Longeing, the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Longeing, 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Longeing has become a dirty word in the new "Natural Horsemanship" world, where "join up" through "round penning" is now in vogue.  For many years I and numerous other trainers have used the round pen and  done "round penning" but called it "free longeing" .  This practice, whichever name you give it,  is just a small sliver of what is possible with longeing.

In free longeing things like leadership,  voice commands, and body language can be taught, and horses who are kept in pens can get some much needed exercise. However, horses can and usually do, go around out of balance, bent  to the outside,  heavy on the forehand, high headed,  dragging their hind end,  dropped back and many other issues. Until some equipment is added, and used with skill and compassion,  these postures and balance challenges cannot be addressed, except with a rider on the horse;'s back.   For all except the really skilled rider, recognizing and correcting these issues from the horse's back is difficult if not impossible.  Learning to see and correct poor balance,  which appears as disobedience, stiffness or heaviness in riding can more easily be done by a person on the ground. 

Out of balance, dropped back, dragging hind end

 When the use of a longe line attached to the bridle or a longeing cavesson,  possibly side reins, and a longeing surcingle is is added and used correctly,  so much more can be done to teach those things mentioned above, and balance, understanding of rein cues, engagement of the  back and hind end,  great body language and voice cues for humans,  understanding of horse body language,  softening of rein aids,  improved flexibility in horses, and the list goes on and on.  That would be Good, yes?

The good

Neither longeing or free longeing should be done for more than 20 minutes at a time.  Longeing is inherently demanding on the shoulders and the joints of the hind legs.  Longeing for longer periods of time, or longeing every day can contribute to discomfort and degeneration. Nor should the horse be longed in a pen that is too small for it. The minimum size of a longeing circle should be 40 to 50 feet for a small horse and 60 to 70 feet for a large horse.  Any thing smaller than that puts added strain on the horse's body.  If your horse is very advanced in Dressage and has learned to carry their weight on the hind and  is conditioned and strong through out his body  longeing a larger horse on a smaller circle could be useful for practicing the beginnings of voltes or  pirouettes without the added weight and strain of the rider  But using a small round pen and longeing endlessly, or pointlessly; that would be Ugly.

 Using side reins without knowlege or understanding of their biomechanical effect on the horse can be downright cruel. Using a longe line that is heavy on a bridle or cavesson or using heavy hands is at worst unkind, and at best not useful to the horse's understanding and development.   That would be Bad.  Learning the uses of various types of side reins, how to use a longe line to help the horse to bend and to teach the horse to give to the bit,  how to use your whip as an aid improve pushing power ; all these and more can be taught to the young horse or the horse who needs training without the distraction of the rider.  Learning to longe correctly, kindly, compassionately, and knowledgeably can open a whole new world and provide exercise, connection, and training advancement to the horse and rider. 

The bad, the very bad.

I encourage you to learn about  good longeing.  It is another  step towards refinement and and mastery. Watch for the upcoming online course on Longeing at www.wholehorsemanship.com. With lots of audio and video  in addition to written descriptions of good longeing practice,  you can learn to use this safe and effective training methodology from your own computer.  You can watch and then go do as many times as needed.  See your horse get softer, easier, happier, more flexible and more fun to ride as you longe.