Lunging your horse safely

Lunging looks like the simplest thing in the world until you are standing in the middle of it. Most of what goes wrong is position, not the horse.

Lunging is one of those skills that looks completely straightforward from the fence. The horse goes round, you stand in the middle, and that appears to be the whole of it.

Then you have a go, and within about ninety seconds you are being towed sideways by a horse who has decided the circle is now twenty-five metres wide and located somewhere near the gate.

I want to say something before any of the rest of it. Lunging is the piece of groundwork most likely to hurt somebody, because you are attached by a long line to a large animal who is moving fast, and the failure mode is that the line runs through your hand or wraps around some part of you. Everything below is worth knowing, and none of it substitutes for having someone with you the first few times. That is not me being cautious for the sake of it. It is the honest answer.

Where to stand, which is most of it

Here is the thing that makes lunging click, and it is almost never explained properly.

You are not standing in the middle of a circle. You are moving on a small circle of your own, staying level with the horse's girth, holding a triangle: the line to his head is one side, the whip pointing at his hindquarters is another, and his body is the third.

From there:

• Ahead of his girth slows him or turns him in. You are in front of the movement, so you are blocking it.
• Behind his girth, towards the hip, sends him forward. You are driving.
• Level with the girth is neutral, and neutral is where you want to live.

Almost every lunging problem I get asked about is a position problem wearing a costume. A horse falling in is usually a person who has drifted behind him. A horse who will not go forward is usually a person standing slightly in front without realising.

The size of the circle

A circle of about 15 to 20 metres is a reasonable working size for most horses.

Smaller is not gentler. A tight circle at trot puts real, repeated load on the inside joints, and the smaller it gets the harder that becomes, particularly on a young horse, an unfit one or one coming back from time off. If a horse pulls the circle small, that is worth looking at rather than accepting.

Keep the sessions short. Fifteen to twenty minutes of actual work, changing direction regularly, is plenty for most horses. Lunging is deceptively hard work, and because you are standing still it is very easy to overdo without noticing. Twice as long does not make it twice as useful.

What good lunging actually looks like

This is the part that separates lunging from just making the horse go round.

You are looking for a horse tracking evenly on the arc of the circle, with his body bent gently along it rather than his neck cranked in and his shoulder falling out. You want a consistent rhythm you could count. You want his inside ear on you, checking in, while the rest of him gets on with the job.

You are also, and this is the useful bit, watching him move without a rider on him. That is not a small thing. A lot of what you feel from the saddle is easier to see from the ground, and lunging is one of the few times you get a proper look at your own horse in motion.

If something looks uneven or different from usual, stop. That is a conversation for your vet rather than something to work through. I am a coach, and telling the difference between a soundness problem and a training problem is exactly where my job ends and theirs begins.

Frequently asked questions

How long should I lunge for? Fifteen to twenty minutes of work for a horse in normal condition, split between both directions. Less if he is young, unfit or coming back from a break. Lunging is harder than it looks from where you are standing.

Can I lunge instead of riding? For a session here and there, yes, and it has real value: it lets you see how he is moving and it works him without the complication of your weight. As a permanent substitute it is not ideal, because a circle at the end of a line is a narrow kind of work to build a horse on.

My horse just runs. What do I do? Usually the answer is smaller and slower rather than firmer. Bring it back to walk, get the walk genuinely established in both directions over several sessions, and only ask for trot when the walk is boring. Running is very often a horse who does not yet understand the question.

Do I need side reins? Not to learn on, and I would leave them off until your position and timing are consistent. They change what he can do with his head and neck, and adding that while you are still working out where to stand means you cannot tell which part is causing what.

Is lunging bad for a horse's legs? It can be, done small, fast, long or on poor ground. Sensible sized circles, sensible durations and good footing make it a normal part of a horse's work rather than a risk to it.