Rising 3 We think! what shall we do now?

[mickey]

I'm another who's not a fan of lunging unless I have to. I think I may have lunged oz once when breaking him in- we mainly did long reining then just got on with riding!! That said Rory has done a lot more lunge mainly because he's far more reactive. He's now at a stage where we get straight on. I don't lunge for the sake of lunging generally.

[DalesLady]

Sounds to me a if you have done everything he needs to do at his age.

We don't do anything other than basics such as headcollars and leading around, picking feet up and grooming until they are at least three. When they are three and if they are ready, we mouth them, then teach them what it feels like to wear a bridle and surcingle and then lead them around a bit. We longline in preference to lungeing, but do use the lunge lines with some more forward ponies who seem to have a natural balance - however, its unusual. We also teach them to have things on their backs, towel at first, then rugs, putting them on and off until they are well used to them. I think you have done all this with your boy, so keep up more of the same. He will tell you when he is ready for anything else and I would use longlining more for now as you can never do too much of that, it really helps later on with moving forward when backing.