Training a horse to lunge for the first time

I’ve already mentioned before in this blog how beneficial lungeing is. It’s very useful for horses and ponies which:

1. Have cold backs
2. Are very lively
3. Haven’t been ridden for a while
4. Are young and unbacked
5. Are being re-trained after racing or a long time out at grass
6. Are being trained for dressage or showjumping – in order to improve rhythm and way of going.
7. Are naughty and need a bit of discipline before a child gets up.

I have taught people to lunge horses and ponies and, while they have no problem lungeing my animals, they have gone home to find that no matter what they do, the horse just won’t lunge. The horse will go sideways, backwards, upwards – any way except forwards. This is called resistance and can be very frustrating to deal with, especially if you’re on your own.

Don’t despair! The following tips might help:

Create a lungeing ring
The first thing to do with a difficult horse is make an enclosed circle in which to lunge him. A more permanent one can be made of wooden fencing but I just make it out of electric tape (not actually electrified) and plastic electric fence posts. The advantage of this is you can put up the lungeing circle anywhere you like and move it around, making it bigger or smaller to suit your horse or pony.
A circle of about 18 metres in diametre should be fine.

Use side reins
There’s no point trying to lunge a horse without side reins. The side reins help keep the horse under control and teach him to accept the bit. Don’t make them too tight in the beginning as it will encourage the horse to rear and he may fall over backwards and injure you or himself. You can gradually tighten the side reins as the weeks go by but never so tight that he is behind the vertical.

Walk slightly behind the horse
If he won’t go forwards, you can ask a friend to lead the horse around until he gets used to being lunged. If you’re on your own, walk slightly behind him until he learns to go forward. Make sure you stay well out of reach of his hind legs so that you don’t get kicked. When he learns to walk and trot forwards, you can then stand in the middle of the circle and create the lungeing ‘triangle’: one side is the horse’s body, one side is the lungeing rope and the other side is the whip.

Be careful using the whip
Lungeing whips are not meant to be used to beat horses. The whip takes the place of your legs and is supposed to move the horse forward. Usually you won’t need to touch the horse with the lash but follow him around with it or else make a slight crack on the ground behind his hind legs. I have had several horses and ponies which have been terrified by beatings from other people with lungeing whips and it makes them very hard to relax. I would not use a whip with these animals unless they calm down and become lazy. I could never use a lungeing whip with my dressage horse who had been badly broken by a previous owner and who would take off and gallop madly in circles the moment he spotted the whip.

30 minutes is enough
Don’t do too much lungeing, especially with very young and old horses as circling is hard on their joints. 15 minutes on each rein – a total of 30 minutes – is enough. Other trainers might feel differently but I wouldn’t lunge a horse younger than three years old. Horses should do the same work on both reins (clockwise and anti-clockwise) to build up correct muscles. Remember horses are like right and left handed people and will resist going the way that feels awkward. The only way around this is to keep trying. Don’t give up and let the horse go the way he likes best.