looking to add some lunging in a chambon or some work in a neck stretcher to my mares fitness routine. do any of y’all have a strong opinion for them or against them? or care to share your outcome with them? helpful, or a waste of time and money? any other equipment suggestions to help her really stretch down and learn to use herself well? let me know please. thanks!
You’ll get all sorts of people claiming they are awesome, slap more straps on a horse.
but then again, they will be the same people that claim jumping in a standing is a fine practice, because riding a nose breaker fits the description of “easy, pleasant ride that will happily cart around a beginner.”
I was taught that chambons are more useful than neck stretchers. Neck stretchers reward them for ducking behind the vertical, whereas the chambon rewards a more down-and-out position that’s more biomechanically correct, especially for a horse that’s just getting into shape.
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Totally depends on the horse and the objective. Like most tools, I find them to be immensely helpful when I have a horse that will benefit from the action of one or the other, and not effective on horses who won’t. I have used both a chambon (under saddle) and a neck stretcher (lunging and/or under saddle) on many horses over the years, and like both tools quite a bit. With that being said, rarely do I use any tool with any great regularity. Typically I’ll add it into the program for a horse for a week or two with the goal of the horse understanding what I’m trying to ask and then remove it once they’ve figured it out.
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This. I have tried both when we were trying to get my horse stronger behind.I really liked the chambon. As someone mentioned, it shows the way & where the horse needs to be. And once the rider can learn that feeling, it can be easier to recreate without it. The neck stretcher makes them very “stuck” feeling so quite honestly I do not use mine at all. I never got that “stretch” feeling out of it, I always got the behind the vertical feeling.
Just be careful to not use either too much and incorporate it as needed. Some people get so stuck on using these tools that they can’t figure out how to get the horse to go around without it. Trust me, I’ve seen it time and time again at my old barn. Use it for what it should be - an aid, not a crutch. You will get people on here saying that they hate all “tools/aids” but if you use them and adjust them properly, there is a time and a place for them in my mind.
Good luck!
Exactly. :yes:
I have had really good luck with a de gogue for lunging as well. It has been recommended to me from a top vet for rehabilitation for a horse with kissing spine & neck arthritis.
I don’t use either with any great regularity, but I think they have a place. Once a week lunging with either, doing 20m of real work and not farting around the indoor, I have seen some major improvements in a horse’s way of going (thanks to strengthened topline) using it.
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I used a faux Pessoa rig last winter with my gelding and was impressed with his fitness level come spring. I lunged 1-2 times per week, for about 15 minutes and rode 1-2 for a similar amount of time. He was definitely fit enough for an increase in riding and jumping by March/April and at the end of May he was plenty fit for showing.
There’s a trap in lunging with any of these…unless you are quite proficient and the horse very well schooled on the lunge, they dump forward and poke around on their noses, learn to evade the action by not moving up into it from behind. And you can’t move them up into it with your leg. They can also get rubber necked and counter bent on that little circle if you cannot generate enough impulsion out of them to engage the rear end. It’s not the fault of occasional use of the gimmick, it’s how it is being used.
Theres nothing wrong with admitting you are not great at lunging and your horse is not well schooled to all your commands when lunging…especially correctly staying on the circle and engaging from behind. These things often work better when riding the horse in straighter lines and bigger corners with more impulsion so the thing can work as intended.
They also work better if the horse is schooled and conditioned to the point they can easily accept the action and perform what the gimmick asks and benefit from it rather then resist and/or get sore. Always surprised to see some forcing the horse into long and low or false frame when the horse physically cannot do it due to their conformation…or they are not sound, and, if overused, the horse will simply learn to evade it.
Used to just say if you have to ask, don’t use them. Only slightly off that position these days, there are times they are helpful, just not used the way so often seen. Be careful.
I have used similar for a horse that had a history of back pain. Issue was resolved and he still didn’t stretch down because he didn’t believe he could, after all he never had been able to before! A few minutes in a neck stretcher was enough for the light bulb to go on in his head that it was not painful to try different head positions. Never needed it again. This is similar to how I have used draw reins: once or twice to put an idea in a horse’s head, then put them away. Not for consistent use.
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