My horse has 24hour turnout so have never needed it. However, our ring has brand new footing, so even if the fence around the ring wasn’t down I highly doubt it would be allowed for many a year yet 
When I boarded, the big arena could be used for run and buck if no one was using it. The round pen was also available. I would let my spooky boys loose to get the sillies out before I rode. After some good runs and a good blow, they would be more than willing to come to me and start work.
Right now mine are at home, 2 on about 6 acres. They are out almost 24/7, so pent up energy isn’t really the issue. MY issue is this: WHY do they want to run the most after its rained? They slide, leaving great divots in my hard-won grass. And the other day, the 14 hh Pone slipped and rolled, like the big round ball he is. Lucky he didn’t spread his front legs and injure that shoulder nerve.
Its fun to watch them out in the pasture. The 17+hh OTTB casually loping along, the fat Pone with ears flat and legs churning, not about to be beat. (He’s the Boss).:lol:
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I will do something that could be mistaken for free lunging when mine has decided that coming when called is optional… He is turned out full time, so generally by the second lap he is willing to repent if only I stop making him work so hard.
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GoodTimes raises a good point. If you are comfortable with your horse running and slamming on the brakes in mud/snow/wet grass, etc., doing the same in an arena is probably safer than doing it in mud/wet grass etc.
However, if you board at a barn where the conditions are more controlled, i.e. sacrifice paddocks are used during inclement conditions, or the staff bring the horses in if they start running, then you may have a different perspective.
We used to free lunge certain horses; the ones that were calm and used the free lunging time to gently canter around the arena and use up some energy. However, one day, after a quiet gelding bucked, played and then decided to take a racing gallop around the ring, misjudged a corner and wiped out, the decision was made for good. No more free lunging for us. It isn’t worth the risk of injury.
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This is how my PRE is. I never taught him this, but he is VERY responsive to voice commands and body language. He never really acts silly in the indoor free lunging. I’ve even tried to get him a bit fired up but all I get is a head movement and a front hoof fling in the canter. However, I have seen shenanigans in his field when he decides he is done being out. This time of year he has no desire for 24/7 turnout.
Actually, my WB is the same way. Maybe I have weirdos, but we do a decent amount of groundwork.
I free lunge him if we have been doing a lot of consistent structured work already that week and he just needs some movement to loosen up. He is still getting exercise, but it is not hard work. Which is good for him sometimes. Otherwise I long-line. I am not a huge fan of regular lunging or going around in circles endlessly. We have an exercise walker but I prefer to put him on the treadmill with a very slight incline instead. I think that walking straight lines is better than circles. Especially for strengthening his stifle that was once weak (hasn’t caused any problems but I’m paranoid).
Other boarders let their horses run around in that indoor, but pretty much all of the injuries we have had here have been in the pasture or other times when no one was looking. We have curtains to cover up the mirrors as well because horse can and will run through those (not often, but it has happened at other places).
I have used free longeing for both flat work, and trot fences. I found it an excellent way to help build condition, and to allow a horse figure out fences without a rider. I use the same field to also ride.
Of course these are horses that have already been well educated on the longe.
This may have some bearing on the question: It was a very hard winter and icy outside, so a top trainer here let her good GP mare loose in the arena - she galloped, slid in a corner and broke a leg. Destroyed. Not worth the risk IMO.
A quiet horse, one that has the chance for turnout, maybe…but caution.
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I have a very hot horse and live in Southern CA where there is no turnout. You bet your butt I turn him out in the ring. I just use the whip handle to guide him and keep him from sliding to a stop in the corners (which he still does sometimes).
But it’s either have a horse that’s too nuts to ride or nice, calm rides and taking this calculated risk. We did have one horse at the barn break its leg while turned out in the ring and had to be put down. My guy is very used to doing it and catty on his feet so I know the risks, but pretty much have to take them.
I agree that the longeline on a circle is worse for bucking and he tends to not get the bucks/runs out circling anyway. Haven’t noticed any problems riding in the same ring where we turn out; in fact, he’s the most lazy being ridden there.
I do most of my lunge work free and in a round pen.But it is constructive work, like transitions, Pessoa rig work ect… No chasing and running. If I let them loose in an indoor arena to play, it is just that. Play- to get the yayas out after a weather change, or a day in from bad weather. I like the keep the two concepts separate.
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This. I make a clear distinction between “free lunging” and “getting the spooks out.” Free lunging is something that is done for training purposes in a confined space. If I lunge the mule, it’s almost always without a lunge line in an 80’ x 80’ square pen. We work on transitions and general obedience.
“Getting the spooks out,” i.e. encouraging your horse to blow off steam in the arena, has absolutely nothing to do with lunging as I define it.
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And as I define it as well.
Originally posted by OneTwoMany:
However, if you board at a barn where the conditions are more controlled, i.e. sacrifice paddocks are used during inclement conditions, or the staff bring the horses in if they start running, then you may have a different perspective.
Why on earth would staff bring in horses just because they start running? And how would they catch them to bring them in?
Serious questions; this idea makes no sense to me.
Actually i think an indoor arena might be a bit more dangerous to run in than an outdoor one. We aren’t allowed to let horses loose in the indoor but every once in a while a horse does get loose and they do have a tendency to wipe out when they hit the wall which never happens outside.
I think it’s because the bottom boards of an indoor are canted in slightly so that the rider doesn’t whack their knee. Also in many indoors the footing banks up against the wall. So the horse might visually judge where the wall is but their feet hit resistance and they trip. Lots of indoors also have a gully worn along the rail if they aren’t harrowed correctly and often.
Of course at my barn our horses don’t get to learn the configuration of the indoor because the only time they ever run in it, is super panic emergency when they got loose lomgeing or threw the rider off.
In our outdoor turnout arena there is no gully as people rarely ride there. Also if the horse gets too close to the fence, his head can go over it and his toes under it and he keeps his balance. Of course you don’t want the horse to wipe out and slide into the fence! But they don’t slam into a wall in the same way.
This might also be an argument against solid wall round pens which I’ve never used.
On the other hand my friend with her own place lets horses loose in her indoor and they have adapted fine. She had slightly sloped bottom walls but her footing isn’t banked up and no gully.
I do think with hotter horses you can have problems if they never get turnout and then one day in midwinter you let them loose in an indoor and they go berserk. They have forgotten how to run and balance at liberty. It is a bit of a skill, and a horse that hasn’t been able to run full out without a rider on its back for a year or two might not use the opportunity in the safest way. Which is why I think they should get run n buck playtime as often as they need to. They do get cattier and better balanced and smarter about the footing in their play space if it’s a regular thing.
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I like to free longe on those very cold days when my normally calm horse has morphed into a fire breathing dragon. I love watching him prance around snorting like a proud stallion. His tempi changes are to die for. Too bad we can’t so much as do a single flying change when I’m on him! I do worry a little about him hurting himself, but he tears around outside on much worse footing, so I let him have his fun.
Some barns will seek to minimize risk of injury and the staff will be instructed to bring horses in when they start running. I think we have all run into the occasional horse that just doesn’t like to be turned out for too long, or doesn’t like it when the wind picks up, or it starts to mist, or it is too cold, or it is too buggy, etc. The horses know the routine, come right up to the gate and are very easily caught.
I’ve been at barns where they didn’t turn out the sales horses at all for fear of injury. Not something I condone, but it is done.
If mine hasn’t been able to be turned out for a few days and seems overly wild, I will turn him out in the arena to blow off a little steam first. I don’t actually free lunge - he decides if he is going to walk, run, roll, etc. and I’m just there to supervise from outside the ring while he gets the nonsense out. The last thing I want is for me to give a command and him blow me off and get away with it…which is what will happen when he’s feeling that fresh.
I only do this because he is one that goes nuts if confined to his stall for a couple of days straight – for that reason, I try not to put him on the lunge line until I know he’ll be able to focus and we can actually work. If I stick him straight on the line when he’s like that, he has a tendency to black out and bolt around. 
I’d rather him blow up in the larger space of the arena than start thinking that is acceptable behavior on the line while spinning around in small circles.
I put boots or polos on, though, if we are going to do that.
Usually I prefer to just get on and ride through it. Things have to be really wild for me to opt for “arena turnout”.
My feeling is that if you need to encourage the horse to run or buck, then you probably don’t actually need it. But, I also often prefer to ride the sillies out in most cases (I feel I can guide them into making good choices better from their backs than letting the yahoo around a ring or trying to lunge them).
That being said, if you’re going out there and are able to move your horse through its paces, turn it, stop it, etc, then that’s completely different and NOT what I typically think of when I think free lunging (most people, when they say they free lunge their horse, go out in the ring and chase the poor beast around until it’s goofy, running, bucking, and farting.
I have also turned out in arenas PLENTY if they’re not able to get out in their fields. But I usually do this from day one of inclement weather, and everyone gets a turn, and I usually toss a little hay out, around the ring, which encourages them to wander, no act like idiots. They will play, mostly because it’s just fun to be goofy in the ring in their minds, but it is short lived and typically harmless.
Funny story, years ago we got walloped with 3 ft of snow and really couldn’t get out to any of our pastures. BUT, our outdoor ring was within a few steps of the barn doors. I turned my big guys out first (17.1 and 17.2), then my next biggest, and then my small horse, then finally the little herd of ponies I had. The big kids had cut trails through the snow for the pones, so they were able to get around easier (though ponies being ponies, they still went and blaze their own trails, snow up to their bellies!).
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I use it in a similar way. I find it is great for reinforcing voice commands, personal space, and is a nice change from boring winter indoor arena rides. I also teach my young horses to free jump while being free lunged and by the third or fourth session they will happily trot or canter down the long side to a small fence with no chute so to speak. When they make mistakes about distance neither of us can blame me and that is just great.
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