1. maria11/01/2005 15:49:27

Jessica, as well as straight lines, youngsters find perfect circles on the lunge a challenge. At the Monty Roberts demonstration I observed horses being lunged on two lines. Monty opposes strongly single-line lunging. While, as we had discussed on email, I am not a wholesae convert to natural horsemanship, I did try this two-line lunging and found it to be quite good. It's easy to control Mualim when he tries to come in on the circle. I did it twice and then I got to the farm late and only had 10 minutes and took him to the school on a headcollar with a single line, just for a quick run-around. And I was amazed to see him go on a PERFECT circle. Just those two times when I was able to correct the circle with two lines appear to have taught him not to come in or pull out on a circle, as he had been doing before.

I was telling about the demo and about this technique to my ex-riding teacher, a very traditional British lady - hunting, showing etc - and to my surprise she said: "I always start the youngsters on two lines".

I wonder how many other "natural horsemanship" techniques have been in the traditional European arsenal of trainer's tricks

2. Jessica 11/02/2005 11:47:46

I hope I do not sound too much like I sit on my tall Teke now but I think most horses easily learn to work on a circle on a lunge line. After a few lessons they normally find themselves balanced and relaxed on the circle without extra lines. As long as you start off the same way every time and then add the next step towards the end of the work pass when the horse is relaxed and focused it should work.
The American style horsemanship, as far as I have seen, seem to involve a lot of lines and ropes, I must admit, now I am falling off my tall Teke, that I have problems to not get tangled in all those lines, so maybe it is my clumsiness that make me work with the traditional one line lungeing. One cannot be prejudiced working with horses though, they are all different individuals and need different approaches.
Out of curiosity, what was Monty's goal with lungeing the horses?

3. maria11/03/2005 17:12:20

Why does Monty lunge? Well, as well you may ask... As far as I can see. the whole idea is to chase the horse until it feels allienated and wants to come back. Why do this with a lunge? I am not too sure, to be honest. Considering he is working in a very small round pen, he doesn't really need a line, as the horse has nowhere to go anyway. He starts with just chasing. I think he puts on two lines onto his "training halter" to get the horse used to having stuff dangling off its sides. Then comes the rider with the reins.

I must say, with Mualim it seems to have worked well because he was very clearly leaning in and pulling out on the opposite sides of the cirlce. What I found interesting is that I didn't get tangled up in the lines. When I was watching Monty, that was exactly what crossed my mind but it worked better in practice than I expected.

I haven't showed my trainer what I have been up to. I don't dare to ring her!

4. sylvia05/17/2006 08:25:33
Homepage: http://not yet it is under construction

Hi,
why do you lunge with a lunge in a round pen? can you lunge without the lunge? just by commands with your hands?
Sorry for the stupid question, but I am still learning

5. Jessica 05/17/2006 09:11:46

I lunge my horses as a part of their education. By lungeing the young horses learn to find the balance, the resistance from the bit, the ability to collect or step under himself with the hindlegs to take some weight from the front legs, as well as if lunged in the correct form will build suitable muscles to carry the rider. I need a lunge line as the lungeing will teach the horse early the contact between the hand and the mouth, an important communication tool. Later on I work the horses on the ground with reins, also to muscle the horse as well as prepare for the riding. Later on in the education the horse can be taught to a higher form of collection such as passage and piaffe from the ground. In other words it is the first step towards the goal for all riding, to make the horse work in a form where he can carry himself and the rider without hurting himself or in other words the most efficient way for both horse and rider. Dressage basics if you like.
The reason to why I work in a fenced arena is that I do not want the young horse to get away if I loose him, a round pen or a permanent lunge ring is also good to avoid the horse to fall out with his shoulder in the beginning.
If I want to I can train the horse to follow voice or hand commands without a lunge line but that kind of training does not have the same effect on the education for the riding horse.

6. Katrina03/14/2007 09:20:23

You can FORGET anything by Monty Roberts! What a FAKE! He supported himself to be the 'original' horse whisperer, but he doesn't even know WHICH END of a horse to train. Do NOT be suckered into using any of his so-called techniques. Stick with the pro.......Clinton Anderson and Linda Parellif if you need REAL answers and solutions to your horse problems or training.

7. Jessica03/14/2007 09:37:31

Katrina, there are so many different gurus out there today that try to commercialize their way of working with horses, they are also, I think , to some exctent, guilty of coming up with more and more "problems" we are supposed to have with our horses. I think one should have a very critical approach to anyone that claims to have a solution for each and every horse and that have made such efforts into come up with branding like join up or are building schools etc.