How long should I lunge a horse for ?

It's better to long rein in my opinion, lunging can be quite hard on their joints and in my experience most horses find it quite tedious.
 
Depends on what you want to achieve really. I dont generally lunge my mare for more than half an hour and that includes walk on both reins as a warm up/cool down for 5 mins both times. I lunge my mare to improve her fitness, transitions and general suppleness.

Depends on your horse and his fitness etc but you could probably lunge your 5 year old for about 20 minutes a session 2 times a week if need be.
 
team barney said:
It's better to long rein in my opinion, lunging can be quite hard on their joints and in my experience most horses find it quite tedious.
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Not really answering the question that the op was asking though is it?

OP I generally would agree with Tic Tac but I would also say since your youngster is totally new to this, don't go straight in there with lunging for that amount of time, I would do a maximum of 5 mins on both reins to begin with, and work up from there, you will need to get him used to working in that fashion and settled and increase the time that you lunge for gradually, that way you run far less risk any strain injury. I would also make sure you lunge him on a really long line, again, this will create less stress on the joints while he is building his strength and ability on the lunge.
 
Start with 5 mins on each rein and build it from there personally i never lunge longer than 20 mins regardless to fitness but thats just me x
 
lunging when done correctly with warm up and wind down and horse working with transitions etc half hour at most ie 15 mins both rein- keep it inviting by varying pace using your voice to encourage and calm - i dont carry a whip with lass but with my body i calm her encourage her and keep her out - used right the lunge is brilliant but too many people see lunging as a horse whizzing round out controll grrrrrr and i prefer to lunge in just cavesson/bridle no side reins etc to allow horse to balance self ( prob sounds daft but i know what mean lol) not proped up with straps and bits like said lunge is not only a good form of exercise ( remeber that half hour on lunge is like hour schooling) but also a way to bond and learn with horse :)
 
I lunge our younger horses for 15mins at a time. They don't need any more than that - especially if I use side reins or a pessoa for part of that as it makes them work a bit harder. I make sure to change the rein regularly and do LOTS of transitions to keep them interested. Any more than 15mins and the youngsters switch off!

Lunging is a great way to get younger horses more responsive to voice commands, and when they respond well to the voice it can help tremendously with ridden work.
 
Thanks all. 15-20 mins is around what I've been doing, half with side reins, half without, so sounds like I'm on the right track.
 
I don't like side reins, they "fix" the position of the head, and especially with a young horse he wants to be "asking " to come on the bit not "forced"
In early stages of training they are still learning to balance, I think side-reins would hinder balance, in later stages they should be carrying them selves in "self-carriage" so don't need them then.
Totally against them when I bought a lovely Section D who had almost an "angle" on her neck [obviously from side reins], after a long rest [cue foal] she turned out to have the most perfect natural carriage.
 
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