Brynmala wrote:pills wrote:How would you teach a green horse to be lunged without a available round pen?
Further to Moonfall's comments, don't try and lunge by yourself to start with, you'll need someone at the horse's head to lead him round until he gets the idea of going in a circle, and control the the speed until the voice commands are understood - remember downward transitions also need to be taught, not just going faster, and this is difficult without help.
And, I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, but keep sessions very short (not more than about 15 minutes) as it is really hard work for the horse, and can put a lot of stress on bones of a youngster particularly.
or you can do it like in groundwork for free training, a long 3-6m lead rope, let the horse walk next to you and slowly step away and walk on, when horse is alright with walking 1m or so away from you make it till nearly end of rope, try different Speeds like slow to fast walk, trot and canter but you only walk. while you do this you also can let the horse walk aroun you in the same way now and then, so walk normaly then you stop and let the horse walk some rounds around you and walk on, do the same in different direction...in the end you also can get your horse lunged like normal, but also can lead your horse away from you in different Speeds and direction and over jumps or obstacles...
or lead your horse, stand still and then only slowly walk with you in the middle till you can stay still and horse walk around you.. and let your horse walk around you in small to bigger circles, at a normal lead rope, then a long lead rope up to a lung line or use the line from the start...with this you dont need help ...and when the horse goes from walk into trot or canter and back and so on, you then can start other Training to get the horse to move his Body bether going over poles and so on
or you can use the pasture, a corner of it, that you then use some partable fence poles and electric wire and make a mobile fence roundpen...