When I decided to refocus my riding to dressage, I made a valiant effort to find someone to give me regular longe lessons. Shockingly, this was much more difficult than I had expected! I would hear things like, “you’ve been riding all your life, why do you need a longe lesson?”
To me, those comments were completely off-base. Why do we continue to train with others, despite having ridden most of our lives? Because we can always improve. We can always learn something from others’ experiences, which are different from our own.
Longing allows riders a fantastic opportunity to really get in tune with what our bodies are actually doing while we are riding, think along these lines:
We might be holding tension where we didn’t even know it – masked by our efforts to get a movement or ask the horse to relax (funny, isn’t it?!).
There is a reason pupils at the Spanish Riding School do not touch the reins for at least 6 months. While this is not practical for someone who is riding as a hobby, this principal is critical to instill in our students, and something to remember ourselves.
Have you ever asked a beginner to drop her stirrups? Watch the leg – it says up on the sides of the horse and grips, without the rider knowing this is happening. Ask a more experienced rider, and the leg immediately hangs long and loose. This is a perfect example of why no stirrup/no rein work is so important. Gripping, tight riders are not effective in any discipline Riders need to contract and relax our muscles at will.
Vitor Silva, who I mentioned in my post about Equine Affaire, also gives long line lessons at his riding school. All of the upper-level movements are performed on the long lines, allowing the rider to focus solely on how the horse feels in the movement and where her body should be. This type of training can transform a good rider into a great one.
I encourage everyone to really push to find an experienced longer with a reliable longe horse and participate in longe sessions as often as possible. Have you ever tried riding with your eyes closed? If not, try! It opens up a whole new world of senses.
Who takes, and gives, regular longe lessons? What have you found to be the greatest benefits?
Essential Equestrian 
Although I don’t take longe lessons, I do ride bridless and that has helped me as a dressage rider on so many levels. It has definitely made me a much better rider and I am so much more aware of my body. I often see people being tense or bracing on the reins without even knowing it. I think longe lessons are great for riders at any level to work on having an independent seat!
Thanks for your comment! I definitely agree that many riders do not realize they brace against the reins and/or use them for support.
I couldn’t agree more with you regarding the huge benefit of training on the lunge (UK here!). I teach on my own coaching programmes and most of the Start programme (few months) is on the lunge, I also been known to blind-fold my riders 🙂 So hugely underused lunging is nowadays and there are less and less suitable horses available too. I believe a good lunge horse is of massive importance, lunge lessons on weak, poorly trained horses are of little use to the rider and a pain for the horse.
I do a lot of simple biomechanics off-horse or on a simulator whenever possible too 🙂
That is great you have access to a simulator! I’ve watched videos of simulator work and think it would be a great tool. I definitely agree about a quality longe horse as well; they are certainly hard to come by.
Simulators (the advanced ones) are really helpful although sadly there isn’t many around! They save plenty of discomfort to many horses in the early stages of learning, would love to see more of them 🙂
I also lunge advanced riders on my Performance programme too 🙂