in the meantime, rugs came back from cleaning and i ended up with one of someone else's - happily, someone else's on the yard - so chap's gone off to see if he can sort that out .. and can i remember what i sent away? not likely ...
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
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in the meantime, rugs came back from cleaning and i ended up with one of someone else's - happily, someone else's on the yard - so chap's gone off to see if he can sort that out .. and can i remember what i sent away? not likely ...
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Just a quick appraisal here.
ReplyDeleteFastening the lunge line to the side ring of the head collar might help a little as the pull will be more lateral and less likely to bring his head in, which encourages him to turn to face you.
You need a lunge whip. Your leading hand opens to the front of your body in the direction your are lunging and the whip, in your other hand, kind of "pushes" the hind end out and forward. In essence, you create a triangle with you at the point and the horse at the base.
Your body language needs to be more forward as well, kind of driving him away from you with your own forward motion. You need to step towards him, thinking to push him out with your body language, much as you might in the round pen. As I watch, I see a sense of passivity instead where you almost back away. Monfils response, instead of moving away and forward is to stop, question, and enter your space. He's not being bad, he's just reacting to his handler's body language.
All this is not easy to fix in a few sessions as it's all become habit. Monfils thinks he's doing what you want. You might want to start him on a small circle around you, with the whip in the back, kind of "leading" him forward with your front hand and "pushing" him forward with the whip hand, all the while feeling that you are stepping into his middle to push that out. If he does try to turn and come in, aggressively step towards him with your body, keeping your mind focused on the idea that you can actually push him out with the air in front of you.
If he doesn't move out from your stepping into him, you can use the handle of the whip as a push against his side to get him to move over and out on the circle. If he starts to turn his head in, use the handle on his shoulder. Use your voice to command, "Out," so he learns the word.
By the by, voice commands, as you well know, are really important. Make sure you use the same words and the same tone of voice when you are expecting the same reaction each time.
I know I'm being kind of "teacherish" here, so forgive me if I've just told you everything you already know, but it's just my reaction to what I see happening. Hope something helps a little.
Good article on longeing (lungeing) here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.classicaldressage.co.uk/html/lungeing.html
Note the comment about "stand your ground."
Wot Jean said! He's not being evasive more he doesn't seem to understand. Not so keen on the whirling lunge whip bit I suppose it got results. He is looking fab!
ReplyDelete