Lunging - a bad rein

When you own a pony or a horse or have had some part of taking care of them there are moments when you think of them and you swell with pride. They may not have done anything special, they may in fact have been a right pain, but you love them, which is why you put in the time and effort with them. When you get one of those moments, when you think how lovely they are, everything else is worth it.

BG has not been perfect this week, horses and ponies barely ever are, but we have been doing plenty with her in the evenings.

She did eventually eat her wormer with a lot of persuasion and her turning her nose up at the smell of it.

I think the spring grass must be coming through (belatedly) now we have had some rain. She will happily meander down the field to come in for her breakfast but asking her to come in for her tea is an effort. The grass must be yummy, and the meagre handful of Happy Hoof not enough of an incentive to risk having to do some sort of work for. Once she has had her tea and the evening hay nets go up (there still isn’t that much grass) you would think the three ponies were starving the way their eyes light up! I guess the hay net doesn’t carry the risk of work.

BG has been lunged twice this week. When she first came to live with me she wouldn’t lunge. She wanted to be stuck by your side not out at a distance on her own. I didn’t want to use a whip to push her out on the circle due to her fears, but we did eventually get there … on the left rein. The right rein was even more of a challenge! After all, you generally don’t lead horses on their right so BG, being the lovely pony she is who aims to please, helpfully tried to ensure she was always on the correct side of me at all times.

I was shown how to get her to turn around me whilst I always ensured I stayed at her shoulder to stop her turning right round. I was told she would eventually move out on that rein and stop hugging so closely to me. No, BG thought she would be a ballerina and turn on as tight a circle as she could every time so she didn’t have to leave my side.

Eventually I decided to play on her fear of strange objects and borrowed some poles and tyres. I laid these out in a big circle and led her around them with me on the inside. She learnt she had to walk around the outside of the obstacles, meanwhile I could move more to the centre of the circle and establish the distance. This was the way I taught BG to lunge on the right rein as the method I was told she didn’t respond fully to. I guess with horses you find the method that works for your horse. Read books for ideas but always bear in mind your horse is an individual and not a text-book horse, they might need something a little different.

Unfortunately, with a little bit of wind BG decided turning round on the right rein to face the other way is the way to behave again. Luckily she had a key spot on the circle where she does this, so pushing her out on the rest of the circle and then making her trot past the spot so she doesn’t have time to think about it seemed to do the trick. After a few trots past she would begin to happily walk past it again.

Lets hope she has got over the silly idea of turning round again and we will be back to the stage where I struggle to remember which rein it was she wouldn’t lunge on, as she did become perfect on both.