The benefits of lungeing • The right kit • Using side reins
Q
What are the benefits of lungeing my horse, apart from allowing him to let off steam before I ride?
Melanie says... Lungeing horses has many benefits, as well as many downsides if it’s done incorrectly. Compassion and empathy are so important when working horses on the ground, so always be patient and go slowly so that your horse understands what is being asked of him.
Learning to balance
The basic idea of lungeing is to teach horses how to balance when they’re on a circle, with no rider weight to contend with. When it’s done correctly, your horse will learn how to flex, engage his core muscles and to move on three tracks. This means the inside hind places down behind the outside foreleg by swinging underneath itself, while the outside fore should swing back inside on the line of the circle.
Most people make the mistake of using lungeing simply to reduce excess energy, but this only encourages more adrenaline and higher cortisol levels. It will also teach your horse to carry on being overexcited and explosive when he’s being lunged.
Keep it chilled
We all want calm, relaxed horses in the school. The best way to train your horse to be calm for lungeing is to first teach him to walk quietly around the outside track. This can take a lot of time at first and several sessions, especially if he has been scared, worried or over-energetic in the past.
My staff train this one task endlessly. We enter the arena and ask for ‘walk on’ away from us, on the track. If the horse bursts into trot, we say nothing and do nothing. By not reacting, he will come back to walk eventually, and we praise him immediately and ask him to carry on walking around the track. It doesn’t take long for him to learn to simply walk on calmly. This is the perfect way to get a horse ready for trotting on a circle, for cooling down after lungeing, or for warming up before riding. You can judge how your horse feels in that moment and encourage calm and relaxed movement around the school.