Western Riders?! Lungeing?

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BlueFire710

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Hi there,

If there are any western riders out there i have been asked for advice about lungeing a western horse (very much a youngster) to help improve his balance etc. However, although i would say i'm an experienced enough lunger i have no knowledge about lungeing with western horses and don't want to give wrong advice!

Is it something you would do with him and if so what gaits and how - is there anything that should be different to lungeing an English horse?

Thanks so much! :)
 
I know nothing about western riding whatsoever. A woman on our yard rides "western" (she has a western saddle and bridle which is bitless) and seems to lunge more than ride, all done at a canter and seemingly out of control. She does this for 20 mins on one rein then 20 mins on the other. Whether this is the correct method of "western" lunging or not I cant say but I wont be trying "western" any time soon.!
I believe there are a few good western centres around, maybe you could try one of those for advice.
 
I just lunged the normal way to be honest, focus on voice commands and using lunging sessons to improve the pony's response to them
 
Its very much used for the same purpose as in English riding, there is a class for it for youngsters and the judges are looking for the horses future potential as a western horse so responsiveness to commands suppleness, self carriage and correct paces at walk trot and canter (jog and lope). The line should not be tight and the circle should be round and even. TBH most western horses are started in 50ft round pens which is much better for them.
 
Hi - a lot of western horses are worked in round pens, which are really common in the US, and most of the good western training facilities in the UK will have one, so you tend to find that round penning is generally used more than lunging.
That said, lunging is very useful when training the western horse, and the basics are more or less the same.
There is one big difference though. Because the western horse is asked to take a lot of responsibility when being ridden (for example, we ask for the gait and speed then the horse continues until cued otherwise) and we don't micro manage, we need to set that up on the lunge also. So if we ask our horse to lope on the lunge, for instance, once he is loping we don't continually talk to him, and give him layers of instruction, something I have noticed that a lot of English riders tend to do. The idea is that you cue the command, the horse does what he is asked, and you don't have to keep asking while he is doing what you have asked him to do. If you can instil this in the young horse, that will carry over when he is being ridden.
The other thing you need to be aware of is to try to replicate the voice commands that will be used when he is under saddle. Generally most people use 'walk on', with a cluck sound for trot/jog and a kiss sound for canter/lope. To stop is 'whoa', and you should aim to have him stop from a lope in a stride, pick up the lope from walk, and generally do everything you'd expect him to do under saddle.
If you lunge from a rope halter you can turn him on the move (we rarely use cavessons etc) toward you (in a round pen we usually would want the horse to turn in when changing direction, rather than outwards, as it's more respectful to have their head toward you, rather than their back end!)
Hope this is of some help.....!
 
fluffalina said:
Hi - a lot of western horses are worked in round pens, which are really common in the US, and most of the good western training facilities in the UK will have one, so you tend to find that round penning is generally used more than lunging.
That said, lunging is very useful when training the western horse, and the basics are more or less the same.
There is one big difference though. Because the western horse is asked to take a lot of responsibility when being ridden (for example, we ask for the gait and speed theni the horse continues until cued otherwise) and we don't micro manage, we need to set that up on the lunge also. So if we ask our horse to lope on the lunge, for instance, once he is loping we don't continually talk to him, and give him layers of instruction, something I have noticed that a lot of English riders tend to do. The idea is that you cue the command, the horse does what he is asked, and you don't have to keep asking while he is doing what you have asked him to do. If you can instil this in the young horse, that will carry over when he is being ridden.
The other thing you need to be aware of is to try to replicate the voice commands that will be used when he is under saddle. Generally most people use 'walk on', with a cluck sound for trot/jog and a kiss sound for canter/lope. To stop is 'whoa', and you should aim to have him stop from a lope in a stride, pick up the lope from walk, and generally do everything you'd expect him to do under saddle.
If you lunge from a rope halter you can turn him on the move (we rarely use cavessons etc) toward you (in a round pen we usually would want the horse to turn in when changing direction, rather than outwards, as it's more respectful to have their head toward you, rather than their back end!)
Hope this is of some help.....!
Click to expand...

spot on.
 
fluffalina said:
There is one big difference though. Because the western horse is asked to take a lot of responsibility when being ridden (for example, we ask for the gait and speed then the horse continues until cued otherwise) and we don't micro manage, we need to set that up on the lunge also. So if we ask our horse to lope on the lunge, for instance, once he is loping we don't continually talk to him, and give him layers of instruction, something I have noticed that a lot of English riders tend to do. The idea is that you cue the command, the horse does what he is asked, and you don't have to keep asking while he is doing what you have asked him to do. If you can instil this in the young horse, that will carry over when he is being ridden.
Click to expand...

One of the things I like most about western trained ponies, and the reason I trained mine western. She loved it :D
 
Defo worth having a groundwork lesson, and as you're in Warwickshire you could take the horse to Shane's and work in his round pen.

My (grown up) QH mare will lunge with or without a rein in the round pen and walk, jog, trot, lope and stop from voice commands. The horse's ability to do this means you can ride a youngster in a halter if you want to etc and don't rely on the bridle for control.

We do lunge or roundpen to teach a horse new things, including yielding to a contact etc, and we'll often roundpen a fresh horse to ensure we have his concentration when we're riding.

But it is not a substitute for riding!
 
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