Lunging teachers a rider to make transitions without the use of the reins, which is done using the seat and other communication methods. Learn to bring a horse to a trot or canter with riding information from an internationally-certified horse trainer and instructor in this video on horse lunging.
Hello, my name is Rebekah Larimer and I am an internationally certified horse trainer and instructor and today I'm going to show you how to make transitions without reins on the lunge line. Today I have Maria, the ground assistants, or the lunger, and Rosemary as the rider assisting me to show you how to do these transitions. So right now Rosemary is going at a walk, she's following with her seat, and she has a reactive seat that's following with him and not going against his movement. So now, for Rosemary to ask him to go to trot, she's going to use her seat, into a trot rhythm, and go right with his trot rhythm. And it's up to her, as far as how fast of a trot does she want. And notice how her seat follows him and she's doing small little crunches every single stride with her seat. Now if she wants him to go to walk, she's going to slow down the rhythm in her seat, tighten up her stomach muscles and he goes to walk and follows with her. So Rosemary is the rhythm master, she decides exactly what speed does John, that John, our horse, needs to go. And now she's going to ask him to go to trot again. And there she needed to use a little bit of leg, which is okay, but always our first aid is our seat. Then we're going to ask him to go to canter, we're going to, exactly, and she's using her seat, and following him with her seat. If she gets uptight in her legs or her seat she's not going to follow with him. You have to be more like a sack of potatoes, to follow him with your seat. Now she's going to think about going into the trot. She's going to tighten up her stomach muscles, and start doing the trot rhythm with her seat to ask John to go into the trot. And there we go and exactly what rhythm does she want him to go to. Good job. And then she's going to ask him to go to walk again, so she's going to tighten up her stomach muscles, slow down in her seat, and John's going to walk for her. Now the only time that a rider's seat is still, is in the halt. So Rosemary's going to tighten up her stomach muscles, stop, stop moving and being reactive in her seat and John is going to halt for us in a couple of strides here, he's thinking about it, and it takes a little bit for a horse to start learning this. And that's okay. And it is typical for a horse, they are used to stopping on the lunge line to turn and face me, that is okay with me, that the horse stops and turns and faces me. So he did respond to Rosemary's seat by halting. And that is how you start teaching the rider and the horse to respond to a rider's seat for all transitions.
