Working on 1
Line / Connected Lunging
by Trisha Wren
Lunging your horse is a common and accepted way of
exercising or warming him up. People use
it as a ‘pre-flight check’, to get the kinks out or make sure their horse is listening
before they get on his back. It’s a
useful technique to teach a young horse, to get them used to voice commands and
transitions. You could teach your horse
pole work, or to jump, without the hindrance of a rider on his back. With a bit of imagination there are lots of
constructive things you can do with your horse on a lunge line to keep it
interesting and fun.
The down side of conventional lunging is that it can
become very boring and mechanical. If
all you are doing is trotting your horse round and round on a fairly static
circle, spare a thought for how tedious that must be for him! Many horses simply race around, or get into
such a mechanical rhythm that there is no hope of connection between you and
them. The biggest problem is with the
horse that goes around in incorrect posture, commonly with the shoulder to the
inside and the head tipped to the outside – absolutely not the type of carriage
we want to encourage.
|
Conventional lunging - |
Connected lunging – 1 line work - |
The ‘connected’ method of lunging your horse varies
from the traditional in a few ways. The
connection of the line to the halter is to the side of the horse’s face, rather
than to a central ring on a lunging cavesson.
The line goes through the side ring, crosses over the noseband, and
attaches to the cheek ring on the off side.
This configuration encourages the horse to release more correctly at the
poll, instead of tilting his head or nose.
Secondly, and possibly most importantly, you are going to walk with your
horse, instead of standing in one place and sending the horse around you. This enables you to keep the exercise much
more interesting and the horse’s posture more correct. Thirdly – and this is where the ‘connection’
comes in – your aim is to ensure that no slack / loop goes in the line between
you and the horse. This doesn’t mean
that you will be hanging on for grim death – make sure your posture is good,
joints soft and absorbing, your elbow is connected to your side and that your
hand is soft – more that you are maintaining a clear and consistent
communication with the horse. Finally,
you will actually be moving your body in different ways in order to support,
influence and improve his posture with your own.
I’ll assume your horse knows how to move around you on
a lunge line already; my goal here is to help you improve your current
technique, rather than teach you how to lunge from scratch. Ask him to walk on, and walk with him;
remember your aim is to maintain connection on the line at all times. Start closer to him than you would if you
were lunging, maybe 8-10 feet away, and roughly level with his flank area. Now, instead of a circle, think of walking a
square, or rectangle; go straight first, concentrating on the forward
impulsion. For your corners, slow your
feet slightly and start turning (rotating) your torso away from the horse. Point your stick (I use a Tteam ‘wand’, but
you could still use your lunge whip, or a dressage stick) at his girth area
whilst still asking for forwards, keeping your elbow close to your side. Your posture combined with the direction of
the stick will encourage him to bend around you for a few steps, reaching his
inside hind further underneath and releasing his head and neck. Straighten back out again. You’ll get into a rhythm where your body is
turning in to him slightly to go straight, and away from him on the
corners. You using your body in this way
in connection travels right up the line and encourages him to do the same with
his. You are therefore asking and
supporting him to rebalance, come through from behind, and soften in front –
instead of leaning on you, rushing, or turning his head to the outside.
If your horse is unsettled at any point, or head high,
or heavy, you can try alternate slides on the line. Holding the line in your left hand, reach
forward with your right and take the contact, an arms length in front of your
left hand. As your right hand starts sliding back towards you on the line your
left hand will reach forwards and take the contact; as the left starts sliding
back the right reaches forwards and so on.
As you do this, let your body go with the side to side rhythm. This is very soothing for the horse, and
gives him nothing to lean on whilst also encouraging him to soften and
rebalance himself.
For more detail
contact Trisha about Connected Riding, or see ‘Connected Groundwork I’ by Peggy
Cummings. Peggy Cummings will be
conducting clinics in NZ in early March 2008.
©Trisha Wren
August 2007
as printed in: The Organic Equine magazine (Sep 2007)