Lunging Tips?

Valentina

I want to try lunging my pony as I can't really ride her for very long at the moment due to an injury I have. Has anyone any tips? I had her in the arena today and got on okay - I can get her to stay on the circle for the most part but she will sometimes try to duck in and I have to stop completely and lead her back on to the circle. She is very good at listening to voice commands so have no problems asking her to walk on or trot but she just won't stay on the track. How can I get her to stay on course?

I'm using a cavesson bridle, 24m lunge line but have her going at 20m circles and a surcingle. I have a lunge whip too. I've only been lunging her for about 20 mins at a time as I understand that it's strenuous for a horse to keep going on a circle.

Ave Sodalis

Use your whip... you don't have to actually hit her with, just give it a flick behind her to keep her going. Keeping her forward should help the falling into you as well but if it doesn't work well, use your stick to keep out as well.

20 minutes shouldn't be too much of a problem for horses, it just sounds like a bit of a habit

Valentina

Thanks. I have tried the whip, keeping it pointed at her hock area and then give it a little flick (not making contact) but this just makers her speed up when cutting past me! Should I maybe position it more around the shoulder to keep her out?

I'm only doing about 20 mins or so because then I will ride her for about 40/50 mins (that's as much as I can manage at the mo) and we can have a bit of a canter and a jump

Borderfox

Maybe have another person watch you and see if your doing something to make/allow her to duck in?

Valentina

Borderfox wrote: »

Maybe have another person watch you and see if your doing something to make/allow her to duck in?

My OH is coming out with me to her tomorrow. I'm going to get him to film us so I can see if it's me.

CavanLady

Make sure you are standing square to her shoulder. That should help to keep her out. Also, consider looking up long lining on a circle Monty Roberts way with two lunge ropes, helps to keep them better balanced.

later12

Lungeing is something of an abandoned art. Instructors teach riding to students and often sort of assume that they have some sort of innate knowledge of lungeing! The end result is that a lot of adults don't lunge their horses properly; you frequently see this at competitions with riders not only lungeing their horse badly, but dangerously too in terms of the horse's health. Lunging in small circles or lungeing too hard being the two typical offenders.

And this is by no means a criticism of your lungeing ability OP. It may be nothing to do with you at all; I mention it because this failure to teach students how to lunge has been passed along to cause a lot of the horse population to be a good deal less than proficient on the lunge line. You will often see perfect experts under a saddle turn into bolshy, green amateurs on the lunge.

My advice would be to acquire an independent witness, who can watch your lungeing and suggest where the problem lies. Or even post the video up here and we can try suggest explanations for the problem:pac:

Valentina

later12 wrote: »

Lungeing is something of an abandoned art. Instructors teach riding to students and often sort of assume that they have some sort of innate knowledge of lungeing! The end result is that a lot of adults don't lunge their horses properly; you frequently see this at competitions with riders not only lungeing their horse badly, but dangerously too in terms of the horse's health. Lunging in small circles or lungeing too hard being the two typical offenders.

And this is by no means a criticism of your lungeing ability OP. It may be nothing to do with you at all; I mention it because this failure to teach students how to lunge has been passed along to cause a lot of the horse population to be a good deal less than proficient on the lunge line. You will often see perfect experts under a saddle turn into bolshy, green amateurs on the lunge.

My advice would be to acquire an independent witness, who can watch your lungeing and suggest where the problem lies. Or even post the video up here and we can try suggest explanations for the problem:pac:

Oh yes I'm well aware of the dangers of incorrect lunging. I do admit it is some time since I've done it and my girl has probably not done it since she was broken in. The yard I'm in is all private livery, no instructors so there isn't really anyone available who might be knowledgeable in lunging...

I've come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that she is simply cutting in to try make less work for herself. :rolleyes: A friend of mine rode her last weekend and said she had a lot of work getting her to keep into the corners of the arena. Given I haven't ridden her properly for about a year I think she may have just fallen into bad habits?

later12

I think in that case you are justified in looking to the horse's difficulties and the first thing that I'd be thinking about is her balance. Does she perform worse on one side of the lunge over the other? Is she visibly crooked in one direction under the saddle?

You will often see this sort of problem in horses who have just come in from grass, or hunters who do nothing but hunt: they can get away with being very one-sided all their lives. But as soon as they enter a school or an enclosed space and are asked to go straight and balanced in both directions, it's a bit like watching a crab trying to canter about: you can actually feel & see one side of their body unable to withstand the demands of turning correctly throughout the gaits.

You also see problems on the lunge exactly like the problem you have outlined, so I would definitely raise that as one potential cause of the problem.

If that is the problem, correcting it will take a lot of time and effort to begin with... and patience! But it's a reasonably common problem, so it's one that is definitely worth checking out, based on what you're seeing.

Valentina

later12 wrote: »

I think in that case you are justified in looking to the horse's difficulties and the first thing that I'd be thinking about is her balance. Does she perform worse on one side of the lunge over the other? Is she visibly crooked in one direction under the saddle?

Not that I've noticed, but I will have a careful look at her tomorrow and see how she does.

later12 wrote: »

You will often see this sort of problem in horses who have just come in from grass, or hunters who do nothing but hunt: they can get away with being very one-sided all their lives. But as soon as they enter a school or an enclosed space and are asked to go straight and balanced in both directions, it's a bit like watching a crab trying to canter about: you can actually feel & see one side of their body unable to withstand the demands of turning correctly throughout the gaits.

Well this is, I think, the crux of the problem - she has been pretty much at grass for about a year. She seems to have 'forgotten' a lot of the stuff we used to do regularly - she has even started to play up when I try to mount her, something she never did before.

later12 wrote: »

You also see problems on the lunge exactly like the problem you have outlined, so I would definitely raise that as one potential cause of the problem.

If that is the problem, correcting it will take a lot of time and effort to begin with... and patience! But it's a reasonably common problem, so it's one that is definitely worth checking out, based on what you're seeing.

I am totally committed to correcting her problems. I'm schooling her 4 or 5 days a week and each week that passes I think I am seeing small improvements in her behaviour. Last week she wouldn't go over some trotting poles but by the end of the week she was popping over them beautifully. I am going to persevere and will take on board everything that's been suggested so far.