On the spur of the moment I joined my first lungeing clinic with Babette. It was so exciting and emotional. What I saw was a completely different way of working with horses.
Using a cavesson lets you achieve the poll position required for healthy work. Through bending at the poll and correct positioning of the head you can start working on the horse’s lateral bend.
In my experience, this is much less effective with other bitless bridles (like a halter). The cavesson has the advantage that you can work with the horse at a high gymnastic level without affecting the mouth.
Every horse has a natural crookedness and is therefore never fully balanced. This crookedness causes the horse to lean into the circle on one hand and move in a tilted position. Through targeted training we help our horses develop balanced shoulders.
A good way of moving is an essential precondition for the horse to develop the necessary strength for carrying a rider. That is true for a young horse as well as a mature animal.
In order to be successful, we need to understand the difficulties our horse faces when we start training it. In the wild a horse essentially moves only in straight lines. He may turn abruptly or change direction, but he never moves continuously on a curve or even a circle.
Many horses have difficulties with letting go, activating back muscles, bending correctly or moving supple.
It is the base of the cervical spine that often causes these issues.
We differentiate between three positions: forward down, working frame and collection. Suppleness is most important at first, so we usually shift between forward down and a working frame during lungeing. Advanced horses can be worked in collection on the lunge but should often get the opportunity to stretch and relax.
I have always liked lungeing my horses and have tried to make it as varied as possible for them. It was a lucky coincidence that I heard about Babette and her Course in Lungeing around 4 years ago.
Some horses need to get used to the tightly fitting cavesson. It is really important to take the time to familiarize the horse with the cavesson. Please don’t rush into this project by putting on the new cavesson tightly and immediately getting to work.
Garpur was born in 2007 and came to me in 2013. Many Icelandic horses have the fairly high body tension necessary for tölt and pace, and so we often had a problem with relaxation
Written bei Carla.
I am the student this weekend. I am deepening my knowledge of a work that I have studied and practiced for 20 years but as always, there is always more to learn. 🙂
The Lungeing Course for a Frantic Horse.
When ridden in the indoor or outside Pia got hot – that is, fast. Her only way out of not understanding was flight. Even after the lesson was finished and she was supposed to relax in walk, she got faster and faster. Then she started trotting, ever faster, until she ended up galloping. Without a tight rein, she could not be kept at the walk. The decision was made to sell her.
I would generally advise that you discuss any form of training of a horse with health problems with the vet in charge of treatment and with every illness that affects the horse’s ability to move with a physiotherapist as well.
A horse that is in a position to understand what people what and that experiences positive consequences when it does what one wants of it is as a rule happy and willing to work with us.
Let’s start at the beginning: Moonlight was born in Denmark. When she was five years old she was sent to Germany to be sold by a professional horse dealer. She did not like to be handled and was very shy. They tried to break her in, more or less.