Turning on lead?

[Carly Rae]

Hi

I am working with my mare Snickas, mainly just leading getting her better on the lead, not saying she is a bad leader she is actually very good. I am trying to get her to respond to what I say and what I do with my body actions when leading.

For example, I am teaching her to change directions, I always stand on the left hand side with my right hand closest to her (kind of hard to explain, I am confusing myself explaining this but if I stand directly in front of her I will move to the left and hold the rope with my right hand and I stand beside her)

She knows to walk either when I say 'Walk on' or if I just start walking she would normally follow along beside me, she knows to speed up when I make a clicking noise with my mouth (also hard to explain sorry) and knows when she is going to fast because I will say "Ah, ah" or "Woo Snickas" and I jiggle her lead and instantly she will slow back down to my pace.

My main aim is to let her have her head, but she follows along side me while doing so, the way I get her to change direction is we get a good pace, mine is a fast walk and hers is a slow trot and when I want her to change direction with me I will stop extend my arm out a bit make a clicking noise and start turning on the spot and she will change her direction with me, that whole step we do very fast I kind of do all those actions at once, but i found it just worked for us and she understood what I wanted, and the best thing was during the turn the rope was slack and she was by my side the whole time and we continued walking. I don't treat her anymore with food, but instead she gets a pat and I tell her shes a good girl, if shes a really good girl she gets a belly scratch she loves those

Now to my question, we are good at turning one way... but not the other. Also when leading she walks a little too close sometimes but when she does i just say 'Over' and just put some pressure on her shoulder with my hand giving us space.

But how can we turn the other way? When we turn the other way its when I am going around her. I try turn her but she keeps trying to go forward and wont turn unless we turn when I am mostly using my body to turn her. I mostly lunge the way we turn, so would it help more to try lunge her the opposite way to get her used to going that direction? I don't want to have to use my whole body just to turn her the way I want, because

1-its confusing for her and she doesn't understand what I want.

2-It looks bad

3-She doesn't have her head.

So does anyone have any suggestions that we can try? She picks up things quite well and once on the lead she is all ears and watches my body movements and commands. But please don't think that she is being stubborn and won't turn, its just I don't have the right technique to help her understand.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

You should always lunge both ways or you will have an uneven horse. Lunging is very hard, so the muscles on one side will be very weak if she's only going one way. To turn away from your self just start by doing bigger circles making them smaller. Carry a whip in your leading hand and jiggle it about at her shoulder to make her move away.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

It almost sounds like you're doing too much, maybe making it confusing for her. Find yourself a small crop or dressage whip and have it in your left hand and the lead rope in your right. When you want her to walk take your right hand forward and you start leaning forward, if that doesn't work start clucking and if that doesn't work then tap her with the whip. Just focus on the straight lines for right now and make transitions from a walk and trot. When you are trying to make inside turns again just take your right hand forward and try to get more forward momentum, you don't need to move as much making inside turns the horse needs to be the one moving, if she won't move then tap her with the whip, if she won't turn then start tugging on the lead rope, get her to turn. Outside turns this will help if she can pivot on the front end, you're basically moving her shoulder away from you and this will help if she is crowding into you. If she does then make her really pivot away from you. Be sure to teach her both sides. When you want her to stop simple just say "whoa" and stop. If she doesn't stop and pop the lead and make her back a couple of steps. Body language is easy if you want to go faster lean forward and cluck if necessary to stop or slow down just slow down and say whoa. No need to say a whole lot.

 

[madmax]

Carrying whip in your left hand, tip pointing backwards let you tap her on her rear using your wrist to encourage her forward. . If you lead her with a fence close on your left and plan on walking into a corner, gives her no other way to turn but to the right .Hard to explain without a visual I know.. Sometimes a horse is one sided, and if you practice a maneuver of standing facing the horse's head, pressing a finger into the middle of her right neck and turning the head by the halter towards that right side gently, it will train the muscles that they can give on both sides. Repeat for a few minutes every day. Horses need to be able to lead on both sides, better to do it while young and can become a habit. You are making an effort with your horses, good for you. Be consistent, not too many things at once, one day you can have her pivoting in a complete circle, but take baby steps.

 

[Carly Rae]

Thanks!!

I know in the description that I made sounds like a lot but it really isn't, the main things I do to make her turn with me is stop and turn and instantly she pivots, sometimes I need to make a click noise to get her attention, we are still working on everything still

She is great at leading and pivoting just I usually only lunged and pivoted in one direction, so I am guessing she is uncomfortable going the other way?

I have started lunging both directions now, I will lunge to the left for a while then I will stop give her a quick pat and lunge to the right. I found it hard to get her to lunge the other way to start off with, took some time to try guide her in that direction and keep her going, but after we were good

We will get there, she is terrified of my whip, not sure if she has had bad experiences or just doesn't like it, but I trained her with it, before I used it I would have to rub it all over her to show I wasn't going to hurt her.

She used to be very stubborn on the lead, so I used my whip and we have trained with that for a while, I no longer need it for that specific reason, but I might try the suggestions with the crop

Thanks again