Lunging ideas?

[entreat]

Cav is having some problems with Lunging. He keeps turing his head in (solved by adding another lungeline), but for the life of me, I can't get him to trot!!

Waikato Valuta & I tried last week. I was walking behind him with the lunge whip, and at the most, all we could get was an active walk (and even that was an effort!). The only time we got a trot was when I ran next to him holding the halter.

He's very undercondition, but I don't think a trot is asking too much. He trots fine under saddle.

Does any one have any ideas to get him moving?

[galadriel]

Does he *know* "trot"? I don't mean responding to leg or other aids, I mean the ability to respond to the verbal command alone. That's something that you can teach with leading; get him to associate the word trot with the light tug on the lead, and you jogging faster. Until he can get "trot" in-hand from the verbal cue alone--with no other aids to suggest trot (tug on the lead, you speeding up, etc)--you might want to leave the lunging.

[entreat]

I tried again today, and got much the same result.

No, he doesn't know 'trot', but I'll be teaching him that... but first I'm starting with 'walk on'!!

Thanks anyway. :)

[Waikato Valuta]

I got the impression he knows what to do. he just knows we cant make him and wont hurt him.

He will do a nice walk in a good circle after some effort and responds to the slow down cues.

You can also try saying trot everytime you ask for a trot under saddle.

He is just realy lazy. He used to do grade 2 eventing and yet he is very lazy under saddle. the old owner said when jumping he was realy hard to stop. now hes realy hard to get troting. It may just be a body condition and time thing. Also testing out his new owner.

[entreat]

He does have me wrapped around his hoof. He knows I'm not gonna push him because I'm too weak! He just looks at me with a look that says, "And?? What are you gonna do about it??". It will happen soon... I'm hoping!

[cvb]

could he be reacting to your position when you're lunging ? If you're slightly forward, he may see that as a sign to slow down.

You might also try long-reining and see how he responds...

Or if you have a decent area, how about loose schooling ? Then you can really use some body language (Be a tiger).

The other thing I have seen used recently, just to jog a horse out of its mind set, was just to pick up a handful of sand from the school floor and throw it at the horse's bum ! Doesn't hurt but the horse does react... You wouldn't want to reuse this - one horse was going faster everytime the person on the floor bent down ;) ("that weird woman's going to throw SAND at me again ! Gonna give HER some distance !") (BTW it wasn't me throwing the sand).

[Waikato Valuta]

yes we tried long reining and at least he didnt come in on the circle but he still refused to go any faster than a slow walk with a halt every few meters.

[entreat]

I thought maybe it was my dodgy position, so I made sure I was in a good one, and when that failed, I moved more towards the back end. Every time he took it as a chance to turn his head in and look at me.

In the end, I resorted to running around the paddock next to him. It was fun, but my fitness doesn't allow for much without frequent breaks!

His nice walks on the lunge were only brought about by WV lunging & me walking behind cracking the whip when he looked like he was gonna stop. As she said, he stopped frequently (Absolutely no fear of the whip!).