Abbey's Run Equestrian | Education

Abbey's Run Equestrian

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21.01.2022 This was absolutely Benn and I last night after a huge weekend (the 2nd in a row that was huge), preparing the property for some impending work... terrible romantic but if I'm honest, I can't think of a better way to spend a Valentine's day

19.01.2022 It's starting to feel like Autumn

16.01.2022 When friends come over to play Getting creative with some training fun that can only be done with others. We had a lovely time when our like-minded awesome friends came to visit, here at Abbey's Run Equestrian. Fernando, Benn and I had been building up to this activity in the couple of months beforehand, working with the fit ball and coming up with ideas on what we could do with it, then slowly progressing our training with Fernando.... Big to Catherine & Angela.

16.01.2022 Why don’t you people stand still when lunging? When I was first taught to lunge, it was in a roundyard. I was told that the real benefit of lunging lay in the... roundness of the circle. Therefore, staying in a roundyard wasn’t a disadvantage. On the contrary, the round shape was very helpful, especially since all you wanted to do was circles. I was taught to keep my feet remaining in the one spot. After a session, I’d have a perfectly flattened little circle in the sand in the middle of the roundyard, where I’d kept my feet flat and taken little mincing steps in a circle as the horse moved around me. I never lunged for very long, because I certainly found it a bit boring, and thought that maybe the horse did, too: round and round and round and round with possibly a transition or two. In all fairness, just working on a circle can be quite useful, and even used by itself, it can lead to the horse being round and moving well forward. But, I now know there are so many advantages to teaching the horse to move in a wide open space, that I find lunging only on circles a very limited toolbox. What are the advantages of adding straight lines and other figures to your lunging repertoire, as well as being in a larger space, like an arena? Well, for starters it’s a lot more interesting for horse and handler. You can cover just as much ground as when you ride and you don’t ruin the footing in one place. But in particular, I think it’s a very valuable thing to add straight lines to your repertoire. Why? Because with the horse able to follow your indication to go on a straight line, all of a sudden you are having far greater effect on your horse’s training than if your concept is limited to a circle. You are working on the horse paying a greater degree of attention to your body language and positioning because he has to watch whether you’re going straight at the moment, and whether you’ve indicated to do a curved line. You can indicate to him to do a straight line, even when you are the full length of the lunge rope away from him. You can ask him to halt at this distance, go forward or even rein back. This sort of fine control will pay dividends for every aspect of handling. He will lead far better, and go with greater assurance wherever you point him. By not staying in one limited space, you have blurred the lines between lunging and turned it into very advanced leading. A horse that can lead very well is such a wonderful citizen to be around: he will have friends wherever he goes. (Think of: trotting up for someone else at the vet, loading into a horse float under stressful circumstances, being a horse for a beginner on the lunge, being safe and reliable when a non-horse person has to bring him in from the paddock.) Good lunging is not just advanced leading it positively affects the ridden work, too. When you can go into an arena and ask the horse to freely move forward in walk, trot or canter on circles or straight lines you have a wonderful tool to help him find his balance without having to deal with your weight on his back. In addition, by adding things like changes of direction and asking him to move his shoulders or hindquarters away, you are working on elements which have very close equivalents to good ridden work, in terms of balance and straightness. You will notice the beneficial effects of good lunging when you are back in the saddle. So, there you have it. When lunging, you can unpin your feet from the one place and use the whole arena or even a paddock, if that’s the space you have. When you are free to move around, lunging can become a training activity which is more directly beneficial to both leading and riding. You end up with a lunging toolbox which is interesting and varied enough to keep you and the horse engaged! Oh, and it goes without saying (but it’s even better if you say it), that not only are restrictive gadgets like side reins and draw reins unnecessary, they are actively counterproductive to good lunging work. Here are some nice pictures from students of the Ecole de Légèreté doing some effective lunging. Do you have a nice picture of you working your horse on the lunge? If so, please add it in the comments.

15.01.2022 Really important to understand

14.01.2022 Be mindful what you model

14.01.2022 Happy Valentines Day In case you were wondering... Courtship in horses can be very gentle. Mares and stallions form binds that last many years in the wild. A...nd such flirtations can begin quite young and, ahem, teenage weddings are not unusual. It's a side of horses we don't usually get to see within our horse-human world. All we often see drama that surrounds the arranged marriages we work out for them. Or the fallout from our expectations of chastity when it's convenient for us In the absence of human interference, horses choose their own love matches and hold together family units for many years. And when things get got, quite often it's the "husband" who gets harassed for sex, with mare approaching him...

13.01.2022 Valentine's Day evening last weekend here at Abbey's Run Equestrian - there was absolutely some love to be had... it made my heart smile to watch as Flex (left) and Ted (right) allowed Rufus (middle) into their little herd (due to some paddock juggling that was required). ... (and yes... we have quite the accidental matching set ) See more

05.01.2022 Bessie reckons Saturday morning mean it's time to go catch a pony ... she could be onto something

03.01.2022 because some days, you just have to rest your muzzle gently in your person's hand