COMPETITIVE LONGE
By Gord Wadds
Copyright©2010
Lesson 4
Teaching the Trot
Before
teaching the trot to your longe line yearling review
the walk, stop, “park” and back, in both directions.
You’ll
ask for the trot by beginning to cluck twice as fast as the cluck you use to
request the walk from the stand still. Along with the clucking, flutter your
wipe up and down vertically from a few inches off the ground to a couple of
feet. Both “rapid cluck and the wipe action must continue until the yearling
trots. It is extremely important you
stop both the whip action and the clucking the moment the youngster begins to
trot.
If
your prospect isn’t responding to the trot cue, use a horizontal flip of the
whip to tap the horse on the buttock…follow that by immediately by resuming the
quieter initial trot cue as the horse responds to the punishment tap.
Have
a GAME
I’ll bet you are starting to become a very
good trainer.
A
trainer exhibits consistency in his/her methods.
* Make a video of your horse performing at the trot.
It will be needed for the assignment at the end of the
lesson.
Teaching the Lope
In
preparing for the transition to the lope we must become aware of the potential
of developing an incorrect association.
Because we take advantage of the horse’s strong ability to associate, we
must also guard against the horse “anticipating”. We don’t want the horse to think he is always
going to lope after making a circle or two at the trot.
Keep
the horse from anticipating by only asking for the lope from the trot
periodically.
Most
of the time you want to ask the walk prior to loping.
Keeping
‘sequential’ association out of the picture as much as possible will keep
variety in the program, and prevent anticipation from creating mistakes and
unnecessary anxiety.
So
the walk should follow the trot most of the time. Then, before we do lope, we
want to make sure we are in the “I’m going to walk forever” mode.
On
the few occasions we do ask for the lope from the trot, we want our horse to be
in the “I’m going to trot forever” mode.
In
the beginning you’ll have to ask the youngster to lope from the trot because he
has forward motion. The forward motion
will aid him in picking up the lope.
Once
you have the horse loping, you want to keep him loping for a good period of
time. This is done to eliminate any anticipation of stopping while in the lope.
Click
here to watch a video of a yearling starting to lope from the walk.
* Make a video of your horse performing at the lope.
It will be needed for the assignment at the end of the
lesson.
Please contact me if you are having any problems.
The Reverse
Now
we must teach a very important element in the training of our prospect: reverse
and then return to the line of travel at a 25-foot radius.
When
you ask your prospect to “whoa” from the lope, it is followed by walking in the
same direction, NOT followed by reversing.
The
cue for reversing is best given at the walk, even in the Longe
Line class itself.
So
in training, after I stop the horse, I will make them stand still for a long
time. I want the horse to assume the
“I’m going to stand forever” mode. Now
I’ll ask the horse to walk on. In early training, I’ll have the horse walk several
circles, so the initial association, is a “stop” followed by a long walk.
While
the horse is walking, I’ll step back several steps, rolling the whip up and
over to my other hand…so now I’ve switched the whip and longe
line in my hands. Now I can pull a
little with my “new”’ longe line hand, step to the
“‘new” drive position behind the prospect and let the horse’s brain consider
the change. (If you were going to left,
you step to the left after changing your whip and longe
line hands).
Immediately
after stepping “behind” the yearling as you reversed, you want to drive him out
to the original line of travel. You want
to be sure he moves out to increasingly larger circles in these early training
stages.
TRAIN THE REVERSE IN BOTH DIRECTIONS!
It
is important to emphasize here the importance of bi-lateral training, (i.e.
training both ways mentally and physically).
Every
horse is born either right or left handed. As you go through the first few days
of training you should be able to decide which your prospect is. Recognizing this early allows you to begin
the process of developing a physically and mentally AMPIDEXTROUS individual.
Once
you recognize which side is the prospect’s strongest, you can begin to spend
considerably more time working the weaker side until you get equal movement and
strength in both directions.
* Make a video of your horse performing the reverse in
both directions.
It will be needed for the assignment at the end of the
lesson.
ASSIGNMENT
It may take a month or more to complete the assignment. Take your time and don’t rush your youngster. Email me if you are having problems. You can send a video to demonstrate the problem.
1. Write a brief description of the
“consistent action” taken in your training GAME
2. Send the video of your horse demonstrating
the trot.
3. Send the video of your horse demonstrating
the lope.
4. Send the video of your horse demonstrating
the reverse in both directions.
Please load your videos to www.youtube.com.
Email the links
for the videos and your report to gwadds1@aol.com