If he perceives that you are in front of him, he will assume you want
him to stop. So you want to stay slightly behind his eye.
A human naturally wants to line himself up with the horse's head
(because you are connected to the head w/ the longe lineline). But that
puts you into the forward line of sight of the horse, which a horse
understands as the signal to stop.
To stay in the backward line of sight of your horse, line yourself up
with your horses hind end.
Read Julia Salter's training article on
teaching your horse to pick up the correct leads at a lope at this
http://slaterhorsetraining.com/training/traininglope .
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