Sunday, March 22, 2009

My patience with NH are gone.

Long story short, Norman was trained with Parelli for a while. She trained him to do that thing where the horse runs around in circles around the handler and is trained to stop and face inward when the handler looks at him. First of all, I'd like to know how anyone can effectively work a horse when they're not even looking at him. All they do is leave the horse alone until they want them to stop. This is bullshit. You don't leave a horse alone and let him do his own thing when you're on his back, do you? Why should it be any different when you're lunging him?

This is rich. I actually had a NH follower tell me that lunging is boring for the horse and should be kept to a minimum for the horse's mental state! HA! My horse's mental state? What, does lunging traumatize a horse now? Jesus Christ. Just the statement that lunging is boring for the horse just makes me want to gag. How the hell do they figure it bores them? They get to blow off pent up steam! And who says I just lunge them around in plain old circles? I lunge them with side reins, over fences, trot poles, smaller and larger circles. Everything you can't do with that run-in-circles-until-I-look-at-you crap. And besides that, if lunging really were boring to a horse (which it is not), if boredom is the worst they have to deal with, they're pretty darn lucky.

But anyway, Norman is an enormous pain in the ass to lunge now. He stops and turns to look at me all the freaking time. It's unbelievably aggravating, because no matter what I do, he just stands there. I could crack the whip all day and he wouldn't move. And it's not just once in a while. It's ten times a lunging session. I can't so much as point the whip at him without him stopping and turning inward. Every time I give a verbal aid, every time I try to bring him into a smaller circle, every time I do anything with the whip. My patience are gone. I know it's not his fault, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating. I''m having a hell of a time retraining him. I'd like nothing more than to beat that Parelli worshipper over the head with a carrot stick.

Victor was also trained with the same Parelli trainer to an extent before I bought him. I think he had normal training before that, because he was pretty easy to retrain. But when I got him, he had no muscle tone, no self carriage, no impulsion, was totally uncollected, and worked completely on the forehand. It was a real trip getting him to start using his hindquarters, let me tell you. But he's come a long way. He lunges like a dream. ;D But according to NH people he must be really screwed up because I lunge him at least three times a week for at least an hour at a time! Ooohh nooeess!! My poor Victor is metally scarred!

... Jokers. I lunge him a lot to fix what that idiot trainer did.

Norman, not so good with a lunge line. I'm trying to get my trainer to work with him. I rode him yesterday, and he was brilliant. :) We even went outside for the first time this year. He's doing a lot better with moving off leg pressure and responding to rein aids. I even got him to pivot on the forehand! Woohoo! lol His canter still needs a lot of work, but it's a work in progress. Now if only I can get him to lunge nicely.

2 comments:

  1. Ugh. I've been lucky enough that I've never had to do this. Most of the horses I've worked with haven't had much done with them after the race track. That's not usually too hard to undo.

    Do you think it would help if you had someone else lunge him while you were on his back forcing him to move forward?

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  2. Maybe, I don't know. It's a good idea. :) I'm contemplating putting him on a long line as well. It's just so hard to teach them something else when the opposite thing has been drilled into their heads. I feel bad because he gets frustrated and doesn't know what he's doing wrong.

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