Intermediate: Lunging

Lunging (or longing) is the art of standing in the middle of a circle with a long rope that your horse, attached to the other end, goes around the outside of a circle. Nothing to it!

Why would we bother with such an activity?
- to improve the horse's way of going. Rhythm, balance and coordination are all easier to master without a rider!
- to observe the horse from the ground (either checking for soundness or watching movement etc)
- to take relax or warmup a tense horse before riding
- to work the horse without riding
- to teach voice commands
- to start a young horse before backing them
- to strengthen the horse
- to enable a rider to focus solely on their position

Ok so maybe it is a useful tool after all. So what's required to do this?
- rider: should be wearing a helmet and gloves. Must not be wearing spurs (and if you're doing Pony Club/EC exams you will be penalized if you do! Reason being if you trip while lunging things can get very bad very quickly...)
- horse: boots all around. They are more likely to hit themselves on the lungeline, so should be appropriately booted. May be tacked up or not. If they have a saddle, make sure the stirrups are run up and knotted so they don't come loose and bang unfairly against the horse. If they have no saddle, a lunging surcingle is often used (essentially a large girth that goes all the way around the horse and has rings that side reins can be attached to).

Surcingle
Likewise a lunging cavesson (looks like a big halter with a very thick noseband, a throat latch, and some extra rings on it) can go over either a halter or a bridle to attache the lunge line. In most exam scenarios this is preferred.
- lunge line (think extra-long lead line) should be held by the rider and done up to either the cavesson or the bridle.

Lunging Cavesson

Note that there are a lot of lunging gadgets (for lack of a better word) that in the hands of somebody who really knows what they're doing can be used to help train a horse through a variety of issues. However, it is incredibly easy to do a ton of harm with these and not so easy to get the truly good results so use them with great caution and only under the instruction of a qualified coach.

Side reins are the most commonly used. These run straight from bit to the side of the girth (although some people choose to attach them to the d-rings instead). Done correctly this can teach a horse to bring their hind end underneath them, their back up, and to stretch down into the contact very much as we want them to do when we're riding. Similarly by shortening the inside one slightly it can help create the correct bend. Done incorrectly you can have a horse who leans on them (and later your hands) with their hind end trailing way out behind them, or overtucks their chin to their chest to avoid the contact altogether, or in extremely bad cases (ie too tight too fast on a green horse) who'll rear and flip over. So while very useful and often applied, make sure you know what you're doing before you choose to use them! For the PC and EC exams you will be expected to use side reins correctly.

Side reins

A similar idea but one that strives to avoid allowing the horse to lean is the chambon martingale which makes a triangle from between the horse's legs through the bit up to the pole and back again. Note that this should never be ridden in! (There's the Degauge martingale if you need essentially the same effect mounted). There's also a variation out now that involves ropes going around the hocks to get them to tuck their hind end under. The idea's theoretically not half bad but the practical reality is a little dodgy. And definitely not to be attempted by an amateur. To put this in perspective, every classical trainer I know will avoid this entire paragraph (although they do all use sidereins from the above).

One of many gadgets

Ok so how do you attach the lungeline to the horse?
- first option is to use a lunging cavesson and attach the lungeline to one of the rings (either centre or on the inside of your circle). The cavesson must be tight enough that when the horse is lunging it doesn't slip (or the cheekpiece on the outside will go over their eye).
- second option is to attach to the inside bit ring. This is seriously frowned upon in all testing scenarios. Reason being you can, in fact, pull the bit through the horse's mouth with this method. Both unpleasant and ineffective.
- third option is the "Barnum" method where the lungeline goes through the inside bit ring, runs parallel to the cheek piece, over the crown piece, and down the cheek piece on the outside to do up to the outside bit ring. This is my personal favourite as it avoids the bit-through-the-mouth issue entirely, allows you to use both reins together (as you would while riding) and has the added benefit of putting pressure on the pole. The down side to this method is that when you switch direction, which you should do often, it's a pita to unhook and reconnect. Should the horse shy or bolt when you're in the middle of setting it up, this would be very bad. In an exam situation, stick with the cavesson.
- another option is to wrap the lungeline once around the cheekpieces and noseband on the inside, go over the noseband, wrap around the cheekpieces and the noseband on the outside, and do it back up to itself underneath. This has the benefit of not using the bit at all and applying pressure to the nose, but is a serious pita to set up and judging just the right length of lungeline to begin wrapping with is a bit of an art in itself. I have seen this used and done it once or twice to try it, but I don't know anybody who uses it as their primary method.

Alright, all tacked up and ready to go! Now what?
You want to make a triangle, with you at the centre of the circle as the point, the lunge line to the horse's head one side, horse's body the second side, and the lungewhip from you pointing toward the horse's tail as the third point.

Neutral position: Dark blue - lunge line, dotted blue - where your body should point, green - where the whip should point

The lungewhip acts as your leg -- point it to the back of the horse to encourage forward; point it to his girth area to keep him out; lower it (or in extreme cases put it behind you) to chill the horse out. Your shoulders can also seriously impact the horse's performance. Remember the horse is a prey animal and will instinctively go away from you. Your neutral and most frequently used position should have your body facing the horse's shoulder. Angling yourself so you're slightly behind him, with the shoulder on the direction he's going slightly back (so your body is facing almost the direction he's going) and he'll accelerate in that direction. Stand slightly ahead and turn that same shoulder in to him (so you're facing more towards the hind end) and you'll find they slow down. In general though, you want to stand in the middle of the circle with your body pointing at the girth. Simple right? hahaha go try it -- it's usually the hardest thing novice lungers find to master. They generally end up ahead of the horse trying to lead him -- resulting in (as noted above) him stopping. Quite amusing from the sidelines but very frustrating for the person who doesn't understand exactly what's going on!

Oops! One of the most common mistakes from a novice lunger is to get ahead of the horse... This usually results in the horse stopping and/or turning in to the middle. Note also that by this point they are no longer anywhere near the middle of the circle.

Important things while lunging:
- if you're inexperienced, make sure somebody is supervising and avoid lunging a green horse till you've practiced with one who knows its job! Remember, you wouldn't've wanted to ride an TB fresh off the track for your first ever riding lesson, so don't try lunging something challenging until you know what you're doing either.
- make sure all tack fits appropriately
- never put a rider on with sidereins done up (although you can replace them once they're on). Don't lunge a rider till you've got mountains of experience with everything else on here.
- always wear gloves
- it's a good idea to always lunge in an enclosed space. Not always possible, but if you have the option. . .
- never let the lunge line touch the ground (and officially same goes for the whip -- if you're in an exam scenario practice this! It takes a fair amount of skill to change direction on the lunge w/o putting down the whip :)
- likewise never all the lunge line to get wrapped around your hand, arm or leg. This mistake can be fatal should the horse bolt. Take it very seriously.
- keep your lunging sessions short - 20 minutes on a lunge line is close to an hour of riding in a larger ring.
- always keep your eye on the horse. Both to make sure you're with-it when the squirrel darts across the ring and spooks your horse who spins and is suddenly running the wrong direction w/ the lungeline over his neck, AND to pay attention to what he's telling you. They will get tired much faster on the lunge than you'd expect. Keep in mind that muscle tired and adrenaline do not always play well together. A spun horse will keep galloping long after their body should've told them to stop. It's your responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen.
- once you get the hang of lunging, get somebody to teach you to longline. Between the two, you can teach the horse all sorts of cool things :)