How to stop my horse pulling on the lunge line?

I have a 3 year old appendix quarter horse gelding and he will only lunge right at a jog when i try 2 extend his trot he turns his butt toward me and starts pulling me across the arena at a lope. when i try to lope on the lunge line he will do the same thing or start rearing and bucking i know he nos how to do it cuz he has done it before please help|||Well, I am noticing a pattern here...people don't really like stud chains. (thumbing down folks who suggest them)


If you don't have a round pen and can't free lunge your horse, you are forced to teach him manners on a lunge line. And it is amazing how many horses will actually "join up" in a round pen and then, still fight the lunge line.


Your horse probably outweighs you by a long shot, so trying to muscle him won't get you anywhere. A whip will just give him the "go"ahead to really take off.


So, back to the stud chain, which myself and a few others suggest. Think of it as leverage, not a means of punishment and you will have an excellent tool to control your horse.


Put the chain on starting from the left side of the halter, go over the nose, and down the other side into the side ring and on down through the ring you usually snap his lead to. Snap it back into itself and attach the lunge line to this.


Start out slow, trotting at the most, he will test you, and when he does, lean back so you don' lose your balance and give him short tugs on the lunge line to get him to come around-instead of heading off straight, Try not to let him get the lunge line against his body, because you lose stability and leverage, if he gets to this point, yank him hard to bring his nose back around to you. (in a jerk-release motion.) Once you have surprised him with this a few times, he will learn that it is easier to just go along with you, Don't excel to the lope until he has mastered the trot in both directions, stops when cued and stands until you ask him to come to you.


If he start towards you before you ask him to, I give the lunge line a sort of whip lash affect wave, (down -up motion) a few times and say whoa, stand. Once he stands, even for a few seconds, tell him he's good and say come here..and praise him with a knuckle rub.


Always use a lunge whip as an extension of your arm, not a punisher also. It should very rarely make contact with the horse. Exceptions are kicking out at you. I snap ankles for that, are a hind quarter if he is serious enough about the kick, just stay clear of him. And, if he get's out of control, let go, don't let him drag you along, better to have to go get him then get injured.


I hope hat my advice along with the others who suggested the chains have helped answer your question.


Good luck.


~S~|||I'd suggest shanking him with the lunge line. If the line has a chain at the end you hook him up to, wrap the chain through the ring on the bottom of the halter, through the side ring, across his nose, through the other side ring and hook it to the ring on the bottom again. Make sure there's give and take in the chain before you start. If you're not sure how to shank him properly, ask someone. Start him out in smaller circles, walking, then trotting, and WHENEVER he starts doing something he's not supposed to do, jerk the chain - don't DRAG on it - just give it a quick jerk and yell "NO!" until he stops. Make him go again and again, when he acts up, shank him again - just quick little pulls on the lunge line and yell "NO!". Worked great for my horse. I thought it was cruel at first, but my trainer suggested it and showed me how to do it or else my mare, too, would drag me all over the ring. I had to do this even just walking her up to the riding ring. She's extremely well behaved now and I haven't had to shank her in months.|||He's only 3 years old. Give him time. In the meantime, go back and do some fundamental ground work with him. He does sound like he's not very well mannered. He will grow up and be a rotten boy if you don't train him correctly now. As for the rearing, as long as you are at the other end of the lunge line, you should ignore it, don't even watch him as he does it and then as soon as he is back on the ground, make him go back to what he was doing. The bucking is a sign that he is feeling too much pressure. Again, ground work will square that away.





You can learn to do it yourself and you should. Trainers cost a lot of money and once you get the horse home you will be faced with the same problems all over again.





Good luck!|||You really need a round pen to work this horse. It helps confine him to an area where he can not drag you around. Work him in the direction he does good at first, get him warmed up. When he is warmed, stop him and make him face you. Walk up to him and praise him, pet him, offer a small treat. Walk back to the center and start him in the opposite direction at a walk. Let him do several ckts then ask for an increase in pace. ANYTIME he does something wrong, stop him and make him face you, then restart him again. Keep this going but remember to praise him when he gets it right. My two year old settled down considerably with this method. Good luck!!|||Ok my first thing would be to say....get a lunge line that has a stud chain at the end of it (I had a horse do the same thing and this helped)...get some gloves so it wont hurt if your gettin pulled or trying to pull the horse back to you and ask a trainer for help....remember you gotta show the horse whose boss...|||this is too complicated to write, so my advice is ask someone like a trainer or someone who has been around horses long enough to help you.|||get a lead rope that has a snap attached to a chain attached to the rope,Understand?then snap the snap-to on the side of the halter,run it under the chin then snap to the other side of the halter,like a curb stap-to. but dont tie him up like that or he could get hurt.|||Its a balance issue.





How big is the circle you're lunging him on?


A 3 year old horse does not have the muscle tone needed to balance on a small circle (anything less than 20m)





Work him off the lunge on lateral work like leg yields, turn on the forehand and haunches, etc. This will help supple him laterally and help him get the muscles needed to balance on a circle on the lunge..|||My first suggestion would be to start over again with a regular lead rope, and do a lot, and I mean A LOT of direction changes, but before you do that, you need to teach him to yield his front and rear quarters along with his rib cage. You need to teach him that when you pull on his head, his body follows suit. If you can't control him from 6-8 feet away you won't be able to control him from 30 feet away. Always concentrate an keeping his nose slightly toward you. When he starts pulling have him change directions with energy, don't allow him to walk into the change and walk out. Somewhere along the way he has figured out that if he blows up he gets to stop. (I consider loping off when you ask for an extended trot blowing up.) Even when you do graduate to a longer lunge line, do it gradually. Making sure that you have complete control of him before giving him any more room to move.





When he does try to run off go with him, if you can keep up without getting yourself hurt, and do not remove the pressure that you're applying with the whip until he takes a step in the right direction, literally. When he does, stop the pressure. Keep building off of that. He will eventually get what you are wanting.|||Learn to know when he's going to do this and react more quickly to prevent it, instead of trying to recover from it. He should be bent on the circle, so if you see him begin to stiffen up, drive him forward from the rear while keeping his head bent slightly towards the center of the circle. Keep the bend even if you have to kind of drift sideways across the arena to do it. The moment he straightens out and heads away from you, you've already lost. Sounds like you should avoid the lope altogether until you have this problem solved at the trot. Once you have, solve the lope the same way: drive him forward and keep him bent. He can't rear when going forward, and will have a harder time bucking. I usually allow a young horse a certain amount of playfulness (bucking) on the lunge line as long as he continues on the circle with the pace and bend I've asked for.|||Hi- Take him off the line all together-Keep a long whip with you-not to straight up whip him with-To get his attetion, keep him going-just start saying your commands verbally-He'll pick up the proper lead more easy, without being on a line-Everyone has their own way %26amp; opinions of doing things-Ya just gotta try a few, until something works for the both of you.