Learning to Lunge

This week I have tried my hand at lunging (or is it lungeing?) horses. It's all part of a horse handling module for my university course, and needless to say it was rather entertaining.

Some riders will have learnt to canter or worked on their sitting trot or any other number of things on a lunge line, or will have had a round pen at their riding school/stables in which to see the exercise in motion. I am not such a person; the closest I have been to a round pen is via Monty Roberts' demonstrations on Horse & Country, and Heartland via Netflix. This meant that I had to learn about tack that was entirely new to me on top of learning to actual practical element of lunging the horse! I wasn't alone in this, thankfully.

We were split up into groups. In my group, there were two people that knew what they were doing, and then me and another girl who didn't have a Scooby-Doo. The other girl and I helped one of the more competent individuals tack up a giant of a horse so we could start to get to grips with the cavesson headcollar and the side reins amongst other things. The original plan was for me to lunge the horse the other girl had tacked up, whilst the two I had been with in the stables took turns working with the horse the three of us had all tacked up. That didn't really work out, as the other horse turned lungeing into Join-Up after being startled by some students appearing in the gallery, so we were getting no where fast - but it was absolutely hilarious, and even the member of staff with us couldn't resist a little play!

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Shows a horse being lunged in a headcollar,
and wearing boots to prevent injury. What other tack would you usually
see on a horse being lunged? 

When it was actually my turn to lunge, I quickly discovered that there is more to it than just standing turning on the spot and using voice aids. The gentle giant was a tad lazy so frequently required you to step closer in an authoritative manner to keep him trotting. There was also the fact that because of his size and his age, the circle had to be slightly larger than usual, so walking around my own small circle was kind of a must. Sorting out the knitting (which is a brilliant term for the length of lunge line coiled in your hand) was a bit more fiddly than I would have anticipated as well. It wasn't so much all fingers and thumbs as much as just letting it get a bit slack and then not really being able to wrap it back around my hand as I was using the whip to keep him moving. 

There are multiple reasons for lungeing, such as for training young horses and exercising horses that are exuberant or have been out of work for a while, but there are other reasons too. If a horse has a sore/injured back and/or is being brought back into work as part of rehabilitation then lungeing can help develop the muscle and build up strength. This does require extra care to make sure the workload is equal on both reins, and in some cases may be unsuitable (long-reining may be a better option as the horse is moving in a straight line), but it is a very useful method for bringing a horse back up to condition when it is too soon to be introducing the weight of a rider. Alternatively, a horse might be lunged if the human is injured and is unable to ride for whatever reason. This should again only be done if it is safe to do so - I really wouldn't recommend someone with a broken arm or leg going to lunge a horse, especially if it has been out of work and has a lot of pent up energy!

If you can learn to lunge, I would recommend it. You'll need the skill for some of the BHS qualifications, and if you ever own a horse then it would be a great skill to have. Why not contact your local stables to see if it's possible to lunge? 

Until next time...