Breaking in a Young Pony

[Cheko]

I have a colleague breaking in a young pony for me. He seems relucant to accept lunging especially the whip being used behind him (not on him), just along the ground. He bucks at it. He's also very wary of anything being done to him. Advice please Heather.
Many thanx.

[galadriel]

What has been done to accustom him to the lunge whip? Has he been introduced to it, desensitized to it? Shown it won't hurt him, have it used to stroke him all over his body?

[Cheko]

Not a lot by the looks of things!

[galadriel]

Then that's where you need to start...

[Showjumper]

It sounds like this pony feels he's being rushed. Slow down and introduce everything to him at a speed he can handle. Make everything seem like a game, and always end on a good note.

[Mehitabel]

as galadriel says, you can't expect the pony to know what a lunge whip is for by magic. does he go forward and increase speed when being led? does he know voice commands like walk on, or clicking to encourage him?

personally, i wouldn't start the 'breaking in' process - ie lungeing, tack, new stuff - until the horse was happy with all other handling like feet picking up, leading, grooming etc and was confident that its handlers are not to be scared of. your colleague needs to be the horse's friend, so he doesn't have cause to mistrust the new things being done to him.

new doesn't have to mean scary if the horse has trust that the handler doesn't mean to hurt or scare him - sounds like the horse needs to build this up first.

[ros]

Before you start trying to do things with any young horse from a distance, it's vitally important that he understands some basic commands. If he knows "Walk on, Whoa, Back, Over" and so on, it makes life a whole lot easier when you start to ask him to do these things from a few yards away instead of right by his side. Once he understands what you want you won't have a problem.

Never punish misunderstandings; always praise him for trying, even if it's not perfect. Once your horse catches on to what you want he'll be only too eager to please and will try his level best to please you - PROVIDED he doesn't get told off for inadvertently making the odd mistake.

Horses react differently when they aren't sure what's expected of them. Some get nervous, others get stroppy. Occasionally they either have a sense of humour all their own, or they're deliberately bloody-minded. Horses who feel safe in exercising their sense of humour are usually those who trust their owners (in which case you don't really have a problem). I think the bloody-minded ones are often the most intelligent, and don't see why the hell they should do something they don't understand or don't see the point in doing. In that case it's up to us to convince them of the benefits of cooperation :)

[Wally]

You need to learn the "Chicken impression" it's great for horse who hate the lunge whip following them. You need to teach the horse to go forward from you body language, stand side on to lunge going forward with your shoulder moving forward in a sort of circle, keep the lunge whip under your arm facing behind you, with your hand on the handle of the whip, sergeant major style, the horse will be aware of it but not so threatened. As you move your shoulder forward and do a one sided chicken impression, elbow out, the whip will raise and the horse will sense this and move on, to slow the horse turn more face on and get slightly ahead of him and he'll slow and stop. you can then lunge and loose school with no verbal commands at all. No good if you want the horse to drive in the long run, but great for loose schooling and lunging.

I was shouted at (being a driver) for using my voice too much on the ground, I was told it was ameteurish!!!! This from a very well respected trainer!!!! WHO DOESN'T DRIVE - HA! He was right, he could make the horse do ANYTHING using body language alone, fine if the horse can see you and you are in his field of vision, he did back down and admit that driving was a different discipline!