boring lungeing

[LittleD]

Do horses find lungeing boring?

If I don't ride my horse I lunge her for about 15/20mins. We start of in walk, go up into trot, slow down back to walk and halt. Then we change direction and do the same thing again, we do this twice more then we walk around the indoor together me chatting to her, go back to the stable for a nice groom and a carrot or apple, she doesn't seem to mind the routine but I was thinking is there some other exercises we could do whilst lunging to make it more interesting for her (and me) maybe some pole work or something, I lunge her in a cavesson and lunge rope but she is happy to be lead around in a head collar so maybe some exercises with a lead rope - any suggestions welcome

[ashesscott]

You could try some of the Tellington Jones TTEAM stuff - some good books out there on it. Basically lead over poles, around poles, good fun and teaches your horse where his/her feet are

[eml]

Could you try loose schooling or perhaps build a jumping lane.

[helenc]

Rather than just doing the obvious walk - trot - walk - halt, change rein & do it all the other way, do lots of transitions, it means that your horse will really have to listen to you and what you are telling him.

You can include trotting poles, raised trotting poles & some jumps but make sure that you get the correct distances between them.

I would also do some loose schooling if you have the facilities, lots of fun for you & your horse

[Showjumper03]

A horse should only be lunged for maximum of 20min. :D :D I have been lunging Jimmy latly. Whe walked, trotted, cantered, and he once started galloping but I eased him down:p Hum a little jumping would be good I would think. even had to use a dressage crop with Jim :P Yeah so tryy something new with him/her. She is problably lovin the treats!(Jimmy is lunged in cavesson too once a flash)

[Lucy J]

you can set up trotting poles on the circle(in a semi circle), when i can be bothered i quite often set up 2 lots of 3 trotting poles at each end of the circle, means the horse has to think and adjust strides

working on lengthening and shortening strides too can be quite challenging

[virtuallyhorses]

Lunging should be much the same as ridden work - asking for bend and flexion, correct use of hocks etc, collecting and lengthening of stride, asking for long and low, changing gaits and direction. So your horse should be concentrating on you and you on her in the same way as when you ride - if the horse just does circles then yes it can switch off and find it boring. Using poles or uneven ground (hills) to lunge on can certainly spice things up.