interview
I am going for a second interview tomorrow at a farm that will include handling, lunging, teaching, and riding. This interview is merely to see what level I am at so that they can figure out what I am worth to pay. Obviously, I want to do well so that I can get paid more. Plus, if they do not accept what I ask, I cannot work there because my time is so limited I feel like I need to be compensated appropriately.
I am confident about everything except lunging. To be honest, I get a little nervous when I am lunging horses in front of new people. I have worked at many barns, and each barn has its own method of lunging and everyone swears that their method is the best and also the ONLY way to lunge, other ways torture the horse or will lead to death and destruction. Is this true? When I first learned to lunge, I snaked the whip behind the horse. The horses were used to this and it worked well with them. When I got to college, I was told NEVER to snake the whip behind the horse because it would scare them by sneaking up on them when you raised it to use it. OK so I changed my way of lunging. I returned to my initial trainer and he was still snaking the whip, but had a new trainer working with him who lunged the other way (raising the whip all the time).
And each trainer I have worked with has used a different way of attaching the lunge line. I originally learned by attaching the lunge directly to the halter or bit. I later was taught that you never attach the line directly to the bit. In the end, if something terrible happens, the bridle will break--but I thought this could be a good thing, rather than have the line permanently attached...
There are also various ways to hold the line itself while you are lunging--ie, drag it on the ground to have the horse stretch down--but some people are convinced that this is terrible practice and the line should always be connected directly to the horse w/o drag. Plus, how small/large a circle to lunge on.
What I have found is that all of the methods I have learned work well with the horses they were using them on, but I think that this is because those horses were used to those methods.
Basically, I don't want to go there and look stupid--so I'm not sure which lunge method to use when I try to lunge a strange horse with whom I have no knowledge about its training. If it were my horse, I would just start off by doing what was most comfortable with me and getting the horse used to that method, but because I will be under a microscope, I want to do everything their way. Is it appropriate to ask what method they use? Am I over analyzing this? Thanks!
I am confident about everything except lunging. To be honest, I get a little nervous when I am lunging horses in front of new people. I have worked at many barns, and each barn has its own method of lunging and everyone swears that their method is the best and also the ONLY way to lunge, other ways torture the horse or will lead to death and destruction. Is this true? When I first learned to lunge, I snaked the whip behind the horse. The horses were used to this and it worked well with them. When I got to college, I was told NEVER to snake the whip behind the horse because it would scare them by sneaking up on them when you raised it to use it. OK so I changed my way of lunging. I returned to my initial trainer and he was still snaking the whip, but had a new trainer working with him who lunged the other way (raising the whip all the time).
And each trainer I have worked with has used a different way of attaching the lunge line. I originally learned by attaching the lunge directly to the halter or bit. I later was taught that you never attach the line directly to the bit. In the end, if something terrible happens, the bridle will break--but I thought this could be a good thing, rather than have the line permanently attached...
There are also various ways to hold the line itself while you are lunging--ie, drag it on the ground to have the horse stretch down--but some people are convinced that this is terrible practice and the line should always be connected directly to the horse w/o drag. Plus, how small/large a circle to lunge on.
What I have found is that all of the methods I have learned work well with the horses they were using them on, but I think that this is because those horses were used to those methods.
Basically, I don't want to go there and look stupid--so I'm not sure which lunge method to use when I try to lunge a strange horse with whom I have no knowledge about its training. If it were my horse, I would just start off by doing what was most comfortable with me and getting the horse used to that method, but because I will be under a microscope, I want to do everything their way. Is it appropriate to ask what method they use? Am I over analyzing this? Thanks!