Lunge Lesson

The reason for delaying this post until today is because I really wanted to blog about a lesson that happened today, so I've decided to postpone what I was going to write about at the weekend until this weekend. Now that that's been explained; on with the post!

Some students at my university are training for their Preliminary Teaching Test so that they can go on to teach riders of all abilities. In order to do this, they need people to be the 'guinea pigs' if you will. I signed up to do this, and today I had my first lesson. It was a bit different as rather than the bog standard group lesson, I had to ride on the lunge as it is one of the skills the PTT candidates need to demonstrate. Keep in mind that I haven't sat on a horse since the week starting September 12th, and I may as well have been a new rider. All the hard work that went towards sorting out my lower leg issues (those of you who have read my previous blog posts will know all about this!) has basically come to nothing, so the girl teaching me had plenty to work with.

To start with, we did a bit of walk and trot (rising and sitting) on both reins, and it was quickly established that I have multiple problems. One of these is my back: I sit up straight, but my lower back is curved too much. This all ties in with my lower leg issues because if there is tightness in my hips and/or knees, then my lower leg will go forward. I have quite a weak core and I sometimes have issues with my back in day-to-day life, so I wasn't too surprised when we talked about this causing my leg problems. Nevertheless, it was decided that no-stirrup work was probably the best exercise to do as I was quite tight in legs.

Now I don't mind no stirrup work, because I know that it is beneficial. What I forgot about sitting trot is that when the pony gets going it becomes a bit less pleasant. It wasn't bouncy, but there was still leg tension (as the lesson was so short we couldn't really do exercises to lengthen them) which made it not as good as it could be. What was quite interesting was that even just five minutes of working without the stirrups made quite a bit of difference when I took the stirrups back. My leg was much closer to where it should be, and it was a lot easier to sit with my back less arched.

Riding on the lunge is something that has never been an option to me before, simply because it wasn't offered at my first riding school and I'm not even sure it is offered at the stables I currently ride out (I've never asked though, so don't quote me on that). It was really peculiar to have someone else in complete control of the horse, but it was great as it meant I could just concentrate on my position. I'm going to carry on with being a rider for the PTT students, and hopefully I'll be able to ride on the lunge again and try a couple of different exercises. Maybe I can be a project rider? Haha :)

Have you ever ridden on the lunge? How did you find it? Let me know!

Until next time...