This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In a message dated 99-01-05 05:55:04 EST, you write:
<< feel it's safer to always round pen or lunge first before riding or driving to get the excess energy out but after he has pulled my back out of whack a couple times taking off away from me, I usually go back to free lunging in the round pen -- the easier way for me. How do you feel about Fjords and round pens, longeing, etc.?? How about everyone else out there????? >> Are you using a chain over the horse's nose while lungeing? If not, that may be why he is pulling your back out of whack. Correct use of the chain will give you the advantage and teach the horse that it is NOT polite to be out of position. Round pens are wonderful. In Montana we had 2. One was 50' and the other was 120' with 1 1/2 feet of sand footing. Took about 5 minutes for a major attitude adjustment in that one! It was great. That is where we did our cutting training with cows. When we moved here to Or., I didn't have a round pen - sure miss them!! For a super challenge, you should try doing the free lunge work in a rectangle!! It is do-able, but you really need to be far more aware of body position etc. Just as an interesting sidenote, last year I got a 3 year old Fjord filly in for training that had been round-penned extensively according to the Parelli stuff. That was well and good, HOWEVER, you should have seen her confusion when it came to CORNERS! Had no idea whatsoever what to do about a corner (this was when I was working her free). In a round pen they simply follow the wall - no decisions to make. It was really funny. She eventually learned to think her way around corners. Needless to say, a round pen is on the drawing board for this coming year! Gayle Ware Field of Dreams
