I spent the day out at work, this time long-reining Santi, a 17 year old horse that has never been long-reined before and Alfie, a 5 year old that clearly has. Santi is quite worried about the long reins or anything touching his legs, possibly because he has previously been hit with a lunging whip, but these days he gives everything the benefit of the doubt and contains his uncertainty. We started off with Dual Controls before I asked him to go alone and we took it very very gently indeed.
Alfie on the other hand was as confident as you like and I was soon able to teach his owner how to long-rein because he was as an old hand at it. We think he has probably been driven in the past and received some very good education along the line.
