{"id":30653,"date":"2021-12-03T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T07:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/course\/free-lunging-at-a-walk-3\/"},"modified":"2022-10-21T06:57:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T06:57:21","slug":"bo2-01-06","status":"publish","type":"tva_lesson","link":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/course\/bo2-01-06\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Lunging at a Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this video you will see me with D\u2019Artagnan, a wild stallion who was brought to me for training. This was one of the very first times that I worked with him on free lunging. I never put any tack on him, so it wasn\u2019t like I worked him with a halter and lead rope and then did this without it. It was all about our connection and how we communicated together.<\/p>\n<p>We spent some time just hanging out in order to connect again and allow both of us to become calm, relaxed and bonded. Then we played a bit to get out any extra pent up energy, have some fun together, and become emotionally connected. This helped our mutual focus, attention, and communication. Then I asked him to pay a bit more attention to me so we could start to \u201cwork\u201d together. You will notice that we just slowly got up to \u201cworking\u201d together and connected with each other and bonded before we both went into our \u201cbusiness brains\u201d. Taking baby steps helped cement all the lessons that we worked on before today and helped us become more in sync.<\/p>\n<p>Now that we both understood it was time to \u201cdo\u201d something new, it was time to start.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are the next steps I took to ask for and explain to D\u2019Artagnan what I wanted \u2013 free lunging at a walk\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I asked him to move away from me at a walk and to stay calm. Even though he started to trot, I asked him to walk and to just stay calm. I wanted him to get used to a slow, rhythmic, steady, even paced walk first.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" data-init-width=\"300\" height=\"217\" data-init-height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Free-Lunging-at-a-Walk.jpg\" data-width=\"290\" data-height=\"217\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When I lost his focus, I gently asked for it back with a motion or clucking sound. Then I asked him to continue at a walk.<\/li>\n<li>I used my body language to ask him to keep walking in one direction, at an even pace, and to get into a rhythmic motion. You\u2019ll notice at first I used the whip and line as an extension of my arm, along with my other arm, to motion where I wanted him to go and to ask him to continue walking. Then a bit later I only had to move my body forward and cluck to get him to continue walking, without using the whip. Then a bit later I only had to use my head movement to get him to continue and to halt. The more communication and connection we had, the less and less my cues had to be for him to understand what I was asking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Then once he was moving to my movements, even paced walk, and kept the distance away from me (the size of circle I asked for) then I added a halt into the mix. He did this perfectly and continued when asked with just a slight request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" data-init-width=\"300\" height=\"207\" data-init-height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Free-Lunging-at-a-Walk-2.jpg\" data-width=\"276\" data-height=\"207\"><\/span><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" data-init-width=\"300\" height=\"187\" data-init-height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Free-Lunging-at-a-Walk-3.jpg\" data-width=\"249\" data-height=\"187\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Once all that worked, we stopped for the day so he knew he had done well and we celebrated with some more hanging out time together to just be a herd. &nbsp;Lots of hugs and scratches came along with that lovely together time too. ????<\/p>\n<p>When we get this down as a pattern and can communicate in total sync at the walk, then I will start working with him free lunging at a trot. &nbsp;Then once that is great, we will try the canter.<\/p>\n<p>Have fun and focus on connecting, bonding, and communicating well together. &nbsp;This is a true exercise and practice in becoming ONE herd minded team. &nbsp;Enjoy and have fun together too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-30653","tva_lesson","type-tva_lesson","status-publish","hentry","tva_courses-bo2","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson\/30653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tva_lesson"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}