Ruby's Blog - Translating Rein Aids to the Lunge Line

Christine with a young Blinkbonnie Ruby

There are a number of rein aids we use in the Ecole de Legerete to help the horse understand how and where we’d like them to place their weight/balance. All of these aids act on the corners of the horse's mouth so as not to put pressure on the very sensitive bars and tongue. 

We use the same concept when lunging with the cavesson. Pulling is NEVER the answer! For example, if the horse is looking to the outside of the circle, you may ask with a vibrating upward hand for the horse to look inside.

Now, I have a bad habit of pulling on the lunge line as a means of asking the horse to go somewhere. This was glaringly obvious in my most recent lesson with Christine. 

We were working with Popsie (aka Blinkbonnie Clarkson), her cheeky Fjord cross Thoroughbred gelding and I was finding it tricky to maintain a steady contact on the lunge line. Instead of driving Popsie onto the circle with the lunge whip, I ended up with a slack rope and a pulling hand “guiding” him onto a very shoddy circle. 

This stems from my own long ingrained habit, but it really showed up the importance of using the correct aids to maintain an organised pattern. 

It is instinctual for humans to want to pull as our hands are the way in which we control our environment, but this does not translate well when working with the horses. A whip flapping behind the horse or at their shoulder is a much more effective stimulus for "go" and "move away" than pulling on their face and thus it is our main tool. Our lunge line is to set the distance away from us and to control longitudinal and lateral balance, much like our rein aids. With this in mind, the whole lunging exercise with Popsie became much cleaner and more effortless.

Ruby Kesztler - Team Member, Blinkbonnie Equestrian Centre