Gadgets and such

L

lauren123

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2007
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East Yorkshire
.Personally i arent a massive fan of gadgets when it comes to horses. Lunging i like two lunge lunges and to use the full school. I have seen too many horses in... gadgets with there heads firmly pulled down... Not for me.
However my YO has.suggested working sox in a P.. Can never remeber the name! I am unsure. Surely they are better ways of getring your horse to work from behind without strapping there head down. So it.makes them look like their working from behind?
Or is it me jumping the gun
 
I think she is talking about a Pessoa. They are really popular and I rarely see anyone of my yard lunge without one. I think it largely depends on how you use it. If it is fitted correctly and not too tight, I can see how it encourages the horse to move correctly and therefore build muscles in the right places. However, I have seen horses freak out in them and if they are incorrectly fitted (as they often are), the horse looks forced into a false outline.

I am not personally a fan of lunging. I think it places the horses joints under too much stress if you stick to the rigid 20m circle, or smaller as many do. I the Pessoa encourages the handler to be lazy as the gadget does all the work and they simply watch the horse go round them. I would favour your approach of lunging with 2 reins and using the whole school. This is quite a difficult thing to master but if you do it correctly it is much more interactive between horse and handler and better for both of you.
 
I'm not a gadget fan really but the pessoa is often recommended by vets during rehab from injury as they apparently do work well when fitted correctly (as @Mary Poppins says done wrong it's as bad as any other) and you can still use 2 lines and use the whole school with one.

I think it depends on the handlers skill to get the horse working correctly without any assistance, if the horse is just slobbing around without putting any effort into moving properly then it's unlikely doing any good beyond stretching the horses legs by running around and if lunging is being used to build the horse up then the target is missed. Better for the handler to learn to be more effective but if that's not possible then a gadget can help.
 
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Save your money and try an elastic bandage round his back end, I think @Bodshi used this method with good effect and a whole lot cheaper than a pessoa.
 
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Kite_Rider said:
Save your money and try an elastic bandage round his back end, I think @Bodshi used this method with good effect and a whole lot cheaper than a pessoa.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was my physio that recommended this. She had me work Raf in a roller with an elasticated tail bandage tied round his back end. Now he can't be lunged because of his arthritis of course ...
 
I think it's a pessoa your talking of. I've been seeing write ups for the equiami which is supposed to be better than a pessoa. It is supposed to encourage better hind end use than a pessoa. Again as Jessey says. Both recommended for rehab. Especially after is surgery.
I lunge chunky in just a canvassing with one line.
Billy I lunge in an old bridle which is unsafe for riding in any more. Because of his headshaking he seems to dislike the Cavesson but lunged of a basic bridle he is much more relaxed.
I have roller and side reins but they are hardly ever used. They just collect dust in the tack room.
I have to say neither of mine lunge with there heads down which I do wonder if sometimes a pessoa might help. Especially with chunkys back issues.
 
I'm quite a fan of the Pessoa actually, it's a really useful training aid if you know how to use it properly. I think the problem is that many people unfortunately don't. The same goes for other training aids, and riders' hands too, essentially if you are using something to haul a horse's head into a particular place or force them into a particular frame you are using it wrong.
 
don't really like lunging due to the joint issues. Buddy has built up a lot of muscle on his quarters and hinds by learning how to work low and long out hacking, so he is using his back end more. If you long line and ask for flexion the head will come down naturally. Suze is unbroken but she learnt flexion in a day in a rope halter, and when she was being worked on a long line, she had really nice carriage as she dropped onto your hands with a tiny ask. working up and down hills also helps a great deal with their balance and outline. I tend to throw the reins at buddy and ask him to find the place where he is comfy and he now auto goes into lower head carriage with virtually no contact, and brings his back up. he used to be ridden in a gag flash and martingale and was high and hollow and his osteo found poll and back pain through all this. Might be worth seeing if an osteo can pinpoint if he has any sore bits.
 
I have a Theraband from my physio, which is essentially a length of thin rubber, about 6" wide, which gets tied onto both sides of a roller and periodically adjusted tighter as I groundwork Gracie. It sits much higher than a training aid though - up level, so in a straight line along her body, under her tail and around her hamstrings on her peachy bum, whereas my Pessoa-type of training aid has the sheepskin cover and sits lower, towards her hocks, in that curve.

G definitely lifts her back more and steps under better when I use the band, although it can be a bit fiddly getting the tension right, too loose and it slips down and it can also roll itself up into a "string" if it isn't tied correctly to the roller.
 
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