The Horse Logic Blog

By: Sara McKiness of Horse Logic.

Lunging a horse is used for many reasons; however I am only going to touch on a few.

First, you can use lunging as part of a training program. This allows the training to not only build a relationship with the horse, but also to condition the horse. Second, lunging is a great way to establish good communication on the ground with your horse. Third, it is a great exercise to build up your horse’s muscles. There are many exercises, that when used properly, can assist in building up your horse’s muscles and top line. Fourth, lunging is used to help take the edge off of a nervous horse, or one that has not had much turn out. Lastly, lunging is also used in riding programs to assist with teaching riders feel and balance without having to steer the horse. There are many other ways to lunge your horse, but these are the main ones.

Now that you know some of the many reasons that lunging is useful I can show you how to properly teach your horse to lunge. This will benefit your relationship with your horse, and also to help your communication with him. By having better communication you can have more fun with your horse and also be able to do more things with him.

Equipment needed for training a horse to lunge:

1. Halter that is correctly fit
2. Lung line, one that is soft is preferable
3. Lunge Whip
4. Gloves for protection
5. Helmet, I recommend always having one on when working with horses.

Start by checking the fit of your halter on your horse. Loop your lunge line in a neat and tangle free fashion. You do NOT want to ever wrap the lunge line around your hand. Put on your helmet and gloves on (I highly recommend gloves anytime you lunge a horse, they are an added measure of safety and will also give you a little extra grip with the line). Now you can attach the lunge line to your horse's halter. I prefer to attach the line to the ring underneath the noseband, this way if your horse suddenly changes direction you will not have to worry about him getting tangled up in the line. If the line is attached at one of the rings on the cheek pieces, it can tangle up on his head if he were to change directions on you. Now you are ready to move into the arena.

Make sure that you are the only one in the arena. It is not safe for other riders to ride around a horse that is untrained for lunging. It is also important to have an arena that has secure gates, in the event that your horse does get loose on you. This way he will not go far, and also can be easily caught again to resume work. Remember to always secure all of the gates in the arena, before you start with lunging any horse.

When you enter the arena, make sure to close the gate behind you. Take your horse to an area that you feel comfortable starting the lunging training. Keep in mind that the fewer distractions the better.

Start with walking your horse on a larger 20 meter circle; this will help introduce the shape that you are going to be asking for while lunging. You want him to pay attention to you. This is the same thing that you were teaching him when showing him how to lead. Make sure that he is constantly looking to you for the correct answer. The better that your horse is paying attention to you the easier it will be to show him how to lunge. One way to find out how well he is paying attention to is ask for some transitions to halt. If he halts praise him and ask for walk again. Another way to keep him paying attention to you is ask for some trot transitions, and then back down to walk. This keeps him from getting too bored. You can also tell if he is listening to you if one of his ears is tipped towards you. This shows that he is paying attention to you and not something outside the arena. If something else catches his attention his ears will automatically tip in that direction. Just keep this in mind when working with him.

Once he is really paying attention to you, try directing him on the same shape just several steps away from him. At this point you will have to make sure that he does not follow you into the circle. If he does try and follow into the circle, just ask him to step away from you again. You can ask him to stay out away from you with the handle of the lunge whip. You press slightly into his chest and when he moves away take the pressure away. Another way you can direct your horse away from you on a lunge circle is to get slightly behind his hip line and "drive" him forward. Praise him when he is back out walking on a 20 meter circle with you at his side. Again, when he is responding well to halt transitions and paying attention to you try to take several steps away from him. This will put you about 3-4 feet away from his shoulder towards the center of the lunge circle.

Once he is paying attention to you from this distance try to ask him for a quiet trot. You are asking for the trot to make sure that he will give you the transition up while maintain the shape you are asking of him. Which in this case it is a 20 meter circle with you standing towards the center, which will start getting him to pay attention to you while you are maintaining a little distance from him.

Go ahead and take several more steps away from your horse. Keep him out on the "circle" while you take the steps away. He may or may not try and follow you again. If he does NOT attempt to follow you ask for a halt and go and praise him with scratches. This goes back to the grooming in training him to lead. He will appreciate all of the positive attention and look to keep performing the tasks that you are asking of him.

After rewarding him with scratches, take several steps away again. He should stay out on the circle now, as he is starting to understand what you are asking of him. If he does not just ask him to step away and repeat many times until he can stay at the distance that you were before.

Now that you are able to have him walk on a somewhat lunge circle take several more steps away from your horse. At this point you should be almost completely in the center of a 20 meter circle. While you are not at the center yet make sure to walk in a circle as to help your horse to understand that you want him to stay out on the circle, but also to keep moving. If he slows down, just get behind his hipline and drive him. Quick note, when you are behind his hipline make sure that you stay away from the kicking zone. By driving him from behind you are still staying towards the center of the lunge circle, while walking a small circle. You can drive him by clucking or swishing the whip gently at his hindquarters.

After you are able to drive him on the lunge circle while maintaining distance from him, you can now start to stand in place and have him move around you in a lunge circle. One of the things to look for in your horse is slowing down. If you can keep him moving (quietly) then he is more likely to figure out what you want him to do. Forward is a very important step in training. You can't shape your horse without forward. You have to have energy to shape, but you not want the scared energy. Your goal is to have a good "calm" energy, where your horse is not excited and still paying attention to you.

When you are able to keep your horse out on the actual lunge circle there should be at triangle between you the horse, and the lunge whip. You are going to be at the center of the circle, the lunge line will be a wall of the triangle, the horse is another wall, and the lunge whip completes the triangle. The whip is used to encourage forward motion and energy. However it is not intended to create excitement. When using the whip always start out easy and quiet. The goal is not get the horse all worked up and excited, it is to maintain a calm and relaxed horse.


Now that your horse can maintain an actual lunge circle at the walk ask him for a trot. You ask him for trot by giving a slight jog in place, and can also reinforce with a slight clucking sound. Once he moves forward into trot praise him with a good boy, but make sure to keep him trotting. You want to make sure that your horse is still being responsive while maintaining the circle shape. If he wants to dive in at all just get behind the hipline and drive him forward (while staying out of the kicking zone). Once he is moving more forward and maintaining a circle, ask for a down transition to walk, then to halt. Praise him with lots of scratches and praise. He will really start to associate all of the praise with doing a good job, and this will help to motivate him to work even harder for you. It also builds a good solid relationship and also builds good trust between you and your horse.

After praising him, ask him to go back out on your lunge circle. Now you are ready to move onto canter. In this gate, your horse can get away from you the easiest. I just want you to keep this in mind. There are a couple of little things that you can do that will help to eliminate any chance for your horse to leave your lunge circle at the canter.

Once he is walking nicely and still keeping his focus on you ask for a trot. After several circles of trot, ask for canter. You ask for canter by giving a little skip and or making a kissing noise (You can also use another verbal command that you feel is appropriate. These verbal commands are just the ones that I choose to use). While you are making your kissing noise, he should respond by picking up his trot pace. If he does not go into canter after half a circle use the whip very quietly to encourage the transition. Once he is at the canter make sure that his head does not look outside of the lunge circle. You can accomplish this by giving a slight pull on the lunge line in order to position his head. Once he has moved his head into the correct position give some slack back into the line. You will probably have to repeat the positioning many times before your horse finally understands where he should be putting head. This is normal, and will gradually go away. After a couple of circles at the canter ask for a down transition by giving the verbal que of "easy", if this fails to get a sown transition, you can give the line slight jiggle. If the first jiggles does not work just increase the pressure very slightly until you get a correct response. If your horse decides to run away at the canter on the lunge line, you can follow the lunge circle and direct your horse into the wall. This will give him no choice but to stop. This is a pretty unusual occurrence, especially if you have taken your time with your horses training, and also built a good steady relationship. After you have stopped him with the wall, just go back and ask for trot to walk transitions. Once this can easily be accomplished you can resume asking for the canter. Again make sure to keep a slight position of his head to the inside.

After he completes a couple of nice circles at canter, ask for a downward transition to trot, then walk, and finally halt. Give him plenty of praise. Now you can repeat the same steps in the opposite direction.

As your horse becomes more responsive in his lunging training ask for many different transitions. This will help prevent your horse form becoming bored. Also try to find the time to practice these simple steps at least 3 days per week, for around 15 minutes at a time. Pretty soon your horse will be lunging very nicely and be very responsive.

Always remember to remain calm with both yourself and your horse. Good horse training is very calm and relaxed. Next month's article will elaborate on lunging with side reins and also how to introduce tack.

Learn something new every month from Horse Logic. A new article will be featured every month in From the Horse’s Mouth by: Sara McKiness from Horse Logic.

©Horse Logic 2007

Sara McKiness
Horse Logic
Saint Charles, IL
630-631-2746
sara@horselogic.net
www.horselogic.net