Longlining, lunging, one line work or liberty....?

[Elaine]

Longlining, lunging, one line work or liberty (nothing on horses head, horse loose in area)....?

Just wondering what you do, do you do any of them or maybe a few of them for different reasons? Which do you like?

Traditionally Dad would always have longlined a youngster before riding, though I started Oz without any longlining (taught him same stuff just on the one line). I did liberty stuff too with him and then just today put on the longlines for the first time.

1. to try them and get him used to something else
2. to work on ridden softess and getting him to understand the bit and soften his jaw. (I could have done it ridden as well but just wanted to try it here)

What do you do / use and why?

Just curious!

[armargos]

My Jacko has only started training in the last week and so far he is being long-lined and lunged and I have to say I think he is doing really well so far

I guess you could say I will be doing some 'liberty' work with Echo tomorrow when I try to catch him as I will have to tape off three quarters of the field and patiently sit in the middle with him running around me until he realises that I have no intention of chasing him down and that if he wants me to move him to another field he will have to trust me and take a chance. Whilst sitting in the middle I just continually send out calm energy / signals


Sheena

[galskap]

Hello

Interesting subject

I like my horses to know about lungeing, meaning I can send them around me on a long rope, and turn them and send them the other way. I generally never "lunge" in the traditional sense of the word where the horses go circle after circle, as I don't really see the sense in that. I believe there are better way of building muscles, and more interesting and interactive ways of teaching your horse things...

What I do like to do is "drive" the horse from behind, not with long reins at first (later) but just with one long lead rope (5 m+). I like to get the horse good at turning both to the inside (the side where the lead rope is) and to the outside (away from the lead rope), without any pulling, or me having to pull.

I do freedom work as well, especially i the beginning or with a horse that is shy.
Any time I find that I have gone into demanding patterns of pushiness around a horse I do some liberty training... it's a good checkup tool!

Anya

[Elaine]

I've seen longlining work very well too for overbent horses and also horse who throw head up in the air as evasion too. Tom W uses it a fair bit. Also its works well for horses who lean if you do the 'hands like a wooden post' exercise.

[Elaine]

Have karmaed you armargos & galskap

[koshka6]

armargosI generally never "lunge" in the traditional sense of the word where the horses go circle after circle

I never "lunge" in the traditional way too.
When I read the article "Lunging for Respect" by Clinton Anderson I was surprised.

That's what he writes:
"The Horse's Actions: Lunge around his handler; stop and pivot on his hindquarters with a roll-back; remain soft and supple on the halter and lead rope."

And we do the same.

[lisamac]

Lunging is essentially circling but in traditional 'lunging' people nag the horse to trot on using their voice and the whip and clicking, taking away their job which is to move when you ask and keep the pace. When I was younger I went through the whole BHS thing to get work in the industry and for the exams you have to tell the horse to trot on 3-4 times in every circle! Madness!
Circling is a great way to gain fitness on a horse and to soften them in the circle as long as you are aware of their attention and not boring them to death.
Funny we were taking new green horses out on the roads today and discussing the benefits of long lining them first(which we did not do) I think doing it off the halter would really benefit them so they would experience going forward on their own, passing scary horse eating objects and cars (which have also been known to eat a whole horse for supper)
Great if you don't have a true blue bomb proof horse to help the greenies