My horse has always been difficult to lunge- she will walk, trot round ok but if I ask for canter she will pretend to charge toward me- when she does this I try not to move and jangle the line to get her to back away from me. She does this whether she is lunged in a cavesson, bridle or headcollar. She has a stubborn, defiant nature so part of me thinks it is down to this and she is trying to assert her dominance on me, if I flick the lunge whip towards her to get her to go bakc on to the circle that is when she will rear. do you think long reining her will be a better option, I really need more control of her when lunging :unsure:
Rearing whilst on the lunge?
- Thread starter stressy
- Start date
This sounds like the beginnings of a nasty and potentially dangerous habit. Does she invade your space in other ways? Horses like these need consistant and firm handling at all times.
I have found that if you just avoid one issue they will often invent another so perhaps best to address the behaviour on the lunge now. I assume she understands the basics of lunging and will move her shoulder away from the whip and increase circle size when asked normally? If so then the best defense is the moment she starts to turn in drive her out at the shoulder.
I would be a bit concerned if she has recently started this behaviour however in making sure she was not also uncomfortable on the lunge in canter.....I try not to let the circle get less than 20 metres by walking with the horse while cantering unless they are very well balanced.
I have found that if you just avoid one issue they will often invent another so perhaps best to address the behaviour on the lunge now. I assume she understands the basics of lunging and will move her shoulder away from the whip and increase circle size when asked normally? If so then the best defense is the moment she starts to turn in drive her out at the shoulder.
I would be a bit concerned if she has recently started this behaviour however in making sure she was not also uncomfortable on the lunge in canter.....I try not to let the circle get less than 20 metres by walking with the horse while cantering unless they are very well balanced.
she is not normally an 'in your face' horse, she is fine to lead and doesnt really like being fussed over, she has never been bargy but has always hated the lunge. she uses the rearing as an evasion technique to get out of work Im just not sure how to stop it, perhaps I should just ride her instead as I can deal with her behaviour a lot better on board than on the line?
I had this problem with my pony (I know a lot smaller than a horse to deal with but scary all the same!!).
She would rear up, literally ears back, eyes bulging and teeth baring and charge at you.
It took my RI and her friend to lung her. One holding the lunge line and one holding the whip. If pony looked like she was going to rear or charge, the whip holder would step towards her and smack her with the whip to keep her out. It needed two people to do this as she was so bad.
On one lunging session (I know this is going to sound bad but it worked in the end) they lunged her for an hour until she would walk and halt without rearing or charging. She had to learn that she would not be allowed to stop unlesss she behaved.
We did of course go down the route of checking that she was not in pain etc before carrying out boot camp LOL.
The problem was she went ferrel on us as my children no longer rode her so she was just a companion for my other 2. She lost all her manners.
She is now a very well behaved little pony and my sharer loves her to bits!
She would rear up, literally ears back, eyes bulging and teeth baring and charge at you.
It took my RI and her friend to lung her. One holding the lunge line and one holding the whip. If pony looked like she was going to rear or charge, the whip holder would step towards her and smack her with the whip to keep her out. It needed two people to do this as she was so bad.
On one lunging session (I know this is going to sound bad but it worked in the end) they lunged her for an hour until she would walk and halt without rearing or charging. She had to learn that she would not be allowed to stop unlesss she behaved.
We did of course go down the route of checking that she was not in pain etc before carrying out boot camp LOL.
The problem was she went ferrel on us as my children no longer rode her so she was just a companion for my other 2. She lost all her manners.
She is now a very well behaved little pony and my sharer loves her to bits!
Do you have an enclosed space? Stick a hat on, and headcollar and free school.
Madam also gets defiant over being told what to do. The other thing with lunging is the line comes towards you, there is no line for free schooling so no excuse of "mixed messages" it's also a lot less frightening I find
Madam also gets defiant over being told what to do. The other thing with lunging is the line comes towards you, there is no line for free schooling so no excuse of "mixed messages" it's also a lot less frightening I find
My reason behind asking was just to clarify if it defiantly was a behaviour/dominance issue as you say she’s not like that in other circumstances. Does she evade work when ridden ?
Yes some horses don’t like to always work and can test the boundaries. But I was just wondering if the lunge was highlighting anything body wise that might be hurting.
It’s extremely hard to make judgement without seeing and I wouldn’t like to just pass judgement on behaviour if I hadn’t crossed off all bases. Yes barging towards you on lunge is not acceptable and I wouldn’t stand it for a minute BUT what is creating that reaction. Why doesn’t she do it ridden wise? Why can she be led nicely? What size of circle do you lunge on ? have you tried riding him in the same type of circumstances.
I would personally also try long rein just to see what reaction you got from that also. I’m not just being fluffy just don’t like to make a conclusion without testing everything out.
Yes some horses don’t like to always work and can test the boundaries. But I was just wondering if the lunge was highlighting anything body wise that might be hurting.
It’s extremely hard to make judgement without seeing and I wouldn’t like to just pass judgement on behaviour if I hadn’t crossed off all bases. Yes barging towards you on lunge is not acceptable and I wouldn’t stand it for a minute BUT what is creating that reaction. Why doesn’t she do it ridden wise? Why can she be led nicely? What size of circle do you lunge on ? have you tried riding him in the same type of circumstances.
I would personally also try long rein just to see what reaction you got from that also. I’m not just being fluffy just don’t like to make a conclusion without testing everything out.
I used to have this problem with a pony that my sister used to look after, in this instance it was dominance. I think the lunging scenario is almost a good forum for a horse to challenge the handler if there is room to do so. Have you had the back/tack/teeth checks done? Lunging is hard work for a horse so this may exacerbate any problems she has?
Alternatively, if it is dominance I would highly recommend using the Kelly Marks exercises to assert yourself over the her in an effective manner. Also, make sure that you keep lunging sessions very short and effective, if it means that initially you just do a few laps in walk with you getting behind her and not allowing any challenging then that will be a successful session.
If she tries to confront you then don't flick the whip as this is in effect inviting her to rear, just re-position yourself and send her forward again - not that I would do this very often but if you do have to flick the whip then do it towards her hindquarters and only to send her forwards and therefore away from you rather than backwards and away from you (which is what you would be doing if flicking the whip at her front end when she confronts you)
Alternatively, if it is dominance I would highly recommend using the Kelly Marks exercises to assert yourself over the her in an effective manner. Also, make sure that you keep lunging sessions very short and effective, if it means that initially you just do a few laps in walk with you getting behind her and not allowing any challenging then that will be a successful session.
If she tries to confront you then don't flick the whip as this is in effect inviting her to rear, just re-position yourself and send her forward again - not that I would do this very often but if you do have to flick the whip then do it towards her hindquarters and only to send her forwards and therefore away from you rather than backwards and away from you (which is what you would be doing if flicking the whip at her front end when she confronts you)
I had similar dominance issues with T, and she would rear when being asked to canter but not in walk and trot....untill that is RI pointed out I wasn't really making her 'work' in Walk and Trot. once we asked her to do more in all gaits we had the same issues.
We tackled this in 2 ways..the first was working on 2 lines and a much larger circle when we walked round in larger circles with her she was much better and gradulaly reduced the circles as she built up muscles etc..
The second was to make her 'work' in walk and trot and deal with her issues then..it was easier and gave more time to respond to what she was doing, and the moment she made to turn in she would be sent on untill she did a max of 3 circuits at chosen gait without turning in. (this like the boot camp mentioned above did take a good hour the first few times) but was much better for me having a plan as to what would be acceptable before we started.
avoiding means you'll more likely get issues surface elsewhere...
We tackled this in 2 ways..the first was working on 2 lines and a much larger circle when we walked round in larger circles with her she was much better and gradulaly reduced the circles as she built up muscles etc..
The second was to make her 'work' in walk and trot and deal with her issues then..it was easier and gave more time to respond to what she was doing, and the moment she made to turn in she would be sent on untill she did a max of 3 circuits at chosen gait without turning in. (this like the boot camp mentioned above did take a good hour the first few times) but was much better for me having a plan as to what would be acceptable before we started.
avoiding means you'll more likely get issues surface elsewhere...
That really helps and makes a lot of sense, you are right I dont think i am asking her to 'work' in walk or trot and im sure if I did the same issue would occur-think boot camp is the way!
Hi
When you lunge her and she comes towards you, or she rears when you push her, don't be afraid of her!!!, you have to show her that you are no' 1, and she must respect you!!!,
you must push her forword strong and let her go on a BIG CIRCLE 20m, for few rounds, bring her back to trot for few rounds, and push her to canter again, do this transition few times until she will go nice on the lunge, (if she is going nice in canter don't push her strong any more), between the transitions do walk to give her chance to relax. You have to do this on both reins.
www.faibishclassicaltrainer.com
When you lunge her and she comes towards you, or she rears when you push her, don't be afraid of her!!!, you have to show her that you are no' 1, and she must respect you!!!,
you must push her forword strong and let her go on a BIG CIRCLE 20m, for few rounds, bring her back to trot for few rounds, and push her to canter again, do this transition few times until she will go nice on the lunge, (if she is going nice in canter don't push her strong any more), between the transitions do walk to give her chance to relax. You have to do this on both reins.
www.faibishclassicaltrainer.com
If you can try free schooling though, I seriosuly would - it is on one hand much easier as you dont have to worry about the rope, but on the other much harder as you have you use your body to send direction commands - I am much better at lunging now I can free school.
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