Fittening driving pony - advice, please

[Smogul]

After several months of intermittent lameness, pony has been diagnosed as laminitic. Shoes go on next week then she can go back in carriage, walk only for 4 weeks. I have always started horses under saddle so they had a basic fitness before putting them in carriage so am not sure how to start. The school we will be using is slightly deep and she is driven to a two-wheeler. I don't want to add muscle/ligament damage to her problems. I can't take her out on the road as she needs to stay on soft surface, it will be dark, and we face major hills as soon as we leave the yard! Would you spend a couple of weeks longreining before putting to or start straight in with five minutes driving and build up slowly.
Advice appreciated.

 

[curio]

lots of long reining and a bit of lunging first
and maybe see if the school cant be rolled to firm it up a bit

 

[Jay89]

[ QUOTE ]
lots of long reining and a bit of lunging first
and maybe see if the school cant be rolled to firm it up a bit

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto.

Long reining is such good practice for a horse, my horse in my sig was driven before being ridden snd my Dad put hours and hours of long reining into him, and I think that is part of the reason he is such a good horse today as the amount of groundwork my dad put in.

 

[HumBugsey]

Yep, long rein! Anything that can be done undersaddle can be done on the long reins so go for it.

 

[Smogul]

Thanks for that, will start with the longreining and leave lungeing until she is a bit fitter as she tends to be a bit exuberant on the lunge line.

 

[Donkeymad]

Deffo longreining, will get you fitter at the same time!!