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training tips

Language of the lunge

O
by Chris Irwin

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One of the most common (and frus-
trating) problems that people encounter
when asking a horse to go out to work
on the lunge line is the horse that sim-
ply turns in to “quit” and “won’t go” – or
the horse that stays in a small circle too
close to people, seemingly unwilling
to go “out” on to the bigger circle.
However, from the perspective of the
horse, far more often than not, the
horse who “doesn’t lunge” is doing
exactly what he or she believes they are
being asked to do. This happens
because a horse reads our impulsive
message, or push to “go,” by evaluat-
ing exactly where our core (belly button)
is aiming.
Photo 1: Here Kathryn would
like “Geordie”, a mixed German
warmblood, to go out to lunge. 2
However, her core is aiming at his hip.
This aim of the core to the hip is a com-
mon problem. Because we know that
impulsion comes from the hindquarters,
we naturally want to aim our first push
into the back end of the horse.
Photos 1 – 3: However, as Kathryn
aims her core at his hip, she is sending
only his hip “out” on the circle, which
results in Geordie essentially turning his
hindend around his front end. By aim-
ing at his hip, Kathryn is telling Geordie
to do “small turns on the forehand, piv-
oting around me.” So this is not a horse
refusing to go out on to the bigger circle
– this is a demonstration of very com-
mon “pilot error.”
Photo 4: Kathryn is now trying to
send Geordie out on the circle with her
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core focused more on his shoulder. Her
starting position and use of her “aids”
here is almost perfect. First let’s look at
what Geordie sees in Kathryn. Her core
to shoulder alignment makes it clear to
Geordie that she wants his shoulders
moving over. Her whip comes level to
his flanks, asking him to move forward,
while moving his shoulders out on a
bigger circle. It is perfect that Kathryn

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has a “bend” on the left side of her

body. This bend tells Geordie that there
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is no impulsive energy aiming into his
neck or head, which would cause him
to feel “bullied” and result in him
“counter flexing.” This would also cause
his haunches to fall in against her. Her
left hand aimed directly at the corner of
his mouth is NOT telling his head to
leave (because impulsion does NOT
come from the head, and pushing the
head will send him out counter flexed to
the right on a circle he is supposed to
be turning into on the left). Kathryn is
using her hand only as a blocking
boundary, like a closed door into her
personal space, or like a traffic officer
telling the horse that the road turning
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into Kathryn is closed. Kathryn is in the
perfect position to send Geordie out
with a push from behind with the whip,
while her core tells the shoulder to
move over, her hips are out of his face
and her left hand tells him not to turn in.
However, as we look at the lunge line
we see that there is slack from her left
hand to his halter. This slack, or lack of
blocking contact, could allow Geordie
to deliberately counterflex if he should
choose to leave her with his head flexed
out and his barrel bending in. While her
left hand aimed at his mouth is blocking 6
him from turning in to face her it pre-
vents contact on the lunge line that
would be needed to keep his head from
turning out of the circle as he departs.
Photo 5: As it turns out, Geordie is
reading Kathryn and he is seeing that
while she is sending his flanks forward
with the whip, and shoulder out with her
core, she has taken a step backwards
while she is asking him to leave to
lunge. This is also a very common prob-
lem with people – as soon as those big
(potentially dangerous) horses begin to the resolve to “stand our ground,” and rounded his neck (pulling his neck
move, our self preservation instincts we must maintain our personal bound- “back in” like a turtle sucking its head
kick in and we subconsciously tend to ary with our hand aimed at the mouth back into its shell), and has simply
back away from the horse as it starts to (exactly where the bit goes) so that we turned his head to the inside of
move. After all, we do not want to get can effectively block the neck from turn- Kathryn’s blocking hand. Because
stepped on! However, the problem ing in as the face of the horse may want Kathryn backed up, she compromised
here is that we are NOT sending an to face/confront or challenge the push. her personal space boundary and
impulsive message to the horse when Photo 6: Geordie saw that Kathryn Geordie has, like a master chess player,
we back up. Just the opposite, when we retreated when she needed to stand her used his neck to put her push “in
back up we tend to “draw the horse in” ground and push. Therefore, he check.” This photo shows the common
towards us. It is critical that we develop stopped moving forward, lifted and problem of a horse getting “inside” the

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circle because the person backed up.
The further problem here is that as
Kathryn rushes in and tries to “quickly”
regain her position she is now on the
outside of Geordie’s neck and any fur-
ther approach by her to regain her lost
ground will only push his neck farther
away from her. This can quickly lead to
an anxious horse “running away” as he
or she suddenly finds a person who just
“backed off” is now suddenly coming at
their face!
Photo 7: Kathryn has started over
successfully with her blocking hand up

8
and her core aimed at Geordie’s shoul-
der. She did not back up, so he has
finally gone out on the lunge circle.
However, if we look at Geordie’s topline
we see he is very inverted. This high
headed carriage is very stressful for a
horse and spurs adrenaline flow
through his spinal column into his brain.
Now look closely at how Kathryn is
holding the whip; it too is inverted and
pointing up. This raised whip is dis-
tressing to most horses, as it resembles
the frame of an aggressive, high-head-
ed horse. If we keep the whip low and
only raise it to the point where it is level

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to the ground (as seen in the previous
photos) then, we are “level-headed” to
the horse. We are indeed assertive in
our “push,” but we are not overly
aggressive or bullish. The only time to
raise a whip above level is when we
have been threatened by a horse (kick-
ing or striking out) and we know for cer-
tain that we did not inadvertently cause
the threat through careless use of our
body language.
Photo 8: Although Kathryn was able
to get Geordie out on the lunge with
correct position, she has now allowed
her body to drift out in front of his girth
and her core is aimed way out in front of cle. Unfortunately, an educated rider will being able to go out. This mixed mes-
Geordie. Her hand on the line is most often attempt to fix this problem sage on the lunge line of pushing the
attempting to “lead” Geordie on the cir- with side reins. Side reins do indeed head out with our body language while
cle and he is becoming visibly dis- serve a purpose, which we will look at in using “rigging” to prevent the counter-
tressed (inverted with a tight tail) as he an upcoming column. However, for flex is the leading cause of many violent
sees so much of her impulsive energy now, it should be enough to say that a and unruly gestures such as bucking,
in front of him. Kathryn is now in his way horse will get very stiff and tight in its rearing, striking and kicking out at the
instead of back on his body where her movement and will most likely react person who is asking for forward motion
push belongs. This forward pressure in “badly” if our body language is pushing from the horse.
front of the horse is the leading cause of his or her head out while we use side Photo 9: Although Kathryn has her
counter-flexed horses on the lunge cir- reins or our hand to block the head from whip low, Geordie is now extremely

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inverted and visibly stressed as Kathryn

continues to lunge him with her core
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ahead of his shoulder. I just can’t
emphasize this enough, and neither
can horses: forward movement or
“impulsion from our core” must be
directed into the body of the horse and
NEVER should we be aiming at or in
front of the head of the horse!
Photo 10: Subtle shapes/gestures
on our part can cause profound reac-
tions in most horses. Here we see that
Kathryn’s “leading” shoulder, (her right
shoulder attached to the hand holding

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the lunge line) is slightly turned in
towards Geordie’s head. This is caus-
ing his body to be too straight, with his 11
head and back inverted and his nose
turned out of the circle as a sympto-
matic reflection of him seeing Kathryn
“shouldering in” towards his head.
Photo 11: Kathryn has a low to level
whip encouraging forward from
Geordie’s flanks while her core is push-
ing his shoulder out of the circle. Also,
with a slight bend on her right side (we
shape ourselves the same way we want
to shape the horse, we “bend” our body
from the inside of the circle towards the
outside), Kathryn shows Geordie that
she is not pushing his face and he can are pulling against each other. Again,

therefore relax his neck and stretch into
her contact. Her shoulders are parallel
to Geordie without any push to his face
by her leading shoulder as we saw in
the previous photo. Kathryn’s shape
and appropriate use of her whip is
encouraging Geordie to move forward
and relax his spine as he starts to bend,
all on his own, in order to come into the
space Kathryn is opening with her
bend.
Photo 12: While Geordie is now car-
rying his neck slightly above level, we
can see that he is visibly more relaxed
throughout his body, his balance is
coming nicely, and he is beginning to
show bend and flexion from the inside
to outside of the circle. Kathryn has her
whip up and “on” for push, but it is level
as to be non-threatening. Her contact
has taken the slack out of the lunge line
to block Geordie (in case he decides on
his own to counter-flex) but her contact
is light and neither Geordie or Kathryn
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we see that the slight bend in Kathryn
from the inside-out encourages
Geordie to bend his barrel out while
allowing his neck to flex in.
Photo 13: Just a few minutes after
Geordie was so obviously stressed on
the lunge line, we see Kathryn aligned
in the correct position with her core
towards his shoulder, carrying herself
with bend, with absolutely no impulsion
aimed ahead of his shoulder, using her
whip assertively but not as a threat. We
now see that Geordie is indeed calm
and beginning to stretch while moving
out on the circle in a very balanced
frame. Also, look at the quiet, relieved ing or have “issues,” either from the
look in his eye! ground or from the saddle, more often
In closing, as always, I encourage than not, we are inadvertently causing
you to remember that the performance the very problems we seek to fix.
potential of our horses is directly related Until next month, happy trails!
to how they feel about us – and how
they feel about us is most often a reflec-
tion of how we approach them or carry
ourselves. If our horses are misbehav-

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