Lungeing can be used throughout a horse's active life as a method of training or just for exercise. Control of the Horse is threefold firstly along the lunge rein, then in obedience to the trainer's voice and some impulsion may need to be created to a lesser extent by the lunge whip.

Lungeing teaches the Horse to listen, to understand voice commands, to trust and obey the trainer, helping to build concentration, muscle structure, rhythm, strength and patience. In the early training of a young Horse you achieve all this without the unaccustomed and difficult to balance weight of the rider.

The main uses of Lungeing:

· The early training of a young or uneducated horse.

· Exercises for horses in work to supple and strengthen.

· Re Schooling of older horses.

· Re-establishing obedience and training for horses coming back into work after a break.

· Exercising horses that cannot be ridden for one reason or another.

· Initial exercise for a horse before being ridden.

· Advanced Training.

· Training riders in co-ordination, fitness and balance.

Voice commands must be simple, clear and different from each other so the horse can easily understand and not get confused by two words sounding the same. You need to decide which words you will use for each movement and then say exactly the same word every time. The upward transition commands should be said with an upward lift to the voice encouraging the horse to move forward and increase pace. All downward transition commands should have a downward low tone to them and be long and drawn out to allow the horse time to carry out the movement. Try using the horse's name first in all upward transitions once the Horse knows its name it becomes easy to gain its attention.

When training Carriage Horses that may be driven using more than one horse at a time this makes it possible to single out one horse without causing the other Horses to also respond. If one horse is hanging back you call its name, because each horse is accustomed to move forward in response to its name it pays attention and moves forward.