Lunging advice.

[Gemma16]

Hi everyone.

I am in need of some lunging advie. As you may know Taffy has some muscle damamge i his back, and after his rest from riding the vet has prescribed, she has suggested some lunging with a chambon on to help strech his back muscles and encourage him to work a bit lower.

My problem is that we don't have a menage to use or really any where closed off to lunge in. All we hav is either an open filed that I usually school in or his turnout field.

There is one place but its on a slant and is very uneven. Is it worth trying to lunge him in the little uneven paddock, baring in mind he is NOT at all a fan of lunging?

Another question..... If I do find a suitable place to lunge could anyone suggest any techniques that are good to keep him out and stop him from just stopping and turning round or coming in?

Thanks:D

[entreat]

All I know is you shouldn't lunge in his turnout field - he associates that with play/relax time, and won't work his best.

Sorry I can be of more help. :)
-Jenn

[Ipsa]

I wouldn't lunge him in the uneven paddock. If it is uneven in that is is is bumpy and lumpy it will be very hard on his legs and difficult for him to maintain an outline in the chambon.
Can you section off a bit of the field that you school him in and lunge him in that instead.
There are plenty of people that lunge their horses at competitions in huge areas with no mishap.
At a lungeing demo I went to they sectioned off an area using jumpstands and poles.

[Evol_or_revert]

Hey, when I first got Charlie he was a shocker to lunge. I couldn't get him up to the top, so all I had was a kinda gully paddock with strange bumps (Farmer's grandaughter said they were cars) plus several years of people/me riding in mud.

So here I was 16.2hh TB that throught he was a stallion, me never having lunged a horse before and a large uneven paddock.
Brought a lunge whip and got started. If he came in or tryed to run at me id send him back out jumping around yelling waving my arms what ever worked. He use to just gallop and gallop (up to 1 hour at a time of this, very long story)

Anyways I stuck with it, gadully he began to calm down and trot we could start work, I worked him from just a halter or just a bridle to saddle and sidereins. When he was out having muscle and back treatments i also used lunging to help stretch muscles.

I say go for it :S(how many people with disagree) *shuts eyes*
it will give you something to work on with your horse. Not everyone has flat spaces or arenas etc, so use what you have (im greatful for the large hill lol). This may form a greater bond between you and your horse, and allow you to try different things eg I lunge Charlie straight off the sides of the halter and he works on the bit like that. (but i would never ever dare to lunge nicky like that yet!)

Charlie is now the best horse I have ever lunged, all that time working with him opened up many doors, I now lunge him off two reins one on each side, so I can spin him around and also long line him. I can also muck around spun in oppiste dirrection to him. Jump around screaming and yelling, play with the cat, sit down on the ground and put rope over my head and he just keeps working. Worked great at shows to calm him down.

I found for the turning in thing, keep your eye on them at all times, and your shoulders paralla to them.

need any help or advice or ideas or anything pm me :D I have spent soooo many hours lunging it's not funny!

good luck

[galadriel]

When you do find a decent place to lunge, here's how I do it:

Imagine a line fron the horse's girth to the center of the circle. If you stay behind that line, you are "driving" him on; if you move in front of that line, he will likely either stop or turn around.

I will usually stand just behind the girth line, with my lunge whip pointed at the horse's hip. If he starts to move into the circle, I point the whip at his shoulder. When I want him to stop, I step in front of the girth line and point the whip in front of his head.

This is all essentially body language; if your horse has any familiarity with the concept of lunging, he should understand the whip cues fairly well. If he really seems not to understand, it's possible that you may need to go back to teaching him to lunge, period.

[nutkin]

My old horse hated lungeing. It was physically impossible to get him to go round on the lunge. He would turn in and run at you. If you tried to flick the whip behind him he would try to kick you. If you shouted and made predatory movements at him to try to move him he would go all meek and please don't hurt me mum physically burying his head under your arm. We didn't force the issue of lungeing as it was obvious he hated it. Instead we longreined him. It took all of 10 mins to get him to know what we wanted and he loved it as it meant he wasn't just going round in circles. You can achieve just as much on the longreins as you can on the lunge. So if you try lungeing and it isn't working then try longreining instead. I bet your horse will prefer it too lungeing and your vet will probably agree that it is just as good if done properly.

[virtuallyhorses]

I'm not familiar with what your horse's back injury is but you could consider lunging without the chambon but using terrain or trot poles for back exercise instead. I use this sort of 'active rehabilitation' with great effect and hillwork is excellent for producing the same sort of backwork as the chambon is attempting by 'tieing down' your horse's head.

If you have any hilly areas - even decent sized ditches, these can be excellent for small quantities of lunging. These times are also for getting your horse to think about what its doing with its feet and concentrate on you (horse's often switch off when lunged 'normally').

As always if your horse is recovering from an injury then you need to take the advice of your vet and start slowly and cautiously.