Give me some lunging tips

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins

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Oct 10, 2004
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At my lesson at the weekend, we were working on trying to maintain a consistent contact so that Ben is encouraged to soften. It is evident that my efforts at a consistent contact are poor and I fiddle, fiddle and fiddle some more with my hands. My RI has given me homework to help sort this out, but she suggested that Ben would find it beneficial to be lunged in side reins once a week so that he gets used to the feel of a consistent contact.

The yard manager showed me how to lunge him yesterday and he did this well. However, I'm very much of a novice at lunging and I wondered if anyone had any tips on how to do this well. I'm wondering how long I should stay in one pace? How many times should I increase/decrease the circle? What can I do to make it interesting for him?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks x
 
Personally I like to move about a lot when I'm lunging. I'll walk up and down the school so Rubic is essentially "going large" round the school, I'll stop and do circles in various places, spiral in and out of circles, get her to go over some poles on the ground. I also do lots of transitions to start (walk-halt-walk to start then walk-trot-walk) and change the rein 3/4 times in one session. I can't do it just now but when I was trying to keep weight off Rubic I would do a lot of work in trot with small breaks in walk but I would move around a lot to give her something to think about. It'd be awfully boring for the horse and who-ever was lunging just to stay on a 20m circle the whole time so I like to try and vary it to keep her attention when I'm lunging.
 
Yes I move about a lot when lunging Storm. I keep it large most of the time because of her condition, but I do like to make use of the whole school and walk about a lot.
 
I've spent a long time learning to lunge - really it's as complicated as riding! I've just managed to get Hebe to canter on the lunge - she had it firmly fixed in her head that cantering circles is impossible, she'd just buck and take off.

My RI says it's important to stay in one place rather than move around, because that gives the horse a clear framework, in a triangle, with the rein at one end and the whip at the other. You can be very expressive with the whip - just raising it or lowering it, or pointing at a particular leg or the shoulder will be taken as a message by the horse; you can experiment with that for yourself with Ben. As for the other questions, it depends what you want your horse to do - are you asking for good paces, or good transitions, or just obedience - then when you've achieved whatever it is for that session, it's time to stop! But in any case, probably not more than 10 or 15 minutes on each rein. Could you ask your RI to spend some of your lesson time lunging, or ask the yard manager for a few lessons?
 
I 'lunge' in an NH way, I walk a small circle within the horses circle, I do things a bit differently so I won't go into detail, but to spark Moët up I do lots of rein changes - but she wears a halter so I don't need to change the lunge line like others do when they clip onto the bit.

Poles are fun on the lunge and makes it interesting.

I tend to only do 4-6 laps on one rein then change. I move up and down the school altering the circle size as I feel.

I lunged her yesterday for the first time for a few months, she was awesome and wanted to canter lots so I took advantage and we worked on cantering yesterday, sometimes I decide to work on trot and collection (if I put the Pessoa on or side reins)
 
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To be honest to maintain a horse on a correct contact on a lunge is not dissimilar to learning to ride with correct contact! Like learning to ride you first have to be an effective lunger so that the horse is tracking up and working though his back and then add side reins or some other schooling aid such a pessoa to give the horse the feel of rein contact. Inexperienced lunging is just as likely to have the horse working above or behind the contact and so teaching bad habits.

An alternative is to ask your instructor if she can give you some lessons with her lunging you riding on the lunge so you start to get the idea of how the horse should feel when working correctly and give you some exercises to do which will help you also with achieving the same feeling when you are riding alone.
 
Lunging effectively is all about body position and energy so is best taught in person. I'd really recommend getting a couple of lessons to get you started and give you ideas.
 
I agree with EML on this one.

Learning to lunge is quite an art if you want to achieve something specific like an outline and contact. There is far more to it than just sending the horse round in circles. You will need to keep the horse on the circle and work in the triangle i.e. Horse, line, whip. You need to be working the horse from behind into the contact whilst maintaining control at the front end, same as when you are riding, but from the ground. This generally happens over a period of time, larger circles to start working on balance and paces before moving on to the contact work.

There are a number of books that will guide you in the basic direction but, as with riding I think you really need lessons to do it well and effectively.

A Pessoa would be easier, but get someone to show you how, and how to fit it correctly.
 
I was taught how to get a horse to use itself correctly without the side reins etc, I wouldn't know where to start with those. I don't lunge off s bit do wouldn't have anywhere to put them.
But the circle was small so its not something I do a lot of but it helped the cob to not keep looking to the outside and therefore having the wrong bend.

I did have lunge lessons when I did my exams and the constant trot, trot, trot when my horse was did my head in. To me if the horse does what you want shut up, but we were taught to keep it up. My whip is dragging on the floor unless I need a bit of forwards, if she is moving I don't want to be a nag. Its her job to stay in gait.
 
Not about lunging - since our yard does like eml.
But about contact.
I understand from my own current lessons that each RI advises something different, but very often instruction centres on how much or how little contact you have, the pressure you have in your hands and what you should or should not aspire to. That is a first step of course.
However, as I have posted here before, the break through for me (riding my share horse so no instructor intervening), was to sense through my fingers what I was getting from the horse - thinking about communication. What I was feeling from the horse, not the other way round.
Then one switches to formal lessons in a school and apparently the rein is seen only as a tool to limit movement -used to control and keep the head straight, or to contain the movement of the front legs, so as to get the hind legs working more. Never once is the word "feel" used. No feed back from the horse to the rider. I dont understand how you can get an intelligent horse to accept contact if the mouth rein hand communication is just one way and entirely restricting and negative. Horses arent stupid.
 
Anyone who tells you that the rein is only to restrict movement or contain the front legs is not understanding what they are aiming for.

Horses can work correctly onto the lightest of reins as long as the contact is consistant, responsive and reactive ( as you discovered for yourself?) . I prefer the old fashioned term 'in good form' as on a 'contact' as it is so misleading and lead to people being fixated with the head and so their reins and not their whole body and its affect on the horse.
 
Depends what you mean by "lunging" really. If it involves standing in the middle holding a schooling whip while the horse goes around you with or without any gadgets to encourage lowering its head then my top tip would be don't do it.

For me, it is long lining all the way. That way, the horse stays balanced and there is no scary whip needed. In 9-12 weeks of long lining a horse's back is in shape, strong and it works naturally with its legs coming under rather than using other methods to try to train or force it into a position it isn't yet strong enough or balanced enough to maintain.

When I saw the evidence and the results of long lining I threw away my schooling whip and side reins! :wink:
 
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