Today I will be continuing “The Introduction To Longe Line Training Series”.

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If you have missed the previous post you can catch up here:
Introduction To Longe Line Training

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Body Position:
First choose the direction you would like to begin longeing the horse.
Today I chose to start out to the left. My horse is facing left, I have the loop of the longe line in my right hand along with my whip, and I am holding the longe line in my left hand.

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Whip Position:
Always place the whip behind your horses back hooves, and the hand that holds the longe line is closest to your horses face. You may keep the whip with you as you are leading your horse to begin the exercise or you may leave the whip in the center of the circle where you will be longeing him.

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Your duty:

• Your shoulders should be square to the horse’s body.
• Pay attention to the horse and not your mobile phone or anything else!
• The horse will need your full attention to be able to perform his job.
• No looking out the window, door, or out of the arena.

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The horse’s duty:

• The horse should be looking where he is going.
• The horse should not be looking out the window, door, or out of the arena.
• The horse should not be calling to the other horses in the barn or out in the pasture.

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If your horse does any of the above things be sure and reprimand him immediately. I detest it when horses call to other horses when you are working with them. That is totally disrespectful.

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After you have mastered walking away from the horse as outlined in Introduction To Longe Line Training you will be able to get to the inside of the circle with your horse standing quiet waiting for your next command.

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Circle Size:
The distance your horse should be from you or the size of your circle is determined by you being out of kicking range, but close enough that if you took a step toward your horse while pulling his head toward you, you could reach him with your longe whip.

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Now you are ready to pick up your whip.
Pick up your longe whip that you left out in the middle of the circle. In the beginning of your training it is a good idea to leave the whip out in the arena to teach your horse not to take off when you bend down to get it. If your horse takes a step when you bend down to pick up that whip, tell him whoa. Do not start the horse walking until he horse stands patiently for you to pick up your whip. The reason for this is because a horse should respect a whip and not be afraid of it.

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After you have picked up the whip, pause and make your horse wait before you walk him forward on the longe line.

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Why do I need to pause before asking the horse to walk?

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The reason for the pause is because the cue to walk is not you picking up the whip; it’s when you ask him to walk. Make sure your horse has that clear in his mind. You will get that point across clearly if you make him pause after you have picked up the whip.

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Longe line work is about getting the energy out of your horse, but doing it properly it will also serve as a large part of the horse’s training.

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After you have paused cluck one time to the horse to ask him to walk.
The cluck, or click is the cue to walk. After I cluck I tap the point of the whip on the ground and say, “walk”. Your whip should tap the ground behind his back hooves. The placement of your whip is important, because in that position it is the horses cue to move forward.

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Keep the horse on the circle.
The best way to do that is to turn with your horse. Keep your shoulders square to his body. Your left shoulder should be to the horse’s shoulder and your right shoulder to his hindquarters.

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A secret to longeing, don’t walk with your horse, just turn with him.
Your horse needs to know where the end of the longe line is. If you are walking circles with him, you are continually changing his boundaries.

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I like to draw a small circle in the sand for anyone new to longeing. This will set the boundaries for you. Don’t step out of your circle turn inside of it.

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When not using the longe whip to cue the horse, drag the tip of it behind you.
By holding the tip of the whip toward the horse, you are going to be chasing the horse with the whip. Do not make your horse feel like you are chasing him, because you are not supposed to be. The two of you are working together. If you keep that whip dragging behind you it’s there when you need it, but non-threatening when you don’t.

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Keep your horse at a walk for a few circles before moving to the next gait.
Keep the horses attention as I mentioned earlier. What I would be focusing on at this stage of his training would be the horse’s transition from a halt to a walk, and a walk to a halt. Work on both the upward and downward transitions.

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As you are walking the horse, make sure your longe line is not dragging on the ground, or too tight pulling your horse into a smaller circle.

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The goal is when you cluck or say, “walk”, your horse responds immediately and walks.
If he does not start tapping the whip on the ground as you continue to cluck or say, “walk”. If the horse still doesn’t walk tap the whip behind his back legs and say, “walk” very firmly.

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The next goal, the halt or whoa!
After your horse is able to walk without incidence, you can work on his stop. Say whoa, firmly when you are ready for him to stop. Whoa means now, not two circles later not even half a circle later, not even two steps later. When you ask that horse to stop, insist he stops immediately. If he does not stop, pull down on the longe line and say whoa! Continue to do so until the horse stops. Then when the horse finally understands what you wanted him to do, praise him.

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There is a lot of information here, more than I typically like to post at one time, so what I would suggest is that you video tape yourself from start to finish with the horse, print out this post, and take some notes adding to what I’ve written on what you see yourself and horse doing.

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Don’t skimp on training from start to finish.

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On the next post we will do some Longe Line Trouble Shooting with the following problems:

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• Horse reverses direction without my permission.
• Horse pulls on longe line.
• Horse keeps making the circle smaller.

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If you have any problems with anything else as you are working on your longe line training, please feel free to comment and I will try and incorporate it into the next post.

Happy Longeing!

Deanna

Tags: horse training, longe line

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