Lunging how bad is it for horses

[SO1]

I try and avoid lunging where possible as I have heard it is really bad for horses and their joints.

However every winter it gets cold and I feel tired and a bit lazy and think about perhaps doing more lunging as it is so much quicker no need to get changed after work, or unlock tack room and then relock it, no need to tack up as pony lunges in a headcollar, it probably saves at least half an hour in all to lunge rather than ride and I don't get to the yard till 7pm after work. I have to keep up the exercise with my pony to control his weight even in the winter. Summer routine involves 3 x ridden schooling and 2 x hacking.

Winter routine could be 2 x ridden schooling, 1 x lunging over poles and 2 x hacking. By schooling I don't mean lots of small circles or demanding work I really just mean riding around in the school for exercise such as trotting and cantering round the edge with a couple of 20 meter circles or shallow loops in between.

Lunging is done in his head collar mainly in walk and trot plus trotting over a few poles, no gadgets and I warm up and cool down by walking him round the school. Pony is 17 and I don't want to do anything to endanger him, I have had him for 12 years and he has not had a hard life with lots of strain on his legs. The exercise he does is mainly aimed at weight control that than being competition fit or anything like that.

So what is the current thinking on lunging and does it really use up more energy than riding and how damaging for the joints?

 

[BMWKIPP]

I lunge on a regular basis, my mare is 11yo and cold backed. she has been lunged regularly ever since she started ridden work age 5 and it's done no damage at all to her joints. By regularly I mean 2 or 3 times a week

 

[Tiddlypom]

How big is your arena? There’s no need to religiously stick to circles when lunging. I keep my creaky mare ticking over by giving her 30 mins ‘lunging’ in my 40m by 20m arena on non ridden days, but my lunging is mostly in walk around the perimeter track with a couple of circuits of trot, interspersed with pole work. Change of rein every 5 mins. It’s not stressful for her, but it keeps her loosened up.

Sometimes she wears her bridle and saddle, sometimes just a head collar, sometimes a roller and her equicore.

 

[Goldenstar]

Lunging is only bad for horses if it’s done badly or far two much .
I would far rather lunge a horse than have it on a walker .

 

[SO1]

Arena is 20 x 60 and your horse looks like a larger version of my pony even in colouring.

 

[ycbm]

There is a very interesting report on a pretty big research project into the biomechanics of lunging which you can pick up as a PDF file from scienceofmotion.com by googling horse lunging joint research

It finishes with a paragraph that begins

I would not advise anyone to lunge their horse unless it is necessary for their safety.

I don't believe that it's safe unless you are extremely fit and can stay with the horse on a lot of straight lines in a very big area, and possibly not even then. I'm not fit enough to do it safely, so I don't do it at all unless there is absolutely no alternative.

 

[BMWKIPP]

Clearly none of you have seen that on a fit well kept horse/pony it does no damage when done properly on a good surface. Winifred will be kept in the routine she is in as it works for her.

 

[Summit]

I’ve never liked lunging....just feel it’s an unnecessary strain on the joints and not natural... that’s my opinion

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I try and avoid lunging where possible as I have heard it is really bad for horses and their joints.

However every winter it gets cold and I feel tired and a bit lazy and think about perhaps doing more lunging as it is so much quicker no need to get changed after work, or unlock tack room and then relock it, no need to tack up as pony lunges in a headcollar, it probably saves at least half an hour in all to lunge rather than ride and I don't get to the yard till 7pm after work. I have to keep up the exercise with my pony to control his weight even in the winter. Summer routine involves 3 x ridden schooling and 2 x hacking.

Winter routine could be 2 x ridden schooling, 1 x lunging over poles and 2 x hacking. By schooling I don't mean lots of small circles or demanding work I really just mean riding around in the school for exercise such as trotting and cantering round the edge with a couple of 20 meter circles or shallow loops in between.

Lunging is done in his head collar mainly in walk and trot plus trotting over a few poles, no gadgets and I warm up and cool down by walking him round the school. Pony is 17 and I don't want to do anything to endanger him, I have had him for 12 years and he has not had a hard life with lots of strain on his legs. The exercise he does is mainly aimed at weight control that than being competition fit or anything like that.

So what is the current thinking on lunging and does it really use up more energy than riding and how damaging for the joints?

I lunge weekly, and always in a cavason, roller, pessoa or side reins. Never did my horses any harm.

 

[Summit]

Clearly none of you have seen that on a fit well kept horse/pony it does no damage when done properly on a good surface. Winifred will be kept in the routine she is in as it works for her.

how do you know there is no damage? Might not show now ....

 

[Jinx94]

It depends on how you do it, I agree with most of the above.

My 5 year old is now on winter turn out, the yard routine is alternate days out. On the days that he is kept in he will be worked on a lunge line in the school before I go to work and then ridden later in the afternoon. The work will be varied, but I'd rather lunge him than put him on the walker.

 

[Goldenstar]

What the difference between lunging and riding in a school ?
Lunging does need to be done stuck on a small circle .
If you will circle a horse lugging you on top why is it wrong to it with the horse unburdened .

 

[ycbm]

Clearly none of you have seen that on a fit well kept horse/pony it does no damage when done properly on a good surface. Winifred will be kept in the routine she is in as it works for her.

Unless you have x-ray eyes, you haven't seen it either!


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[ycbm]

What the difference between lunging and riding in a school ?
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The lean, according to the research i pointed to. Average 67degrees. Creates horrendous stresses in the joints.

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[BMWKIPP]

how do you know there is no damage? Might not show now ....

Because she had various scans done earlier in the year due to a completely unrelated issue. Turned out she had pinched a nerve.

 

[BMWKIPP]

Unless you have x-ray eyes, you haven't seen it either!


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She has had various x-rays and scans done this year and has no joint damage what do ever. He issue was coming from a pinched nerve

 

[dree]

Why don't you try something like this? Wouldn't take long....the horse is learning and so are you. You can do it on a longer line if you think the circles would be too tight.

 

[Tonto_]

I'm going to start lunging weekly for no more than 20 minutes to try and introduce some canter work and teach him to balance himself before I try to canter him ridden (the last and first time he was so unbalanced he almost fell over) but he much fitter now

 

[dree]

I lunge weekly, and always in a cavason, roller, pessoa or side reins. Never did my horses any harm.

Why side-reins? This is the sort of thing that damages horses when lungeing.....controlling the head and neck unnaturally. Don't get me wrong, I used to use side-reins 40 years ago, but I wouldn't use them now.

 

[dree]

The lean, according to the research i pointed to. Average 67degrees. Creates horrendous stresses in the joints.

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But you can "lunge" without a line. And learn lots from your horse and teach it lots. You are gauranteed to learn more.

 

[Lois Lame]

At 12.20, the fellow rests the rope on his own shoulder

 

[dree]

Yep. But there's actually a lot of info on that video. The subtlety of movement to which a horse will respond (or not) depending on your relationship. But if it's not for you, it's not for you. Personally, I like the nuances between Rick and Mr. T......I wish I'd done this years ago.

 

[gunnergundog]

The lean, according to the research i pointed to. Average 67degrees. Creates horrendous stresses in the joints.

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Sorry to be a pain, I googled as you suggested but there were many many results and there wasn't an obvious one. No time at the moment to open each and every one and check the last paragraph.....so, I am guessing here, that the 67 degrees lean is due to the fact that the horse isn't in vertical balance. If that is the case, then the lunging isn't being done correctly and then, yes, it will cause damage.

If the horse is in balance, relaxed and moved around the arena in different shapes then I don't have a problem with lunging.

 

[Flicker]

I personally prefer long reining, but I will lunge if I have a large enough area to get as much straight line work as possible.
My current (broken) horse needed lunging before hacking when I first got her, otherwise she was just spooky, silly and joggy and didn’t get the benefit from the long and low road work. Although I now wonder if her behaviour was just because she was bloody sore...

 

[Flicker]

Oh, and my health tracker recorded that I walk about 3.5 miles when I long rein, so definitely a good one if you’re trying to get your steps in and want a bit of free exercise!

 

[ycbm]

The lunging at the time was being done by the experts who had assured him that no damage was being done to their horses and they were bending correctly. I have found other stuff that suggests this guy is a bit of a pseudoscientist, though.

Scienceofmotion.com put lunging in the search bar Article 7 The side effects of lunging.

I don't like lunging at more than walk unless you can do a lot of straight lines in big spaces and I'm not fit enough to do that, personally. Most people I see lungng are doing at most a fifteen metre circle and thinking 20 or thirty minutes of that is a good substitute for ridden exercise. The best I see are doing three circles up and down a 40 or 60 X 20m arena and believing that they aren't doing endless circles.



.

 

[gunnergundog]

Thanks.....have found it! However, not prepared to pay 35$ to purchase - especially when the one picture shown proves to me that they are indeed talking about the lack of vertical balance, so not being lunged correctly.

 

[Micky]

I think the biggest problem is most people think they can lunge a horse but actually can’t do it properly..and end up using all kinds of gadgets to help, it is a fine art to position yourself and have the horse relaxed, listening to you and carry themselves correctly without any lean..I’m not suggesting op can’t lunge..just saying..

 

[ycbm]

Thanks.....have found it! However, not prepared to pay 35$ to purchase - especially when the one picture shown proves to me that they are indeed talking about the lack of vertical balance, so not being lunged correctly.

Of course it's talking about verticle balance, that's what does the damage, uneven joint loading.

It doesn't cost $35 I read it for free by doing what I said in post 6

Put the four words horse lunging joint research into the Google bar and the first item in the list is a pointer to the PDF which downloads free.

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[Goldenstar]

Why side-reins? This is the sort of thing that damages horses when lungeing.....controlling the head and neck unnaturally. Don't get me wrong, I used to use side-reins 40 years ago, but I wouldn't use them now.

correctly used side reins can really help horses .
I use them a lot when I start training in walk extremely long and very low .
If more horses where started like this you would see far fewer horses unable to work with the nose in front of the vertical with weakness in the area behind the poll .

 

[milliepops]

I have my doubts about the science in science of motion. It's been discussed on here before, I think he has some interesting things to say and some total dross

Hilary Clayton seems to have found a different average body angle (lean of 10% according to this article https://thehorse.com/111601/safe-longeing-for-horse-health/ ) the abstract is here https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/ajvr.73.12.1890 but I can't access the full text.

Anyway, I do lunge mine a bit, almost always on 2 reins because I find I have more control and ability to move them around, sessions are short (20 mins max) circles are big and I do it to either give an easy stretchy day without being ridden, or to watch the way they are moving.
I hadn't lunged my TB for a few months so had a short session last week and it was interesting to see how his way of going had developed, in aspects I can't see from on board. I think if you are careful then it's a useful exercise.

Used like this I can't see that it is any more damaging than a fairly circle-heavy schooling session. I tend not to ride a lot of circles and would certainly bear this in mind if I was planning to lunge on a regular basis.