Viewpoint

Not Quite Classical… Better Lungeing for the Rest of Us

July 14, 2019 by Jane @ THB 8 Comments

Thinking as a bodyworker, if there were one thing I could change in the training of ridden horses, it would be the way that many people lunge their animals.

I’d be so happy if the standard practice were a simple, gentle and biomechanically correct approach that brings profound improvements to the horse’s back health and readiness for riding.

It’s not a science and it needn’t be. For most people, it’s easy to learn, easy to do and easy to continue with. At even a basic level, it conditions the horse to carry weight and to not only balance itself, but to move effectively while carrying the weight of the rider.

Every rider and horse can benefit from this, no matter the ridden goals or discipline. Horses may just happen to have a back we can sit on, but their bodies are not designed to function in the way that we ask.

Here is a simple and affordable resource that will help you to do it better: A Course in Lungeing. It’s something I’ve recommended to bodywork clients over the years, with positive results. (It does involve ditching the gadgets and moving with your horse, but you don’t mind that, do you?)

Let’s look at why I believe it’s so good.

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What often passes for lungeing

Oddly enough, many people think you don’t have to learn anything in order to lunge a horse.

It’s assumed that you just need to buy the right equipment. In all too many cases, it’s then a matter of sending the horse in a circle, achieving as much trotting in as short a time as possible.

There are plenty of goals, including many that don’t have much to do with preparation for biomechanically correct movement while being ridden.

Lungeing to warm up the horse. Lungeing to build topline. To get the horse ‘into an outline’. To make the horse listen. To make the horse understand. To ‘get the buck out’. To get weight off the horse.

It’s also what many people do when they haven’t got time to ride. It’s not good and it’s not the best option for any horse.

It takes time to prepare the horse’s back

Lungeing shouldn’t be part of a rush. It isn’t a ‘hack’, ie. some kind of shortcut or saving of time and effort, adopted to fill the gap between feeding and going to work on days when there aren’t enough hours for riding.

In the last few years, a renewed interest in a more classical, biomechanically correct approach to training has brought simple, in-hand training techniques to wider audiences. Older methods that aimed to prepare horses for ridden careers, which have been overlooked in the great rush to do everything faster, have come back into focus.

This doesn’t involve sending horses in circles around a largely stationary human. It involves walking with the horse, working with it and shaping it. It’s about educating the horse to move and to carry itself in a way that is then taken forward into ridden work.

Lungeing for ‘everyhorse’

While horses differ enormously in terms of conformation, their needs are basically the same for carrying a rider. This is true no matter what discipline their athletic capabilities and fate destine them for. It is equally true for the trail riding horse.

Biomechanically correct lungeing prepares the horse to do this. Put very, very simply, this means lungeing so that on a bend, the horse weights inside and outside legs evenly and doesn’t lean in.

Instead, this even weighting means it is able to freely lift up through the base of neck and withers, between the shoulders (i.e. the thoracic sling). Meanwhile, the hindquarters are active and load bearing. The horse moves lightly with elevation and is able to do so freely and at all paces.

Biomechanically correct lungeing helps to develop the back and teach self-carriage, which makes it humane as well as effective.

Why would anyone wish for less for their horse? The wonderful thing is that it’s not hard to do.

Therapeutic benefits of correct lungeing

As a bodyworker, I have repeatedly witnessed the improvements in horses that were helped to work correctly in this way.

Clients and associates have had success rehabilitating horses, including (and especially) ex-racehorses with serious sacroiliac dysfunction.

The strength in their bodies, the suppleness, and the ability to work softly in a magnificent shape without any kind of restriction or force is wonderful to see.

I’ve also noticed how much horses seem to enjoy working in this way, as their body and movements develop and their spirits lift. Pride becomes visible in their movement and attitude.

These horses go on to flow under the saddle. Again: who wouldn’t want that for their horse?

The thing is, once this approach is learned, the improvements come quickly. Dramatic changes can happen through 2-3 short sessions a week. It’s not time consuming at all – and you don’t need to be into dressage to do it.

Which brings us to A Course in Lungeing.

So how do we relearn lungeing?

A Course in Lungeing makes these time-tested approaches available to the owners of any horse, no matter what breed, age or conformation, or ridden discipline.

It’s perfect for people who don’t want to study for qualifications or who can’t afford or manage to attend clinics with classical trainers (you can do this in your paddock).

The course was developed by German horsewoman, Babette Teschen, based on her many years of teaching correct lungeing in workshops in Europe.

Lunging training stood out as being really helpful for my work,” writes Babette Teschen. “In as much as you learn to lunge your horse according to biomechanical principles, you are doing what is best for the health and spirit of your animal partner: you give it the means to fulfill what you want of it in a healthy way.”

What I love is their strong focus on musculoskeletal health, so much so that they’ve included contributions from an equine osteopath and an equine acupuncturist.

More info and to purchase ‘A Course in Lungeing’

What you receive with ‘A Course in Lungeing’

With this training, you can help your horse to learn to bend in a circle instead of falling in, to raise its inner shoulder, and to move with the hindquarters tracking the forelegs (think of a train on the tracks rather than a motorbike on a bend).

When your horse can do this, it will be able to free up the neck and ‘let go’ from the withers. It can develop rhythm and freedom of pace, with good ground coverage. The horse’s back muscles are freed up to do their work effectively, with its hindquarters taking up the load.

What you’ll receive:

View the first 30 pages of the book for free.
250 pages of instruction material plus videos of various exercises.
Extensive basic information of anatomy and biomechanics.
Clearly presented exercises that will help you and your horse to master the problem of moving in a circle with ease and enjoyment such as the Cone Slalom, the Stepped Pathway, and many more.
Photos and diagrams with explanations and illustrations.
A Media Library with videos, and a substantial .pdf by osteopath Maike Knifka on the theme of Physiotherapy and the Lungeing Course, with supporting videos.
Acupressure tips from acupuncturist Patrizia Harneit on video.
A special on working with horses with extra paces, such as Icelandic horses.
Tips for working with older horses and those with health problems.

The book is available as a PDF in English.

More information and to purchase ‘A Course in Lungeing’

Note: this post was published in July 2019, simply because I believe in the approach.

This has resulted in many purchases of the course. I’ve been happy to facilitate that, as it helps so many horses.

*Bondi, an Australian Stock Horse whose owner, the late Eva Thaler, introduced me to this course many years ago.*

How Well Are We Doing? Why Some Horses Thrive While Others Just Get By

September 19, 2015 by Jane @ THB 9 Comments

Look at the horses around you. Do you believe that they’re thriving? Are their lives the healthiest, richest and most fulfilling they could be – from a horse’s point of view?

OK – so how would you know?

Recently, I heard something that shook up my notions of how we look after our horses – in a good way. It confirmed my thoughts on why some ideas around horse care are good, and equally strengthened my convictions about why some others are wrong.

To cut to the chase, I found myself at an animal behavior conference, listening to a remarkable talk. In just 12 short minutes, I experienced my own work and that of many others dedicated to improving horses’ lives placed in a strong and meaningful context.

The speaker identified just why the Five Freedoms commonly used in animal welfare advocacy are no longer enough to guide us in how we treat our fellow creatures.

Being fundamental and broad, the freedoms – from hunger and thirst, from discomfort, from pain, injury or disease, to express normal behaviour, and from fear and distress – are today more associated with outright cruelty cases, rather than animals that are doing not so badly, but could maybe do better in our care.

Instead, this speaker offered a further 5 points to help us ensure that our animals – including our horses – not only avoid cruelty, but have the opportunity to positively thrive under our care.

Original article (c) Jane Clothier, https://thehorsesback.com No reproduction without permission.

The 5 Opportunities to Thrive

The talk, From Prevention of Cruelty to Optimizing Welfare, was presented by Greg Vicino, Head of Welfare at San Diego Zoo. More on Greg soon, but first, here are the five Opportunities to Thrive that he outlined.

1. Opportunity for a well-balanced diet Fresh water and a suitable, species specific diet will be provided in a way that ensures full health and vigor, both behaviorally and physically.

2. Opportunity to self-maintain An appropriate environment including shelter and species specific substrates that encourage opportunities to self-maintain.

3. Opportunity for optimal health Rapid diagnosis and treatment of injury or disease while providing supportive environments that increase the likelihood of healthy individuals.

4. Opportunity to express species-specific behavior Quality spaces and appropriate social groupings will be provided that encourage species specific behaviors at natural frequencies and of appropriate diversity while meeting social and developmental needs.

5. Opportunities for choice and control Providing conditions in which animals can exercise control and make choices to avoid suffering and distress, and make behavior meaningful.

Now published by the San Diego team: Greggor, Alison L et al. “Animal Welfare in Conservation Breeding: Applications and Challenges.” Frontiers in veterinary science vol. 5 323. 18 Dec. 2018

How well are we doing with our horses?

Do those make you think at all? They do me… thoughts have flooded in and continue to do so, especially when I talk to other equine care professionals.

In some ways, our horses share more with captive animals than the agricultural livestock they live closely with. Retaining many powerful characteristics of the wild, our horses are kept in areas many times smaller than their previous wild habitats (in evolutionary terms), with the subsequent lack of behavioral freedoms that come with that.

“We use these guiding principles for assessment…. The Opportunities are a lens we look through when evaluating an animal group for optimal welfare.” Greg Vicino

OK. so let’s take a closer look.

The Horse’s Opportunity for a Well Balanced Diet

How about feeding in a way that ensures full heath and vigor, both behaviorally and physically? So many owners associate feeding with showing love, rather than respect for the needs of another species.

We have feed that looks like muesli and makes us go ‘yummy’. We have baled forage that the horses gobble up, yet contributes to laminitis, because it’s so full of carbs.

"It's how you eat it... " Photo: J Clothier — “It’s how you eat it… “ Photo: J Clothier

And as Greg said, in a statement that made me sit right up, “It’s not just what you eat, but how you eat it”

Yes, we can take it still further. Small hole haynets moderate intake, while keeping the hind gut busy.

What’s more, the weekend after the conference, I found myself listening again to Sharon May-Davis, as she described her ‘hay high’ practice of using haynet height to restore physical balance to the horse’s lower neck and forelimbs.

The Horse’s Opportunity to Self Maintain

Track3 — Maintaining hooves. Photo: J Clothier

Some correlations are more obvious. You see, Greg Vicino’s full position is Associate Curator of Elephants and Welfare at San Diego Zoo.

One example he gave is that of providing varied sub-strata (ground surfaces) for elephants, so that they can maintain the soles and nails of their feet.

I know so many horses owners who are doing just that for their horses in their paddocks, so that unshod hooves can develop strength and balance.

And what about over-rugging?

The Horse’s Opportunity for Optimal Health

As a bodyworker and researcher into equine development problems, my feelings are probably predictable, and they may well be similar to your own. We all want our horses healthy and in fine form.

But where we have a problem is not with what we do think about, so much as what so often is not thought about.

Training methods, inappropriate riding style, too much exercise too soon… and I’m not talking about dressage, but everyday riders and owners here.

Thankfully, these subject areas that are so culturally entrenched are starting to open up more, particularly in areas such as saddle fit, head/neck position, and the ability of the horse to move in biomechanically sound ways.

The Horse’s Opportunity for Choice and Control

This I find quite moving… particularly the notion of making behavior meaningful. Think about it: what behavior may be meaningful to your horse? We are all curators of single or small groups of equines.

It’s easy for us to over-manage and micro-manage our horses’ lives, to the point where are few decisions left to make. We have many institutionalized animals that are denied individual expression.

Hello — Acting on curiosity. Photo: J Clothier

It goes without saying that we have to make decisions for our animals, and there are geographical, physical and financial limitations as to where and how they can be kept.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t do our best to make their lives interesting. In zoology, the term used is ‘enrichment’. It’s improving quality of life, beyond providing the essentials.

It’s about actively getting the most from life, not just avoiding negative states. So that’s different places to eat, finding different ways to eat. Having varied experiences. To express and act upon curiosity, Scope for play, scope for company. Places to scratch, places to roll. Other horses to touch.

The Horse’s Opportunity to Express Species-Specific Behavior

The preferred system of a boarding establishment may make for easy management, but your horse may be being denied this opportunity.

The horse kept in a small individual paddock is being denied self-expression, even when there’s an equine neighbor over the fence.

The constantly rugged horse is unable to roll and feel the texture of dirt in its coat. And what about ‘keep-em-clean’ hoods that hide the subtle facial expressions horses use to communicate with one another?

So, is your horse thriving?

We’re all on a learning curve with this one.

It’s true that many horses have it worse than our beloved animals at home, but that doesn’t mean that all our horses are getting enough of what they need for optimal quality of physical, mental and – yes – emotional life.

Physical, mental and - yes - emotional health. Photo: J Clothier — Thriving physically, mentally and – yes – emotionally. Photo: J Clothier

Likewise, the fact that other people are in a position to do it better than us – higher income and land ownership do open up more choices for animal management – doesn’t mean that we’re not getting a lot of it right (and, sometimes, better than those other owners).

So, let’s take this as encouragement to keep going and to keep striving, making improvements as we develop our understanding
of what it takes for our horses to thrive.

With thanks to Greg Vicino for allowing me to reproduce content from the forthcoming paper.

Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.

The Opportunities to Thrive were created as part of a welfare management system at San Diego Zoo Global by Vicino and Miller, with the latter now at the Chicago Zoological Society – Brookfield Zoo.

Greg A. Vicino, Associate Curator of Elephants and Animal Welfare, studied Biological Anthropology at UC Davis where he focused on non-human primate, husbandry, behavior, welfare, and socialization. Previously, he held positions as an Animal Care Supervisor of Primates for the San Diego Zoo, and interim Animal Services Manager Al AIn Zoo.

Mr. Vicino focuses on integrated management strategies, in which all animals receive the benefit of every specialty at each facility. With a heavy emphasis on feeding strategies, behavioral diversity, and species specific social behavior, he has championed the idea that every animal in our care should be given an Opportunity to Thrive.

Lance J. Miller, Ph.D., Senior Director of Animal Welfare Research, received his graduate training in Experimental Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi. Previously, he held positions as a Research Manager at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Scientist for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

Dr. Miller focuses on animal welfare to help ensure that each individual animal within zoological facilities is thriving. He is currently a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Research and Technology Committee, Vice Chair of the AZA Animal Welfare Committee, and a steering committee member for the AZA Behavioral Scientific Advisory Group.

What This Pony’s Tail Tells Us About Owners Who Abandon Their Horses

August 10, 2014 by Jane @ THB 26 Comments

I’ve been thinking about horses and abandonment recently. By abandonment, I mean a situation where a treasured or most favored horse has suffered an irreparable injury and has suddenly been dropped by the humans who previously lavished attention upon it. It happens quite a bit.

Do the horses know they’ve been abandoned? Yes, I believe so.

Take this pony, who currently goes by the name of Bob. His conformation speaks of Quarter Horse crossed with Welsh, with the Quarter Horse mainly walking behind the Welsh. Paddock condition doesn’t help on the looks front, as he’s obviously a ‘fat on fresh air’ type. But I’m putting that to one side, as it’s Bob himself that I’m interested in.

A power-packed pocket rocket, he’s one of those lovely straightforward guys that makes you smile almost as soon as you meet him. He gives every appearance of having been a true sports pony and, whatever his sport was (barrel racing?), he did it fast. The lad finds it hard to stand still in the paddock – he is wired to move.

And yet, with a damaged knee that tells of an unpleasant accident, he subsequently found himself at the sales.

At some point during this process, his tail was cut off. I somehow doubt that the person responsible did it to make memento jewelry. We have to assume that the hair was sold, as the owner at that time knew the pony was advancing on a one-way trip to the meat man (or to ‘the doggers’, to use Australia’s typically direct term).

How to get a few more bucks out of a horse

In economic terms, this action could be called ‘asset stripping’ – ie, getting every last cent possible by breaking a possession down and selling the parts. There’s obviously no regard for preservation of the whole or what’s left at the end.

Now, I do realize that once a horse is slaughtered, its remains are subject to asset stripping. Indeed, there’s a company near here that collects tendons for use in research. I also realize that by the time a horse hits the slaughter house floor, its tail will be somewhat less than clean, for a variety of reasons. There are obvious practicalities involved. But what I’m concerned about here is what’s happening to a living horse. So, let’s return to Bob…

Clearly, he hit a remarkable upswing when he was bought from the sales by a good man with plenty of land. Thankfully, the new owner wasn’t concerned about lack of ridability due to the knee injury, and was happy just to watch Bob being a pony in the paddock. If the pony demonstrated that he could carry a toddler along on the lead rein, then that would be great. But if he couldn’t, that was fine too. He wouldn’t be required to earn his keep – he could just be Bob.

At this point, I was asked to come out and give the pony some bodywork, just to see whether it would help make him more comfortable.

Now, during a bodywork session, it’s always apparent to me when a horse has lost its trust in people. I don’t mean a horse with so-called behavioral issues, although there are plenty of those, but a horse that knows its people have given up on it.

Such horses maintain a distance – not necessarily detaching themselves from what is happening, as they can be very physically cooperative. But they don’t come forward in an emotional sense. There’s a reserve that is incongruous to everything else that is going on.

It’s like being with a partner whose mind is partly on the football. Their presence is missing by, ooh let’s say 5-25%, depending on how much they support that team. No way can you not be aware of it! (I’m trying desperately to think of the female partner equivalent and failing at the moment.)

I spent an hour working with this pony and yet he still maintained his not-quite-there reserve. That was the choice that felt best to him at the time, and that was OK with me. So I left, expecting that to be that.

Driving away, I thought more about that crudely chopped tail. The tail that somebody’s hands had once carefully groomed had, ultimately, been roughly removed. I had to wonder whether it was by the same or another pair of hands.

The next day, earlier than expected, I received a phone call from Bob’s owner.

“I went to the paddock today,” he said, “and that pony walked straight up to me for the first time, looking for a fuss. He’s not done that before.”

Now, this is the kind of thing I like to hear. It might sound a small thing, but as the owner recognized, the small thing was significant precisely because it had been absent before. Something important had changed for Bob during the intervening hours.

He felt physically better and had decided that it was OK to trust a person again.

I am so pleased that this outcome transpired for this particular pony. And I am grateful for meeting horses like this, for it’s their beautiful forgiving souls that prevent my anger from rising.

For the truth is that I quietly despise owners who will use such a willing horse or pony up, and then dump their injured animal at the sales, in full knowledge that it is only ever going to be slaughtered at the end of a few stress-inducing weeks or days. Very few share Bob’s luck at this stage.

I am certainly not misguided into thinking that there is a home for every broken and injured horse, or even that all horses can find a home, injured or not. Those who make it to companion or paddock ornament status are incredibly fortunate. And I recognize that not all horses are treated as I treat mine. People own horses for different reasons.

But I have to ask, what price a dignified end? It seems that the attraction of a couple of hundred bucks, symbolized by Bob’s severed tail, is simply too much for their owners to turn away.