How to Lunge Your Horse Effectively

Lunging is a fantastic form of exercise for horses. It’s not only great for building fitness and strength but also provides an opportunity to improve your horse’s way of going, balance, and responsiveness - all from the ground.

Toby demonstrating his moves on the lunge during an Evening Extravaganza at Moulton College.

At Horses Inside Out, we’re big believers in the value of lunging, but as with any training method, it’s not just what you do that matters - it’s how you do it. When done well, lunging can become a powerful tool in your training programme. In this article Gillian looks at how to lunge effectively and ensure you get the most out of every session.

Why Lunge?

There are so many reasons to include lunging in your weekly training routine:

• Improves movement and way of going: You can assess how the horse tracks up, how the back moves in canter, and see things you can’t always easily observe when riding.

• Builds communication: Lunging helps develop a bond between horse and handler. It teaches the horse to respond to your voice aids, preparing them for ridden work.

• Crack those Transitions: You can sharpen transitions between paces, helping improve rhythm, balance, and communication.

• A Chance to Observe and adjust: You get a front-row view of how your horse moves, giving you valuable insight into their natural balance and movement.

  
  

For your horse to feel all these benefits, it’s key to recognise that you need to lunge correctly, and that takes skill and practice.

Make Lunging a Regular Part of Your Routine

If lunging is something you only do occasionally, your horse may find it overly exciting. They might run off, buck, or behave unpredictably simply because it feels new and exciting.

To avoid this, aim to lunge regularly, perhaps once or twice a week, this way it becomes a normal and familiar part of your horse’s training programme. This consistency also helps build confidence for both you, the handler and your horse.

Let’s now take a look at three key skills that you as the handler need to get just right.

1. The Art of Rope Handling

Rope handling is a skill in itself. The more fluid and confident you are with the lunge line, the more effective your communication will be.

Practice without your horse to begin with so you can learn how to organise the lunge line into even loops in your hand. Practice lengthening and shortening the line so it becomes easy and second nature. For safety, you don’t want to let the rope drag on the floor.  Also, perfect the art of changing the rein and altering the way you hold the lunge line. Practice switching the rope from one hand to the other—either fingers-to-fingers or back-of-hand to back-of-hand. Get comfortable confident in all these rope skills before trying it with your horse.

Top tip: Clip the line to a tie ring on the wall and practice walking backwards and forwards to simulate your horse moving away or toward you.

2. Body Position and Forming a Triangle

Think of you and your horse as forming a triangle. You are the top point, the two sides are the lunge line and the whip and the base is your horse. Your positioning within this triangle has a big impact on how you communicate with your horse.

Neutral position: Standing in the middle of the horse’s shoulder and hip angles maintains balance and rhythm.

More forward (in line with the horse’s nose): This “braking” position slows your horse down.

More behind (in line with the quarters): A “driving” position encourages forward movement and can also make the circle smaller.

Tiny shifts in your position can lead to big changes in your horse’s response. Next time you lunge, take a step left or right and watch how it changes the way your horse moves.

3. Body Language - Your Silent Aid

Horses are incredibly responsive to body language. Just as they use posture and movement to communicate with each other, they’re reading your cues too. You can use changes in your posture and body language to tell your horse what you want him to do.

• To encourage your horse to move forwards and stay out on the circle. Stand tall, lift your chest, shoulders back, head up. Spread your arms slightly to “make yourself bigger.”

• To ask your horse to slow down or stop. Drop your shoulders, look down and make your body smaller.

• Keep your elbows close to your sides for a neutral tone. Move your arm out to the side when asking for an upward transition.

Try lunging just using body language, so no voice aids and see how responsive your horse becomes.

4. The Power of Consistent Voice Aids

Voice commands are a cornerstone of effective lunging. But tone of voice and consistency is everything - you need to use clear and distinct cues for each pace.

Upward transitions: Start with the horse’s name followed by the command - for example., “Toby, walk on” or “Toby, canter.”

Downward transitions: Use “and” before the cue, “And walk,” “And trot.” Make the tone sing-song and descending, but with a clear, staccato finish to signal the end of the aid.

Avoid using the same noise (like a click) for every action. How can the horse tell the difference between “more energy in trot” and “canter” if you use the same sound?

Practice makes perfect. Make the focus for a couple of sessions just transitions, walk-halt-walk-halt or trot-canter-trot-canter, so your horse learns and understands what each voice aid means.

A valuable training tool

Lunging is way more than just a way to burn energy and hopefully calm a horse now. It’s a thoughtful training tool that builds strength, improves balance, enhances communication, and offers valuable insights into your horse’s movement.

Done well it’s incredibly beneficial for your horse. Like we’ve already mentioned, all great things take practice. Take the time to focus on improving your rope handling, positioning, body language, and voice cues, and you’ll soon see an improvement in your lunging skills and that will transfer to your horse too.  

In Part Two of this lunging series, we’ll explore common problems and how to fix them!