The Art of Lunging

​Last summer, MM Training instructors focused a good portion of ground training lessons on teaching our students correct lunging techniques. Through the years, we have found that lunging can be such a great training tool for horse and handler. Handlers can learn some skills that will improve their overall horsemanship, and the horse can learn a number of maneuvers to add to its future training success under saddle. Lunging is not an easy exercise to perform, nor is it easy to teach. But, as instruc-tors, we felt that we needed to address lunging in more depth because we saw so many people lunging their horses incorrectly. If you don’t lunge correctly, you will never reap the rewards that proper lunging can bring to you and your horse.

We see many horse owners use lunging only to blow off their horse’s steam — letting their horses run around with their heads hanging out of the circle and dropping their shoulders. Or worse yet, the horse is totally undisciplined and deciding what gait it chooses to perform and when it choose to do it. I think lunging in this manor is such a waste of time. If we are going to take the time to lunge, wouldn’t it be beneficial to advance our horse’s training while doing it? Proper lunging is a very disciplined exercise, and it requires control of the horses body parts.

The first body part we need to control is the horse’s mind. The MM Training Program achieves control over the horse’s mind in the round pen (underground training) before ever teaching horses to lunge. Once we have established control over the horse’s mind, the second thing we need from our horse is consistent movement in both directions. Our program achieves this with our baby lunging technique.

Then, when we have mind control and consistent movement in place, the next priority in lunging correctly is to expect our horses to arc their bodies around the circle. By doing, this we are developing our horse’s muscle memory. This memory is very important because it will carry over into the saddle. When I start a colt, I can always tell if it has been lunged properly. It understands what a circle is.

When our horses are being disciplined, and they are holding a circle on their own, we are then able to go to more advanced training on the lunge line. This advanced training will again be maneuvers that we will expect from our horse when riding it. Maneuvers include smooth upward and downward transitions, rating speed and performing three speeds to every gait. We eventually can even teach the horse the beginning stages of collection on the lunge line, while performing large and small circles.

Throughout all the lunge line training, handlers are learning many skills as well. On the ground, they are able to see correctness even if they can’t feel it yet in the saddle. They are learning to read their horses better. They are becoming more self aware of their own body language and what it is telling their horse. And believe it or not, they are honing their rhythm, timing and feel skills as well. All of these aspects make them better horsemen and riders.

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of proper lunging, please join us for the ground training dimension of our 3-D Mini Clinics. We will help advance horses and handlers to a new standard for their lunge line work and demonstrate how the art of lunging can be a powerful tool to add to any training program.