Tell me about lunge lessons...

[HaloHoney]

There are several instructors at my RS- I've only ever had one of them. I only started riding again in September after a 17-year absence (due to lack of money, lack of confidence, and being considerable fatter than I had once been). I'm now looking at getting a horse on working livery there. One of the other instructors watched me ride in my lesson (we were sharing an arena with her lesson) and on hearing me say "my balance needs to improve" said "you need a lunge lesson". This instructor is very direct - much more so than my regular one! I'm now bricking it.

So I booked in for a couple of weeks' time to have a lunge lesson with her. I've no idea what to expect (beyond a 45 minute lesson on a lunge line).

Please can any of you enlighten me so I can get my big girl pants on and pretend I'm not scared?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Lunge lessons are hard work but brilliant. Because you don't have to worry about your hands at all (because the RI controls the speed and direction of the horse) you can focus, focus, focus on your seat, legs and position.

What you do will depend on what you need, but I would expect it to be great learning.

 

[Skib]

If you are having a lunge lesson from a skilled instructor to improve your balance that is an excellent idea and there is no need to be anxious.
Can you work out why you feel scared? The riders of the Spanish riding school were taught on the lunge for a year, and I myself learned my best riding from a teacher who taught that way. In my case her aim was to improve my balance to make me safer out hacking. Because I was already in my 60s.
She started by teaching students how to sit in the saddle in order to feel the movement of the horse. Most of the first lessons would be in walk and when we were well balanced in walk we progressed to trot. Mostly sitting to the trot.
Being on the lunge with good instruction means someone else is in charge of the speed and steering of the horse - so you can concentrate on the feel under you. There is nothing to be scared of. As there is nothing you can do wrong.
Being lunged on a circle also helps straighten you in the saddle. Most riders sit a little crooked in the saddle and you may find it harder to balance going in one direction than it is in the other. One valuable lesson I learned was to imagine a straight line (like the big hand of a clock) leading out from the centre spot, and to keep my shoulders aligned to that. At the Spanish riding school it was said that the teacher lunging at the centre of the circle should not be able to see the outside shoulder of the rider. It teaches you not to twist in the saddle - which many people do inadvertently when riding a circle.
We did get well balanced I think because we progressed to riding bareback on the lunge, and tho I did fall off regularly when hacking, about once a year in those days - I have never been hurt in a fall.
Students come to our teacher especially to have a lunge lesson and I go back from time to time.
Many adults feel apprehensive about being lunged in canter because it means handing control to another person. But my OH learned to canter on the lunge and so did our grand daughter. Problem free. Whereas I learned at a normal BHS school going large round the school with corners! And scared out of my wits.
I confess I dont enjoy canter round and round on the lunge, but a sensible teacher will not force canter on an adult student who prefers not. It isnt an essential and is unlikely to arise in a first lunge lesson. Our teacher did have a brilliant canter exercise for more advanced riders. Entirely voluntary. We would walk with our eyes closed and she would use the whip to ask the horse for canter. It is the nearest a teacher can get to simulating a spook. I reckon doing a few unannounced canter transitions on the lunge prepared me for a lot of surprises out hacking. If my horse takes off in canter - even from stand still - I have never yet fallen off.
But again all this was entirely voluntary - And I explain only to show you that expert lunge lessons can be used to teach at an advanced level and to explore elements of riding that one could not study on one's own. It is too easy to think of being on the lunge as like being put on a lead rope because one is not capable of handling the horse on one's own. But it isnt like that at all -
I hope this is useful -

 

[HaloHoney]

That's hugely useful. Thanks both!

I guess I'm scared because it's all unknown:
Instructor I've not had before
Lesson type I've not had before
On a horse I've not ridden before (I have a feeling that my normal steed wouldn't tolerate this ;-) )
So it's 3 unknowns that's throwing me for a loop.

I think I'm nervous because I'm not great around new people (I come across as being a bit "quirky" sometimes- this can be adequately explained by finding out last year I have ADHD, and I'm also reasonably deaf & wear hearing aids). And the instructor is very direct compared to the one I've got to know and who has got to know me over the past few months.

I'm looking forward to learning stuff though. If it improves my riding, I'm all for it! I think the thing I struggle with most is my balance, and using the amount of leg that some of the RS horses need (!) whilst maintaining my balance/position. I can do a reasonable walk to sitting trot transition, but I always find it difficult to come out of rising into sitting without bouncing in the saddle. Which does not help my canter transitions at all!

So if I can improve on any of that- I'll be chuffed to bits. Instructor might not know where to start though. LOL.

Thanks for the replies- huge help.

 

[Wally]

EVERYONE benefits from a lunge lesson, nobody is above them, go for it, Hard work, but so beneficial. I need some lunge lessons

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

So do I! But I don't know what Ziggy would make of it...

 

[Skib]

Well yes - experienced lunge teachers use horses that have been taught to lunge.

 

[Skib]

Going from rising to sitting trot - There is an exercies, as I said recently, alternating rising, sitting and forward seat in trot.
But is you go for a lot of lunge lessons and learn to recognise the trot diagonal - you will be able to recognise the moment at which to sit, to know in advance from the swing of the barrel and the time of your rise which seat bone will be lower.
However to be honest the maths has often been beyond me and I prefer to keep my mind on the horse. The problem is that most people gee up the trot in rising trot and then sit to it just as it is at its most vigorous and just on the corner whenre it is harder to balance.
You can avoid these pitfalls - or at least mitigate them. Once you have the energy in the trot, collect it a little, think of compressing and containing the front of the horse, and then sit before you get to the corner. And then ask for the canter. If you are asked to canter at the end of the short side of the school, do the same. sit down at about A, while you are still on the straight and then canter at the corner. The fact that we can sit both trot and canter (tho there is the option of rising and forward seat) doesnt mean that we can sit to any trot or any canter on any horse. Even a good rider may lose their balance if they try.