Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

chris, put a halter and leadline on your horse.  take your lunge whip, stand in front of him and rub him all over with it so that he is not afraid of the whip. let him know it is just an extension of your arm.  get him to walk beside you by laying the lunge whip across his withers, keeping the horse about 4 feet away from you. you might have to slightly push out with the whip to get him at the proper distance from you. walk in a 12-15 foot circle.  tap his withers to get him to stay alongside you, pull back on the lead line if he gets ahead of you.  get him accustomed to walking with the lunge whip just resting on his withers or just in front of them on his neck. i always repeatedly tell the horse "walk", in order to get them to associate the action with the verbal cue.  keep doing this until he will do a very relaxed walk, then gradually increase the size of the circle until you have him on the rail, at a relaxed walk, with the lunge whip resting on his neck/withers. now, if you want to get him to walk without being on the leadline, you will probably have to continue walking with him, about 4 feet away.  if you do this enough, and it will take some time, you should be able to gradually increase the space between you and the horse until he is on the rail, and you are in the center of the ring.  try it and let me know how you do.  i do all of my "round pen" work with the horse on a leadline, dont really like the free lunging method, but this may help you.    ed