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Post by spotti on Nov 2, 2008 10:57:13 GMT
Right, I'm sort of declaring Faith as semi-retired from riding due to the fact that is seems that its the ridden element of our work that is doing her back/pelvis in, hence trying to find something else we can do. Currently I'm playing with the idea of going down the driving route (which was what she was bred and broken for in the first place) but I know I can't just hitch a cart up to her and expect her to pull it soooooo I was thinking about doing more longreining with her. My main problem with that is that she seems to resent her saddle at the minute (thinks I'm going to ride her) so can't use my stirrups to pass the longreins through like we have doen in the past, and can't long rein without something to hold the lines up off the ground which is why I am wanting a lunge roller - which I think would do the job (  ) BUT being new to the whole lungeing/lunge roller thing, I have a few questions that I thought one of you clever people on here might be able to help me with... First off: - How would you fit one? Are they like saddles that have trees of some sort or are they more flexible than that? Also, I assume you need a girth of some sort, but is there any particular type that is best?? And what kind of pad would you put under it?? |
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haffyfan
Administrator 
is pressing random buttons...sorry guys
Posts: 7,391
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Post by haffyfan on Nov 2, 2008 11:21:13 GMT
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Post by spotti on Nov 2, 2008 11:39:29 GMT
So its not fixed like a tree'd saddle? You simply buy pony/cob/full depending on how round your horse is???
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Steph
Whipper Snapper
Posts: 162
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Post by Steph on Nov 2, 2008 13:54:10 GMT
They're like a big band round the horse and its normally a bit stretchy to let them move easier and has rings at different heights.
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Post by spotti on Nov 2, 2008 14:38:17 GMT
Right-o! Ta guys! I knew someone on here would know what I meant...you guys are so clever!  |
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Post by spotti on Nov 2, 2008 18:15:52 GMT
Right-o! Will invest in a driving pad then. Thankies |
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Post by racaille on Nov 10, 2008 18:32:43 GMT
You can get all types of rollers - we have leather, furry etc - and we just stick a saddle cloth underneath, there's really no need to spend MORE cash on stuff!
Two words of warning tho Spotti (and sorry to be the voice of doom here) .... I know you are talking about long-reining, but remember lunging is hard work for a horse and if she has hurty bits it might not be ideal for her (sorry can't remember ... senile moment...)
The other thing is that, sadly, even horses that are bred to be driven do not always make driving horses. Apart from the physique, even more important is their 'mindset'. Some horses just don't have the combination of being incredibly sensible at the same time as being amazingly brave - bolting, spooking, napping etc are just not options when there is a cart behind.
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Post by spotti on Nov 11, 2008 15:09:18 GMT
Racaille - sensible as ever . Faith doesn't DO lungeing (which neither do I so thats no problem) and on the longreins we only ever walk and trot and stop if she's tired/I'm tired/ground isn't suitable etc. As for actually driving, I'd be terrified to ever take her on a road when driven - not because she'd be silly (she actually gets a 'work head' on when longreined and is extremely sensible, even past galloping fields of horses!!!) but because there are too many non-horsey stupid people on the roads these days and they'd scare the pants off me if a car ever came anywhere near us, soooooo if we did end up driving, it would probably be the occasional quiet drive out into the countryside for a picnic or something...but even that scares me a bit at the minute so I'm not sure we'll even get round to attaching a cart, let alone sitting in it and going somewhere! My plan for driving is just a long term idea to give me a general reason to build up her muscles (which in turn will keep her pelvis in line and stop her being cripple again) and not retire her completely BUT if she must be retired then she will be, but at the minute she seems to be enjoying semi-retirement but is raring to go out and do something!!! An idea I had the other day (since she seems ok at the minute and seemed happy to have a roller/saddle on, even though I obviously didn't try and get on aswell) was that maybe, since she's thriving off semi-retirement, I should keep up the in-hand stuff and the longreining and maybe introduce small, short hacks every once in a while, just to give her a change??? But I'm going to give her atleast a month of inhand stuff first and see how she gets on with that... And re:the lunge roller - it arrive the other day and when I tried it on her it seemed ok but looked like it might slip backwards (even though the girth was quite tight)...any ideas? |
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Post by spotti on Nov 11, 2008 15:13:41 GMT
Oh, and something else I thought we might try out over the summer was in-hand showing (possibly anyway).
To be honest, we're at a bit of a fork in the road at the minute and I'm just playing with ideas of what we can do to still have fun but not have a poorly pony...
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Post by racaille on Nov 11, 2008 15:42:55 GMT
Spotti, you have the patience of a saint! Faith is so lucky to have found you. Yes, I see what you mean about long-term goals and I think the in-hand showing is an excellent idea.
Without seeing it, I don't think the roller slipping back a bit is a real problem, it will settle where her girth 'passage' is and is not carrying any weight, it's only here to guide the reins, so I'd say not to worry.
Have you tried teaching Faith tricks? I know (I think?) you have done proper stuff, but we sometimes teach horses little tricks just for fun and to give them something to think about. Little Triangle (my shettie) can rear on command, bow and a coupla other things. I'm working with Paco to teach him to bow at the moment .....
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Post by Jen on Nov 11, 2008 16:11:00 GMT
sorry to sidetrack the thread but racaille we need videos!!!!!
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Post by racaille on Nov 11, 2008 16:18:37 GMT
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Post by Jen on Nov 11, 2008 16:20:35 GMT
bet its ace to watch him do that!!
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Post by spotti on Nov 11, 2008 16:41:25 GMT
In respose to Racaille: - yes I have taught her a few tricks! She can bow beautifully...will video it at some point, and bend her neck to touch her ribs - not too sure of the point of this but it gets her using her neck muscles! She can also do turn on the forehand and we're working on turn on the haunches. I did think about teaching her to rear on command but then decided not to because I didn't really want to repeat it when she's being daft because she could hurt herself (or me lol). Oh, and she can open doors and bolts all by herself too (I blame my sister for that one! She used to let her open the hayroom door with her mouth, which was cute and amusing at first but now its just plain annoying!! Any door she sees, she wants to open - I can't stop the beast! - thats another reason for not teaching her to rear!). I have a friend who taught her horse to stretch his legs out infront of him after his girth had been done so it didn't pinch (she had a bad back at the time so he was helping her out aswell as learning a trick!). Um...don't think she knows anymore yet, but just to prove groundwork can be amazing (which is good because we've done lots of it), we can now school from the ground with no headcollar and she's learning to halt square next to me too!!!! And yes, I do appear to have the patience of a saint don't I?...shame it only works when I'm around Faith! (I just found that getting mad not only made things worse, but it wound her up too and we'd end up going 1 step forward and about 10 steps back and it would take us about 2 weeks to get back to where we were before we had a falling out, so its just not worth doing really. Besides, playing with your horse should be fun, not stressful, and my theory is "If you can't smile while you're with your horse then you're doing it wrong!") I'm loving Triangle by the way...he's such a cutie |
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