Long Reining/Lungeing advice

[sck1]

It is now 7 weeks since I broke my collarbone and consultant says I can drive and ride (as long as I don't fall off!). Blue went lame at the weekend with possible slight laminitis or more likely a bruised sole where he had a whopping great big stone wedged in his foot from the field.

Anyway, I don't want to risk my shoulder for a couple of weeks and in any case Blue hasn't got a shoe on his near front and is recovering from his lameness. We both need to get fit as well.

So I thought I would do some long reining and some lungeing as a re-introduction for work. It is very important to keep Blue's brain engaged as I think he has been very stressed whilst I was hurt and is now very clingy to me.

Do you have any advice or suggestions for us please?

[Debbie]

Which collarbone was broken? Could you perhaps do leading exercises like handy pony where you lead him in/under/through/over obstacles? That would give his brain something to think about, but a slower pace for you. You could stop as soon as you felt a twinge or anything.

[NFK Dumpling]

I would be very careful about lunging or longreining until your collarbone bone is stronger as you will have half a tonne of pony on the end of the rein..........although I expect Blue is much better behaved than James, my instructor broke her shoulder lunging when her toe caught in the school surface and she fell - the horse wasn't misbehaving.

[sck1]

I have broken my left hand collarbone, Debbie.
I will be very careful, Mandy - Blue is very good to lunge/long rein but I will be very aware of the surface. Perhaps groundwork for a couple of weeks first.

[benjismum]

I have a bad shoulder injury at the moment, and I can't do any lungeing, it doesn't help that Alf can be naughty on the lunge, but any slight jarring could easily set your recovery time back.

I'm only able to do in-hand stuff with my good side at the moment, but this can be good getting them thinking and learning about general politeness etc and has the advantage that you can fairly easily do it with one hand, without risking your shoulder.