longeing

We have a new boarder at our place. A young lady named Sam. She has a nice quarterhorse gelding named Grey. A friend of Betsy's trained him and seems like she did a good job with him. Trouble is, Sam is a novice with horses, she is learning how to tack up, and we are helping her with her riding. She is a little nervous as most beginners are, and she has a green horse, which I really disagree with. I am a firm believer that a green rider should buy an older more experienced horse who can teach them what they need to know.
Sam takes Grey out in the round pen and "longes" him, and I think she is just letting him run one way and then the other with no idea of why she is really in there with him to begin with. If she is allowing him to be the boss in the round pen, it will transfer to other areas and he will not respect her. Yesterday she couldn't get his headstall on to go for a ride.He's been fine to this point, so I am thinking she is letting him call the shots when she's handling him and he's decided he's going to be the boss.
This happens a lot with people who see someone longeing a horse and think they can do it too. It looks easy if the horse is a seasoned longer, but the purpose of longeing is to establish respect for you in the horse. For him to learn to respond to and respect your commands and to learn gaits and direction and such. I see so many people letting horses do what they will in the round pen and then wonder why they don't listen well on the trail or in the arena.
Longeing is an aquired skill. It takes time to learn to do it well. I am still not as good at it as I want to be, but I am always working on my technique. I have a good trainer who is helping me with my technique but I always focus on making sure I am giving the horse the right signals. If you don't know what you're doing in the round pen, you can do more harm than good. I suggest learning from someone who is proficient at it before you try it yourself, and start with seasoned horses who will help you develope your technique not green horses who will only show you how much you have to learn!