When I say Whoa I mean Whoa!

[cowgirlup237]

My 3yr old has some trouble with Whoa. I had him doing it really well until my mom worked with him one day on the lunge line. ( I regret letting her do this she practically put me back in square one with him) Everytime she asked him to whoa she would pull him in towards her. Now everytime I say whoa when he is on the lunge line he runs towards me. I try to stand in front of him and say WHOA really loud to try and get him to stop but nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

[kedwards]

Perhaps you could work on the voice commands while walking at his side, then gradually increase the line once he understands what is expected.

[Tootsie4U]

It takes ALOT of timing and getting it just right, but I stopped Bonfire from doing this by either 1. throwing the slack at him to let him know I dont want you turning in to me or 2. short quick tugs on the line

as soon as he stopped I praised and stopped the reprimand.

It worked for me...

[FreedomStar]

Do you have a longe whip? If you do, point it at his shoulder and say away, so that he'll stay on the outside of the longe away from the whip, and later if he keeps doing that, all you have to say is away and he'll associate the word with the action and go back out.

[Tootsie4U]

Raising the whip usually means asking the horse to move on and wont give you the whoa responce at all. Basic mechanics of lunging; you are supposed to raise the whip to the shoulder and get a forward movement responce. Thats why I dont raise my whip, I do what I said above.... but thats just me :)

Of course, any horse can be taught anything, and is probably why your horse does that for you Freedom Star. If I didnt lower my whip when asking for downward transition, or even halt, Bonfire would definately not stop. He knows that a raised whip means forward.

[galadriel]

I usually point the lunge whip to the rear of the horse for "forward" (imagine a triangle: lunge line, lunge whip, and horse form the 3 sides).

I point the whip at the shoulder for "out." I point the whip a the ground to relieve the pressure if the horse has done what I ask.

I point the whip in front of the horse to ask for down transition.

[Tootsie4U]

Yeah Galadriel - the whole "closing the pie shaped wedge" thingy. Methods we use too.

Lowering the whip (rather than raising it) just makes it alot clearer to the horse that he can relax and slow.

We raise the whip in front to ask for reverse. Every place is different, and every horse has different training. Work with whatever is best for you.