True Confessions

I have to confess that my early attempts to lunge my horse, when I was a teenager, resulted in a tangle of lunge line, a horse that wandered where she wanted, and ultimately, a very frustrated "trainer". Over the next fifteen or twenty years I would resolve to learn how to succeed at this endeavor - reading books and articles, looking at pictures, talking to people, but the result was always the same. Ultimately I convinced myself that this exercise was impossible for me, and after all...how important was it?

I now have a different perspective on lunging, thanks to lessons and education. Most recently, my lessons with Pam Larson have helped me develop the skill and confidence I need to properly lunge my horse, and I have a better understanding of its importance. On the surface, it helps the rider assess the horse's mood and energy level. It also warms up the horse, and takes the edge off a horse that's feeling feisty.

But on a deeper level, it's an important step in training the young horse, allowing the trainer to make sure the horse is straight (see later blogs), and helping the horse develop balance without the interference of the weight of the rider. In the books by Gustav Steinbrecht and Alois

Podhajsky - they offer both insights and instructions about how to proceed correctly. Pam, in concurrence with these masters of dressage, taught me the importance of using a cavesson, attaching the lunge line to the ring on the noseband, rather than to the bit, which of course pulls on the horse's mouth.