Help...Winter has come and im not allowed to lunge or long-rein....

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YoungNag22

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Hi All,

Good old winter has reared its ugly head and just as it starts to get hard work my livery yard owners have taken away being able to lunge/long-rein. They are building a lunge pen however are not putting any lights on it so for us full time workers this means we obviously are unable to use it during winter due to the dark evenings (its been built right at the back of a field so is literally pitch black). They have said absolutely no lunging or long-reining in the flood lit main school which is going to make winter even more hard work than normal.

I have had my new ex-racer for about 3 months now and he lunges really well and its a great way of him getting some energy out with a bit of variety to having to be in the school every night with me on his back. I know its not the end of the world but it is a bit of a pain, sadly on top of some issues issues DIY'ers have been facing with the yard owners too recently. He is turned out daily, over winter will be for 2/3 hours if weather is horrible as due to me being at work I pay for the yard owners to catch in and they will always catch them in early if the weather turns.

Anyone have any ideas to help make winter easier without being able to lunge? I could long rein him up and down the yard (partially lit, on hard surface) in walk but not really enough room for any trotting and isn't really idea - just would be something different. Also no other schools particularly close enough to box to in the evenings without it being a late evening.

TIA!! x
 
What a pain! Could you possibly use a couple of portable solar powered or battery (rechargable) powered flood lights? I have a couple of these in my fields which are remote controlled so I can light the way on a pitch black morning/night. I also use a portable rechargable flood light - which I think I got from Screwfix.
 
Lunge in the lunge pen with a head torch! (Once it's built of course)

Ride in the school a couple of times a week and groundwork / in hand the other days

You could still ride in the arena most nights just do a variety of different exercises
 
Not very helpful, but I’m in the same predicament with my yard, so will be interested to read the replies.
I have a 4 year old, I’d do anything to lunge as I believe it would help her weak canter. But we are not allowed at our yard either. Is it common?
 
TotalMadgeness said:
What a pain! Could you possibly use a couple of portable solar powered or battery (rechargable) powered flood lights? I have a couple of these in my fields which are remote controlled so I can light the way on a pitch black morning/night. I also use a portable rechargable flood light - which I think I got from Screwfix.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to say! I've also got a rechargeable light from Screwfix, which is VERY bright.
 
Head torches and my own lights both sound like good ideas! The head torch sounds the better option for me as I would have to put up and take down the other lights every time I wanted to use them. Will definitely give it a go though as I don't want to have to miss out on a new facility to make winter that little bit easier (especially when they will put the prices up because of it!!)
 
I have
Charla said:
Not very helpful, but I’m in the same predicament with my yard, so will be interested to read the replies.
I have a 4 year old, I’d do anything to lunge as I believe it would help her weak canter. But we are not allowed at our yard either. Is it common?
Click to expand...
I have to say I have never come across anyone of a livery yard not able to lunge. I understand why people don't want others lunging on their main arena surfaces, but normally they are catered for in another smaller arena or lunge pen with floodlights? Although may be completely off the mark...
 
I’ve known a few but it’s usually after people taking the pee/lungeing in one spot. I would strongly suggest a sparkly lunge whip though, I always thought I’d remember where I’d put the black one down and frequently lost it! Current one has a sparkly silver thread through it!
 
ester said:
I’ve known a few but it’s usually after people taking the pee/lungeing in one spot. I would strongly suggest a sparkly lunge whip though, I always thought I’d remember where I’d put the black one down and frequently lost it! Current one has a sparkly silver thread through it!
Click to expand...
It is all down to 1 lady "eventer" who has brought her 7 event horses to the yard and apparently "hard lunges" (whatever that may mean) pretty much every day. So she has been built the shiny lunge pen which she can use during the day and the rest of us can't lunge at all over winter now....so its gone down well :rolleyes:
 
not allowed to lunge or long rein at mine either (anyone following my posts should not be surprised!) I have been hiring an arena down the road that don't mind us lunging. Mine both go in a balanced and easy way and we move around the school like I would if i was riding.

I've always been allowed to lunge everywhere else - lunging for work with sensible horses, that is, not whanging round on 2 wheels because they are too crazy to get on ;)
 
I can see a point with lunging if the YO is that precious about their surface but long reining is the same as being ridden surely? I wonder if you are also told not to ride in circles because of the surface? 🙄
 
meleeka said:
I can see a point with lunging if the YO is that precious about their surface but long reining is the same as being ridden surely? I wonder if you are also told not to ride in circles because of the surface? 🙄
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This is exactly what we said! I made sure I differentiated between double lunging and long-reining but they were still having non of it.
 
all sounds very familiar OP.
I get in trouble for doing ridden canterwork on small circles too :rolleyes: it's an advanced horse, we work on canter piris and working piris. She is in balance, not scooting around digging the surface up. Funny enough it's fine to leave jumps up in the same place for days on end, the scuffed take offs and landings don't seem to be a problem.


(I'm a touch bitter at the moment!! o_O)
 
I can understand about the lunging in the Main Arena. Why do thoseof you who wish to lunge and need lights not go together to the YO - perhaps if you offered to share the cost they might put a light up - one floodlight should be plenty.
 
I've seen the damage lunging causes to a surface when someone stands in one spit and spins the horse around them on a 20m ish circle. Esp if the horse is blasting around. One of my old YO called it lazy lunging and used to yell at people to shift their backsides and use the whole school. I now find it very hard to stand in 1 spot!

Anything you could attach battery powered lights to?
 
SEL said:
I've seen the damage lunging causes to a surface when someone stands in one spit and spins the horse around them on a 20m ish circle. Esp if the horse is blasting around. One of my old YO called it lazy lunging and used to yell at people to shift their backsides and use the whole school. I now find it very hard to stand in 1 spot!

Anything you could attach battery powered lights to?
Click to expand...

I banned lunging after one livery decided to let her huge heavy cob gallop around skidding and cutting up what was a fairly new surface, she certainly should have known better, I then gradually relaxed the rule because I needed to lunge at times and once again a livery decided that her cob galloping around in tight circles was hilarious so ban came back in.

I do allow sensible lunging and only have a few liveries now who respect the arena and fully understand any yards that have a blanket ban, the portable lights from Screwfix are really useful and just one would give plenty of light to lunge in the pen.
 
I'm another who lunges and rides in the field in the dark. however, you can buy rechargeable work lights like this one
https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-rec...VCpztCh1j_wDqEAQYAiABEgKI-vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

for not much money. I have one for when I need more light and keep one on the lorry-I also use one for archery practice in the barn which doesn't have lights! they give you 2 or so hours of use and are very lightweight. shadows etc can cause their own problems though-two of these might be a better idea. I can't remember where I got mine from but they were £17 each last year.
 
Having seen some people's idea of lunging I'm not surprised some yard owners opt for a blanket ban. But I'd rather yard owners tackled individuals with problem behaviour in these circumstances than just ban things. I've never cut up an arena surface long lining or even lunging yet have been on yards where it's banned... the people who lunge badly are usually the ones that ignore the rules too.

I think asking for lights in the lunge pen would be a good option for you. Or getting your own or using a head torch.
 
The problem I have found with a head torch when lunging is that generally you are looking right at your horse. Which is lovely for you as he’s all lit up, but not so fun for your horse as your light hits the inside eye constantly, which messes with their night vision I think. So I would either set down a battery light that is set at an angle to light the ground of the pen, or I would lunge in the pitch black (which is what I do). Because my horse is black and lunge line is dark, I’m often spinning in circles seeing nothing! I do sometimes worry about the lunge line in the dark as he likes to really stretch down so I taught him to loose lunge around me without a line attached so we don’t accidentally get caught up. Much easier and I can still move him in and out and work through all transitions including rein back.

All these stories make me realise how spoiled I am to be on my own place!
 
I can see both sides, crazy lunging ruins a nice surface and then takes the ym/yo a lot of effort to maintain. However if your horse only gets 2 / 3 hours turnout per day for long stretches of time, the end result would probably be a few minutes of crazy lunging for most horses to just expand some energy.

If it was me and i was able to, unless you have a very young horse, i would probably ride every day during the week in the school, and lunge/hack at weekends. Vary with things like poles and crosspoles. (unless you can make the headtorch/lunge thing work, i know i wouldn't enjoy walking down a field in the dark!)
 
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