Lunging before riding

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Nicki85

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The mare I ride is fairly sharp and quite spooky. This has increased over the last month or so as we have no winter TO apart from a small sand area. I ride her 3-4 times a week and her owner covers the rest.

I have found that lunging for however long she needs (till she calms down...) and then riding for half and hour to an hour is the best way to manage her. She is OK if I do not lunge but is very spooky and we can spend most of the time going from one end of the arena to the other at speed... If I lunge her first she is a lot more settled and works in much nicer.

Only problem is that she is a loon on the lunge, bucks, plunges and rears... Normally goes from a walk to a canter in the first 30secs of lunging. She is always listening though and will stop when asked, never pulls away etc. I then lunge her till she calms down and is working nicley up and down transitions by voice and starting to stretch. Can take anywhere from 10mins to 45mins.

I do worry that her immediate outbursts on the lunge could cause her some sort of injury as she doesn't warm up before racing off into a canter. It's just pure excitment and lack of TO causing it so I can't blame her!

Can anyone see any problems with lunging her first like this and anyway to calm her down and make her walk round?

Just to add- she is 16.3 ISH chestnut mare, fed 3/4 scoop of nuts and alfa a twice a day and unlimited soaked hay. She goes in the sand padock for 2-3hrs most days and will go on the horse walker to.
 
Hmm actually thats an idea. The other problem is that you clip the lunge on and she gets excited... But I could lead her round by the bridle a couple of times then clip on the lunge. That might work!
 
Nicki85 said:
Hmm actually thats an idea. The other problem is that you clip the lunge on and she gets excited... But I could lead her round by the bridle a couple of times then clip on the lunge. That might work!
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Perhaps you can teach your horse to walk, halt, walk on a very small circle around you, still on the lunge but you are in a position to stop any madness promptly. If you can really establish this exercise well with your horse, it will keep her focus switched on you and having to be obedient, not belting around wildly! Be patient, and really insist that she stands on the little circle, and doesn't fidget or turn in, or move off before you have requested it. Once this is going well, you can progress into trot, but again, if she is likely to be wild I would keep her on a small circle so you are able to dictate pace. Scary how fast they can go on a big circle and amazing how they tend to wind themselves up even more if they trip or stumble! Good luck!
 
id also consider how fit she may currently be, sounds like she actully does a fair amount.

what about long reining?

if your worried about her going zooming about, yes id lead about or pop her on the horse walker for 5 mins on each rein to get her lossend up.
 
Hey Nicki

I have to say that the vision of your mare being a "loon on the lunge" brought a smile to my face as this was exactly what my old boy (now sadly gone) used to do - every day, no matter what!

I think you're being very sensible by lunging her first - far better to let her get her natural displays of exhuberance / joie de vivre out of her system before you get on her!

Whilst the other suggestions of walking her around etc certainly have merit (and may indeed work for your girl) I wouldn't be too worried if they don't - my lad would follow me around like a dog before going into the school, albeit an animated one but he did seem to think it was his god given right to have a buck and a plunge before engaging in some proper work! I would have been concerned if he didn't do it!

Realistically, when a horse takes off at a hundred miles an hour, bucking and plunging when we turn them out, we tend not to give it a second thought (though I do watch them until they settle) and if they're going to do it in the school, I'd far rather they were a good 20 to 30 feet away than right next to me.

Don't worry about your mare - she sounds like a lot of fun!
 
I got in the habit of horsewalker-ing (don't like them but not my choice of yard w limited winter T/O) while mucking out and then free schooling before any lunging or riding last year.

Always allowed the boy a little rugless roll and a mooch around before starting the free-schooling. 5min well-spent for that particular Arabian :-)
 
She sounds like my boy. I was also worried about him pulling cold ligaments and muscles by being an idiot straight away on the lunge, and he could be lethal to ride when he was fresh. Throughout the winter I rarely got straight on him from the stable!

I got into the habbit of putting him onto the horsewalker, whilst I mucked out his stable before riding. This worked very well for us. 20 mins of horsewalker, then quickly tack up and go. This seemed to help a great deal with his manners and pea brained antics.

If I thought he seemed particularly wild on a certain day, I sometimes lunged after the horsewalker, and then I didn't have to worry about warm up.
 
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