My horse is out all day long plus I have about a 15 minute walk to get to the barn up the street where I ride. So he clearly has plenty of time to loosen up and move around. Last weekend he seemed a bit on edge during our walk so I decided to lunge him when I got there. Just about 5 minutes of trotting and a lap or two of canter in each direction. He was a perfect gentlemen no bucking or running off like I expected. But what really shocked me was how great he felt after I got on! He’s a huge generally klutzy not going anywhere fast 7 year old thoroughbred that suddenly was light and responsive both to my leg and hand. I rode him the next day without lunging and he was back to his usual self. So I’ve been thinking all week about how I think I should lunge him before I ride. He’s quite long backed and I think it really helped warm him up plus get him responsive to my aids which made for not just a more enjoyable ride but a more productive one
My horses don’t get lunged before riding unless there’s something specific I need to accomplish. They live out 24/7 and I believe in a good 10 minute under saddle walk as part of a slow warm up. If I’m going to work them from the ground I will either long line or work in hand.
I don’t love the lunge. It’s a useful tool if it’s needed. My feel is generally better than my eye if pony is stiff. We warm-up in two-point or short stirrups (fitness for me, stretchy trot for him).
i have an OTTB - who although young, is an “old-stiffie” and now that he’s learned how to lunge nicely, we have found it to be super beneficial on getting him warmed up and loose, before he would take such a long warm up under saddle and there’s so much whoa, and no go!! that I would be exhausted just as he was getting going!! so yes, in certain circumstances, it can be very beneficial!!
My thoughts on this…
Mike Plumb has a standard lunging routine that is really about letting the horse loosen up. It’s low-key lunging in both directions and then over a jump, really with the idea that the horse develops their own routine and gets ready for ridden work. It’s not dressage-style lunging.
I will do this sometimes with some horses. If a horse lives out 24/7 and we have a long walk to the barn, the horse is moving well and ‘loose’ by the time we get to the cross-ties. When I first get on, I do walking and stretching on a long rein, then go into trot along the piste letting the horse do whatever with its head and focusing on moving the back legs forward. If it’s a cold day, I make sure the horse is actually warm before we do any collecting.
If the horse is quite fresh (if I’ve been out of town) or known to be a rocket when I first get on, I might do some lunging but on a large, not-really-a-circle. But not for long, just let them go around in both directions.
The driving horses at my barn do all this in a nice indoor equicizer at walk and trot. This is what Zizi is doing now and seems to enjoy it, but then she is very into her own preparation for work and takes her training very seriously, like a human athlete.
I have one horse, my fat pinto, who seems to think that lunging means he hasn’t been a good boy, which is hugely important to him. I don’t know where this association comes from, but he was very high-energy when I first started riding him and his amount of forward scared most people. I think he was used to riders getting frustrated with him, then jumping off and lunging him to try to get him a little tired so he started to associate it with being a bad horse and he couldn’t understand why he was seen as ‘bad’ because this is a horse who really tries to please all the time. His feelings get hurt quite easily, too – you have to be really careful reprimanding him for anything. So when I know he’s going to be a handful when I get on, I just ride in a bridge and deal with it. He’s too fat and too polite to buck but he sometimes bounces around a bit when we start to canter. Not a big deal and it’s better than having to cheer up a sad, fat pinto.
With humans, a dynamic warm-up is more effective than static stretching. I’d think then, that for a horse, a warm-up when they’re moving around and not held on a small track like a circle or with any kind of restriction on their head/neck should be better.
A) It’s annoying/time consuming B) My horse is out 24/7
And she lunges perfectly, I would be even less inclined with a harder to lunge horse.
:lol::lol::lol:
This is the first winter that I’ve longed my horse a few times before getting on…he’s 14 and raced, so age is starting to catch up to him a little bit. Sometimes I will free school him if no one else if using the arena–I prefer this over going around in a small circle, but my horse is well-behaved and mostly just trots around like a giraffe.
I would say over half of the riders at my barn longe before riding. Some do it before every single ride for 20-40 minutes, year round. Some insist on doing it while there is already one person longing, another doing “groundwork” a la Parelli, and at least one other person riding <----- yes, it has been a long winter and I CAN’T WAIT to have a thawed and dry outdoor arena to ride in while the excessive longers and Parelli-ites stay in the indoor because they only work their horses inside for whatever reason.
So I can see the benefits but I also understand that sometimes it’s not the best idea.
I don’t lunge. except for the vet. I prefer to warm up onboard. It’s a good reminder to my go-go-go TB girls that walking on a loose rein is part of their job, even when they would prefer to begin the ride with a TB Turbo Trot.
I also have one that gets very amped and upset on the lunge, and so I just don’t do it. That’s not the hill I want to die on.
I’ve recently started lunging my horse before I ride, especially if he’s been inside either all day or half the day. Since pastures are closed most days they have to rotate turnouts (dry lots) on a half day schedule, so they are out for about 3-4 hours. If the weather is really gross they don’t go out.
Sometimes I use a neck stretcher while I lunge, but not always. I’ve found lunging before I ride lets my horse move a bit, I can watch him go, and usually he warms up better.
I prefer to walk my horse for 10-15 minutes to warm him up. He and I would get VERY bored, very quickly if I forced him to do that on a lunge line. And, like the OP says, I feel I can influence him far better from his back than from the ground. He’s not the world’s greatest on the lunge line, as he can be a pluggo, tense, or a doofus…and I never know who is showing up. He is far more reliable under saddle. And, honestly, I hate dealing with the extra stuff that a proper lunge requires. I’m lazy like that.
I HAVE had horses that did much better with a lunge. I had a crazy, athletic SOB who was cold backed and girthy. If I lunged him long enough for him to let one monstrous buck loose, he would be mostly reliable under saddle. If I didn’t do that, there was a pretty good chance at least part of our ride would be a rodeo. I still don’t know how he didn’t unload me.
I prefer to longe before riding. It allows their muscles to loosen, especially the back muscles, before adding the weight of a rider. It’s purposeful longeing and not plodding along at the end of the line, and I’ll add in some shoulder in and suppling before getting on. Added benefits are better manners. My horses are out as much as possible (most days at least 8 hours) but they tend not to work on their fitness while they’re outside. They walk minimally seeking the next food item. I wouldn’t consider their slow ambling while grazing to be any sort of joint or muscle warm up. Better than a stall-bound situation for sure, but even after a day of turn out, I think at least for my guys I owe it to them to properly warm them up before they have to carry me.
out of lurkdom here .
I agree with BFNE. I lunge if I am concerned that I could get bucked off. And I also do not see lunging as any better warm up than what we can do from the back, and less so if done with any sort of side reins. If riding, I would not warm up a horse by trotting and cantering in a 15-20 meter circle. So why lunge, unless you have a horse that is especially tense under saddle?
The best way I find to warm horses up is to hack out for 10 minutes or so, on varied terrain. It gets them relaxed and loose. My ring is about 5 minutes hack from my barn (not set up that way on purpose… it just happened that way) so if I have time, I usually hack around a hill and then head to the ring.
I think I love you…
“I do warm up long and low and will often canter in two point”
This brought back memories of my dear departed Mother. We were always taught to get up off the horse’s back as soon as we got our feet in the stirrups and before walking off. I can and will always hear my mother saying, “For Christ sake Larry get up off that horse’s back. For Christ sake Mother give me a second to get organized” Lol.
I have to ask/tell my “sport” riders this all the time. The tend to sit flat and “heavy” in the saddle and it is easy to see a lot of horses are uncomfortable by the way they walk off. I never have to ask/tell TB exercise riders this.
When we get out to the gallop/field walk for a while than move off and jog (trot) a 1/2+ mile in a “two point” than pick it up to a canter for a 1/2 and then gallop for 1-2 miles.
I don’t care if the horse is in training to race, flat, over jumps or a sport horse, All horses benefit from a good suitable “long” warm up and cardio work out. Before “flat work” jump schooling etc. Especially Event horses.
But for some reason my “Event” riders would always want to go straight into the ring. They seem to dismiss us “race people”. I don’t see much difference between training a Steeplechase horse or an Eventer.
I rarely if ever lunge, as you said “can be hard on them”. Ones that may have a bit of buck in them I feel it is better for the rider to sort that out as soon as possible. But there are ones especially now after years of always getting on the “difficult” ones. I am not in the mood to deal with it anymore. I either put a younger more enthusiastic rider up or I lunge for my own well being. I’ve paid my due, lol.
I only lunge before a ride if I have a red rocket on my hands. I can always tell in the cross ties as my mare will dance a little. Otherwise I prefer to hand walk a couple laps of the arena to get her moving before I get on- I also use this time to stretch myself out with large steps/lunges before getting on. We also have at least a 5m walk warm up when I first get on before taking any contact- I feel that is sufficient most days. I’ve always read lunging is tough on the joints so I do try and limit it, though I find it a useful tool.
LOL…Not sure who ingrained that into me but I rode a lot of polo ponies as a kid and suspect that is where it came from…but I never sit down flat and heavy and often will mount and stay off their back as they walk off. I own a lot of OTTBs but I do that on pretty much any horse I get on. I always cringe when someone else gets on one of my horses and sits down flat and heavy…and I have one or two who will think hard about launching you if you do that 
This ^^^ for one of my horses. He is not a bucker or naughty and this seems to help him focus under saddle. He does all gaits and transitions on the lunge until he relaxes by stretching long and low. He is pretty much on 24/7 turnout.
