Rural Heritage October/November 2025

the horse circle around me as in lunging. While some horses may speed up at lunging, I never ask for anything but a walk for a work horse. For a horse that does speed up, I try to just wait for it to slow down on its own and learn to walk in this arrangement. Of course, we are doing all this leading and lunging from both sides and in all directions. The lunging in particular is a good time to teach the horse to stop on a verbal cue and also to step in and over to change directions. There is some skill required to manage the rope in the hands and ask for and receive these steps from a horse. Find someone that knows how to do it to show you if you need to. One last thing I like to do while I am teaching the horse to lead. It is called “leading from behind.” With a 12-foot lead rope (I like a couple knots in the rope at the midpoint and end for horses that are just a little excited or eager), I can gradually drop back to directing the horse forward from its hind hip. This is almost where you would be if you were driving -- three steps back and one step away. Again, the horse may initially mistake this for a situation to abandon by going too fast and “leaving” you behind. This is easily corrected by making the horse circle around and starting again. One of the fun challenges of this exercise is teaching the horse to turn in the direction that is away from you. To turn in your direction is as easy as making a little contact with the rope and guiding the horse, but to turn away requires something else. I like to use a little curlycue or wave that I send up the rope toward the horse's face. With a little time and practice, these can become soft and light, and you are now essentially “driving” from behind with one lead rope. The horse is becoming sensitive to our signals and starting to pay attention to us. This is a good time to introduce the verbal commands of “Gee” and “Haw.”

The rope is over his back where I can still reach it. But I am moving slowly and encouraging him to work with me…

...and...

Remember this isn’t the first time he has picked up his feet, just the first time I have specifically asked for it in this liberty setting.

Rural Heritage

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