Groundwork: leading, lungeing and long reining

Why groundwork matters

Groundwork is any training done with the handler on the ground: leading, in-hand work, lungeing and long reining. It's how young horses learn the basics before they're ridden (see Basic horse training), and it remains useful throughout a horse's life.

World Horse Welfare uses groundwork to condition horses so they're fit enough to do what we ask with minimal stress, and to help them recover from injury. Its "whole horse" approach to rehabilitation, developed at its Belwade Farm centre, builds physiotherapy and groundwork into horses' daily lives. If your horse is recovering from an injury, follow your vet's advice on what work it can do.

Bubble work: personal space

World Horse Welfare often starts with bubble work: teaching a horse about personal space. The horse and the handler each have their own "bubble", and because horses are powerful animals, they need to learn to come into the handler's space only when invited. That keeps every interaction safe, and it's the first step before lungeing or long reining.

Leading in hand

The British Horse Society calls leading a basic skill that needs practice and must be done correctly from the start, because it's the foundation of good lungeing:

• Lead at the horse's shoulder. The horse should walk forward from your voice and body position, with its head and neck in front of you. Don't drag it.
• Lead from both sides. Most horses are handled mainly from the left, so practise on the right too.
• Teach the horse to turn away from you and to move out of your space. A horse that does this will be much easier to send out on the lunge.
• Practise walking and halting, on straight lines and on a circle.
• Gradually stand further away as the horse learns to respond to your voice and body position rather than the rope.

Weaving in and out of cones or poles is a good way to practise turning and sending the horse forward. Ask a friend to watch and tell you whether the horse is moving out of your space or leaning on you.

Lungeing

On the lunge, the horse works on a circle around the handler on a long line. The BHS says it adds variety to a horse's exercise and is a great way to build a trusting relationship, and vets lunge horses during lameness assessments because lameness is often more obvious on a circle. Filming your horse trotting on each rein while it's sound gives you a record to compare against later, the BHS suggests.

What you need

For you: a hat, gloves and sturdy footwear. The BHS explains that gloves protect you from rope burn if the horse gets strong and pulls away.

For the horse, a typical BHS lunge set-up is:

• brushing boots all round
• a roller and pad, or a saddle, with a breastgirth
• side reins
• a snaffle bridle with the noseband and reins removed
• a lunge cavesson
• a lunge line and lunge whip.

Tacking up in a safe order

The BHS teaches this order:

1. Brushing boots first.
2. The roller with its pad and breastgirth, or the saddle. With a saddle, secure the stirrups so they can't slip down, and attach the side reins to the girth so they can't slide down either.
3. Attach the side reins to the roller or saddle.
4. With the horse untied, put the lead rope round its neck, undo the headcollar, then put on the cavesson and adjust it to fit.
5. The bridle goes on over the top, with its noseband and reins removed.

Never tie a horse up by the ring on the lunge cavesson, which is why it goes on last. Untack in a safe, sensible order too.

Handling the line and whip

• Coil the lunge line neatly into one hand, keeping the loops flat and the same size. Practise with the line clipped to a fence before you try it with a horse.
• Carry the whip under your arm with the lash tucked up, not trailing, while you lead the horse to the arena.
• Swap the whip from hand to hand behind your back. Never pass it in front of you, and never put it on the ground: bending down to pick it up is dangerous.
• Check the arena before you start: gate shut, and nothing that could make it unsafe.

The lungeing triangle

When lungeing to the left, the BHS teaches holding the line in the left hand like a rein, thumb on top, with the coils and the whip in the right hand. The line and the whip form two sides of a triangle, with the horse as the third.

• Keep the line straight from the horse's head to your hand, with a steady contact, so the circle stays the same size. If the horse falls in, the line goes slack and ends up on the floor.
• Stand with your knees slightly bent, hips forward and shoulders parallel to the horse. Ideally, stay still and pivot around one foot.
• Use your voice and the whip as aids, and keep the horse on an accurate circle without letting it fall in or drift out.

Sending the horse out and working

Start on the left rein, which most horses find easier because they're handled from the left. Lead the horse at its shoulder, then feed the line gently out of your hand as it walks out onto the circle. Once it is at least 5 metres away, take all the coils into the hand holding the line and turn the whip to face the horse, end pointing down, as smoothly as you can.

The BHS demonstration session follows this pattern:

1. Walk without side reins, to let the horse stretch.
2. Trot without side reins, to let it loosen up.
3. Attach the side reins and work in walk and trot, with transitions.
4. Change the rein: halt, swap the whip behind your back, change the line to your other hand and lead from the new side.
5. Finish without the side reins so the horse can stretch.

Keep circles big, and lunge for no more than 20 minutes, the BHS advises.

Long reining

In long reining, the handler works from behind the horse with two long reins. World Horse Welfare introduced it to one mare in its care only after months of lungeing and in-hand walks. They started in the arena, so they kept control while she learned something new, and after a couple of sessions moved outside onto easy, straight routes until she was confident with steering. They then gradually built up the time out until she was happy going out alone and in company. In that mare's programme, long reining came before the saddle and a rider were introduced.

Learning to lunge

Lungeing is a skill best learned from a coach with a quiet, experienced horse. In the BHS's Bronze Lungeing your horse sessions, learners practise handling the line and whip by lungeing each other, before lungeing a horse at Silver. Find a BHS coach or Approved Centre through the BHS website.

Watch how the horse moves

Groundwork lets you see your horse moving without a rider. The BHS lists signs on the ground that can point to discomfort, including disliking having its legs lifted, repeatedly resting the same leg, and resenting being tacked up. If you notice these, or your horse looks uneven on the circle, stop and talk to your vet. Behaviour problems has more on pain-related behaviour.