The biggest issue I have with any training aids is that, by forcing a horse into an unnatural position that they are not strong enough to maintain, they will compensate and develop imbalances and weird musculature. Like, if someone put a strap on your arm or leg to change the way you moved, your body would get tired quickly because it wasn’t used to moving that way. As a result, you would probably compensate for that fatigue through some other supporting muscle and weird posture. It’s the same thing with horses. The only way to get self carriage is to develop it, no matter how long it takes.
I can't believe people actually believe that these gadgets help teach the horse to carry themselves correctly when its actually doing the opposite. When I own horses I will never constrain them in all those lines and ropes. Thank you once again Shelby for spreading awareness on these issues. We really need more people in the world like you.
Thank you! I've never understood why people thought these taught the horses to carry themselves. Ive taught my mares how to carry themselves without any of that when lunging. We do small circles, big circles, straight lines, etc with me roughly 5 to 10 feet away from them. They trot when I "trot" and they lope when i "lope". Ive even gotten them to the point when I stop and back up, they do the same as well. It's actually quite cool how much you can teach a horse without all those gadgets that people think they need.
Yes please! My mare cannot be ridden at the moment so she is only allowed to be lunged at walk and I don't want her to loose all her muscle, but also want her to learn how to carry herself!
@@auroramagalhaes9952 Instead of the aids I recommend using nice exercises in walk, you can easily Google them for any part you need 😊 Depending on the reason why she cannot be lounged in higher pace, it could be walking on hills, backing up, poles, shifting weight, side walking etc etc, possibilities are endless! And if you do walking correctly, using relaxation and massage on the way you can develop INCREDIBLE muscles by just walking and without any aids, we did that with my gelding, he had stomach ulcers and couldn’t be training more than that :)
@@Latarielle They do :) No aids other than the ones behind the hindlegs (and here it also depends on the horse) are useful and none of them will help to build the horse in a proper way as they cannot follow the movement of the horses head as your hand does. To build your horse’s topline - exercise and let your horse figure it’s own way of moving, magic can happen 😊
@@Latarielle yes, multiple times. I used to be a huge fan of all of them when I was younger, but doing more and more research has forever changed my mind about them. I can let know why exactly - please let me know what they are supposed to help with! There are also multiple sources on the internet even which show why that just doesn’t work :) Many people are not aware of this and obviously I prefer them to use these instead of e.g. Pessoa but unfortunately it is just not possible to use them “correctly” other than “not interfering with the horse” which completely makes it not useful at all… :/
I really appreciate this because I get to ride often and I lunge every once in awhile with my trainer so thank you for posting this as I can learn and continue with my equestrian journey!💕 I love your vids so much and you really inspire me as a rider.
I made the mistake of taking a screen shot of one of these and posting it on reddit. Weird, I thought everyone would agree they were useless or harmful (if your horse can't bend, then you're trapping them. If they CAN bend,then there's no purpose to tie them in that space because they should be able to maintain it. And you cant teach it if they can't get relief, if they're still building muscle/flexibility relief is part of the process) but many people defended their use when used by someone "experienced". All those "you dont know my horse and my trainer" type comments. Physiology is physiology 🤷♀️🤷♀️
YES! The horse must learn to carry himself in balance with longitudinal flexion. It takes TIME. It also takes a skilled handler who knows the process of building strength and flexibility. Such trainers are in short supply where I am from in the US.
Thanks for posting fully agree. The de gogue is especially heinous. I already hated the device and then saw a horse wearing one under saddle trip and fall to the ground as the device prevented her from being able to use her head and neck to catch her balance. In addition to normalizing horses going behind the vertical I really believe these devices can be a safety hazard. Especially as they are regularly used across the board including by very inexperienced horse people who really do not know any better.
Yes please! My mare cannot be ridden at the moment so she is only allowed to be lunged at walk and I don't want her to loose all her muscle, but also want her to learn how to carry herself!
Totally agree !! This is why is became a patron , everything you say is what I already believe but I'm not as educated as you so I appreciate the learning !!! Xxxxxxx
I absolutely agree with you. Ive been lunging without aids for ages now and all my horses know how to use their body because they actually had a chance to learn it themselves
Long lining is a lot different because it’s essentially just steering the horse from the ground, so since the handler has full control over the type of contact that they are using, it would be one of the better ways to lunge if you’re going to use connection with the mouth
Classical long lining is riding from the ground. A trainer with soft educated hands can build a strong, straight and flexible horse. A poor trainer can still harm a horse through over flexions and poor positioning of the neck. I use this in my training program but am mentored and trained by a classical master. I would not long line if you're not trained, but ground driving is something else which implies that you're just "driving" a horse like it is on a cart. We only use this when starting youngsters and then once forward balance in longitudinal flexion is achieved we can then long line to work on developing bend and straightness through bending among other things.
The problem I have will all “quick fix” lundging aids is the fact that all of them are marketed as plug and play. Where in reality you have to do some form of training to use them. I clicker trained my horses to lower their heads on command and I use a bungee connected to the girth and bit/ caveson/halter that is only tight if their heads are too high. And I use a elastic bandage behind for leg engagement.
That doesn’t mean they’re not common on an industry scale… there wouldn’t be million dollar industries selling these gadgets if they didn’t have popularity.
Even in a halter, the front end of the horse is still attached the back end of the system. So while it would be less aggressive than a bit, it would still create a seesawing motion and give the horse a conflicting association with contact. I don’t think it’s productive to teach the horse that when their back leg goes back they risk getting hit in the face or the mouth if you want them to learn how to connect properly with the rider under saddle
