after a long time of him either standing seeking a contact (looked nice, but not TOTALLY what i wanted) or doing nice turns on the forehand to face me, i went and got help
Lynne, one of the ladies on the yard, led him from the outside whilst I was in the centre .... all good until asked to go on his own, when, guess what?
yes, turn in and stop, facing me ...
she thought it's as if he wants reassurance from me...
very frustrating
useful to have another eye, she couldn't see that i was doing anything to give him a conflicting signal!
When you lead him Claire, say to the field, what is his default position? Behind, to the side? Often it's helpful to just do some short sessions on leading with you at their side and asking them to walk on before you move your feet, ie they take responsibility for the forward urge, not you. Use a voice and/or physical aid (such as a touch at the girth) to get him to understand what you are asking, lots of praise to begin with for even the slightest desire to move, building up to praising when he offers a good active walk on.
ReplyDeleteSorry if it's grandma and egg sucking but it's something simple that has been really helpful to me :))
Does he 'get' walking around the edge of the school? I generally don't lunge in circles but I do start them off walking around the edge of the school with me initially a few feet in from them and then gradually extending the distance (I call this distance work). Then when the horse is happy with that I start introducing shapes like squares and circles. I use a short lunge whip as an extension of my arm so I can touch different parts of the horse easily.
ReplyDeleteJamie took a long time to get lunging and I ended up having to take it back to the stable and just teach him to move away from my touch before transferring it to the school.