Stationary Lunge with James Cooler

When I had horses as a child and teenager, I never ground worked.  EVER!  Now I wouldn't ever consider not doing ground work before a ride.  Sometimes, if time is short, I choose ground work over riding!

Ground work, when I was young, meant lunge line work with the horse trotting and/or doing a lot of cantering.  Now it means so much more.  Cutbacks, backing up, mobile lunge, making them move their shoulders on an outward turn... it goes on and on and my girls and I are just learning the basics and have a long way to go.

The video above is of James working with Indigo.  I'm not sure when it was filmed, but Indigo now does a lot of stuff off the halter and line and their Freedom work is so fun to watch.

Below is a video of my daughter working Oberon on "cutbacks".  When we fist started this, we were so "gangly" with the stick and string, our cues and the rope.  We have much improved and will soon add a longer rope to the equation. 

and Sebastian chilling while watching his buddy, Oberon work:

 Our goal is do Freedom work.  The video below is of Robin Gates and her beautiful horses - I believe they are located in California.  

Stationary Lunge, Mobile Lunge

James Cooler of Cooler Horsemanship  must be the "Man in the White Hat" to the horses.  They don't get away with much when he is around... not that Oberon would ever entertain the idea of being anything less than well behaved.  :)   James is teaching my daughters how to do a stationary lunge.

First they back him out by a slight wiggle of the rope.  Then one arm is extended and finger pointing in the direction you want the horse to go.  Their body stays still and if the horse is going the speed you want, the stick and string is in a neutral position in front of the body.

Then it is just a slight "grab" of his head and a turning of the back to the horse - she maybe bent a bit too much, but she is learning.

And the horse should turn and face with butt tucked.  If not, she would "nip" towards his but with the string to make him swing and face her straight on.  That means he is giving you his full attention.

Yes, poor Oberon often gets worked double.   My other daughter, above, is backing him up.  Eventually a smaller shake of the rope will make him back - she can also swing the stick a bit like a pendulum directed towards his chest.  And below, she points in the direction she wants him to go.

Below is the mobile lunge.  Body is off the horse but moving parallel with the horse.  If you jog or run, he should do the same.  We haven't worked on that yet.  To stop him, the stick is put in front of the lead rope and then he is brought in like demonstrated above.

Eventually we will have him "loose" and he will do all of this with us without halter and leadrope.  That will take a lot of time and practice, but I love the whole idea of the horse having100% attention on his "rider".  Of course, afterwards, there is plenty of time for hugs...