Lunging Equates To Hour Hack

newforest

newforest

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2008
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I have read this in various books yet nobody shows the evidence to prove this theory, or unprove.
In my opinion an hour lunging is an hour hack, half is half etc.

My GPS says the same mileage for lunging, hacking, long reining, jumping. So if I spend 45 mins in the school I have actually covered the same distance as I would have had I hacked out 45 mins.
Fair point you could say that school work is mainly trotting and canter but you still need ten minutes warming/cooling, all my hacks are hillwork and I mean elevation of the heart rate hills.

Your thoughts. For those who wonder how accurate the GPS is for going round in circles, mine has a one mile timer and I know how long that takes on my hack.
 
I personally think 15 minutes lunging is the equivalent of an hours schooling providing the lunger really works the horse. It is hard to compare hacking as so much varies from terrain to speed but I would think a two hour hack conducted at about average 7mph (so a fair amount of trot and /or canter) is the equivalent of a serious hours schooling which will be full of transitions and changes of bend. I compare it to a human doing circuits ( lunging) doing an exercise class (schooling) or jogging ( ride out)!
 
I do ask for more in the school, than hacks.
It just feels that way physically due to the turning/bending etc.
Mine tracks up well in walk but I wouldn't say we are collected as she isn't vertical lay flexed.

I like your comparison Eml, my lesson today was an exercise class.
 
I can't imagine that if I seriously schooled or lunged Dolly for the same amount of time I would spend out on a hack that
she would cope too well with it TBH! I wouldn't think that the two could be compared at all, but I am a very relaxed and
possibly a tad lazy happy hacker. We do have some spurts of wild abandon and speed etc., but usually equal that with a bit of
gentle meandering on the way home.

On the very rare occasion I have taken her into a corner of the field and actually 'worked' her - after twenty minutes we are both dripping
and have had enough, so I guess neither of us can be that fit really. But twenty minutes cantering around the country side is nothing to us.
Horses for courses and all that.:)
 
I think the surface of a school can contribute to quicker fatigue... a deep sand school will zap a horse's energy and need more calories burned. Hell, I know how knackered I get just walking around on the sand in ours!!!
 
Ours are lunged for 20-30 minutes at a time, the majority of that is in trot and canter - aside from warmup and cooldown they spend very little time in walk - and they work in either elasticated sidereins or the pessoa. So for ours a 20min lunge session is considerably more of a workout than a 40min hack, as we are all roadwork so no cantering and can't trot the downhill bits.
 
Rubic-its not that I feel you can compare/they are the same. Its what you come across in equestrian books, magazines that if you lunge for 20mins its the same as a hack.
So my thread was to ask why it gets compared and can you really?
Its too variable.

My hacks to some will be too slow, others just right and other too fast they wouldn't join me again. That's all perception.
 
It's not just about distance covered. Working on circles is a lot harder for some horses than hacking out (even with hills). I've attached my Garmin watch to Appley once lunging 10 mins on each rein, covered about the same distance as if we'd hacked trot/canter for the same time. She's not knackered after a 20 min hack, but certainly looks like she worked hard after 20 mins lunging.
 
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