Beginning A Horse To Understand Haunches In
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Beginning A Horse To Understand Haunches In
Begin with the horse standing square. Stand infront to the 30 degree mark between the shoulder & the head front on. Take a Dressage or a slightly longer than a riding bat whip (not a lunge whip though that is too long) and ask the horse to move away from the whip as you very gently nudge the rear end away from you (don't do this in a manner of such assertiveness or aggression to the horse that he/she moves the front end. You only want the rear to move. Just nudge or tap him/her in a slightly irritating manner, but again, not enough to move the front end, and have the rear move away. Follow in a circle to have him/her move in full circle away from you. Once you return to the starting point, stop, rest, feed him/her a tidbit & relax. Then wait a few minutes, and start again. You want him/her to cross over the near rear in front of the far rear in their sweep away from you. Just practise this, and leave the riding work of shoulder/haunches in for much, much later down the road. After a few times, maybe five or six attempts. Stop. Rest. Then go the opposite way, with the same method. After that take him/her out to graze for half an hour at least as their reward. After a a couple or three months of this, then start with the front end. The front end is a bit different, but I will add this tip later. You don't want to do both at the beginning as horses confuse easily....they don't have our level of intelligence nor ability to juggle as many items on the mental agenda as do humans. So only one thing to learn at a time, and in baby bites...as this type of work is truly difficult if they have not been raised to perform in this manner from yearlings. Okay.
