Loose Schooling

[Alchemy]

Does anyone else prefer this to lunging or am I just lazy!!!

my boy goes far better loose schooled then when I stick him on the lunge and does some lovely extended work when i push him on( done with my voice never with a whip) has a lovely head carriage in the trot and when I let him canter on after an initial buck goes round nicely

but I'm the only one out of 25 liveries that ever does this, I know it's not suitable for every horse or people who aren't sure what to do

thoughts ?

 

[Wheels]

I don't think I prefer it to lunging, both definitely have their uses but I have generally used it instead of lunging this last year with my 4 yr old as I wanted him to be able to use the entire school in trot and especially canter but I can't run fast enough to keep him on the lunge.

I taught him voice commands first on the lunge and he is expected to do transitions while loose schooling the same way he does on the lunge, it isn't just a hooley about although if he feels like it from time to time I don't mind so long as once he's done expressing himself he comes back to do some work.

We will be doing more lunging next year but I imagine will continue with the odd loose schooling session.

 

[asommerville]

I did a lot of this with my boy when he was 3 and 4 I hate lunging!! It was really good for teaching him the voice commands which transferred to ridden work, he was a wee smarty pants though would go round as if he was on the lunge even though the school was 100m long if he did get a bit over excited it meant I didn't need to worry about lunge ropes swinging about and he generally got over himself quite quickly