Lungeing (Revisited)

I was working a mustang several days ago in the round-pen when I was asked what is value of lungeing. As we began to discuss it, I related much of what we discussed here in My .02 Cents Worth some time back, as well as brining some additional ideas to the forefront for this person.

My basic premise remains that, "Lungeing is not merely horse exercise." There are many facets to lungeing that we either take for granted or do not watch for because we are only running off excess energy from the horse. What an opportunity to "direct" that energy just as we would if we were on the horse's back.

Everything we do from the ground, we can do on the horse's back. Everything we do from the horse's back, we can do from the ground (except for being on the back of the animal).

In that, what is our basic position while lungeing? If I get too far in front of the horse's shoulder, it comes to a stop because I am blocking the forward compulsion. Too far behind, and I am driving the horse from the rear.

As Karen and I discussed the concepts of teaching the horse to work at the lunge, Karen made it crystal clear as to the relation of body position to the horse that breaks it down more simply than that of blocking the shoulder vs driving the horse from behind.

If time were to stop at that particular instance (in lungeing the horse) and you were picked up and set on the horse at that instant, where would you be? Would you be sitting on the horse's tail, rump, neck, head, withers, or would you be seated upon the back of the horse in the proper riding position? There in lies where our concentration should be. We are asking the horse to go forward "with us." Our forward moving shoulder opens the door in the direction "we" are moving, while our following shoulder closes the door behind while maintaining our riding position with the horse. Thus we are in unison with the movement of the horse from where our riding perspective is "with" the animal.

When we work the horse at the lunge, what are we working "toward?" If we are running off excess energy only, we may as well just turn them out into the arena and let them be a horse (which is important as well from time to time) to go run, buck and fart.

If we merely swing a rope behind the horse as it moves, what are we doing in the lunge process? Nothing. Just driving the horse forward. IT'S MOVING ALREADY! Walk with the animal in a smaller circle at the center of the diameter of the pen. Your feet are in cadence with the movement of the horse.

As the horse is moving at a nice, relaxed, trot, I am now concentrating on the movement and physical aspects of how the horse is moving. Is the horse in proper form? In other words, is the movement fluid, giving, supple, etc…? Or is the head/nose pointed outside the circle, outside of the ring, or in towards the center too far. In either case, this will cause the forging of one shoulder or the other as the horse moves. The horse then, under rider, can take the bit, set the jaw against it, and continue to forge with the shoulder, thus taking that communication via the bit away from the rider.

We want the horse to supple into the movement, give of it's head, jaw, poll, shoulders, haunches, so that we have that fluidity of movement and communication while the horse is under us. If we don't have it, to what ever degree, in the ground work, we will lose even more while seated upon the animal's back.

As I communicate via the lead rope, I can, with small and incremental corrections, ask for the nose/head/poll/shoulder of the horse. In each instance where the horse properly gives, the compulsion from the lunge line is released to a normal working position.

The horse learns to "give" as it works and we can then begin working toward the advanced suppling of that give to decrease and increase the diameter of our working circle without solely relying upon the dictates of the barrier created by the round-pen panels.

We can and should work toward that communication wherein the horse gives by feeling the weight of the line "come up" as we take in a little line. Thus we can teach the horse to decrease and increase the diameter of it's work to a small 10' circle. The smaller the circle, the harder the work is for the horse. So we do not want to ask the horse to maintain a small diameter circle at the trot or canter for extended periods for then there is no relief. As the circle gets smaller, the horse utilizes the haunches much more extensively since that is how a horse controls it's direction…the haunches.

As we work, the horse may "bulge" in toward the center of the diameter that it is working within. How do we address that? The lunge whip is not something merely to crack to move the horse out. Practice must be taken in the use of the lunge whip to utilize it to it's optimum. Going back to where we ride and where we concentrate while lungeing or riding, we are going to "lay" the lash of the whip toward the area of the horse that our leg would be. When the horse complies, the whip is returned to the neutral position.

We can then advance the work to teach the horse to stop and back off of the position of the lash of the lunge whip.

As I continued with the work and spoke about lungeing, it dawned on as we progressed, this question, "how often do we think about downward progression of the gaits vs upward transitions?"

We often work at the trot, raise to the canter, then the downward transition back to the trot. Canter to trot is not all that difficult since the horse expends a lot of energy having all of its feet off of the ground to remain in the canter (it must be noted here that the trot affords the fullest exercise for the muscle groups). But how often do we address the downward transition to the "walk?"

In our thought of lungeing, since we are in fact, riding the horse from the ground, do we work at the trot at all times when we are riding? Why then do we only ask the horse to trot and canter while working at the lunge? The downward transition allows the horse to realize that we can direct the walk, trot, and canter. This also allows the horse to relax into its natural movement at the walk, while still giving everything else we have spoken of.

"Long and Low" is as much of the important balance when asked as, "collected and engaged."

Yours in good training,
Phil West