So, you’ve got the hang of the basics of long-reining. What’s next? If you’d like to make the most of your groundwork, here’s how to start bringing lateral work into play
Whether you’re out of the saddle due to injury, your horse needs some riderless exercise, or you just fancy a change from the norm, long-reining is a great tool to add to your training repertoire. There’s more to it than simply taking your horse for a walk – once you’ve mastered the basics you can even work on dressage moves using long lines. One of the benefits of long-reining is the deepened connection you’ll feel to your horse – and him to you. It’s a subtle art that demands total focus and co-operation in a calm, sensitive way. So, why not give it a go, freshen up your training plan and improve your bond at the same time?
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Use your warm-up as an opportunity to practise centre lines. If he can produce a straight centre line on the long-reins, without your legs to support him, it’ll be much easier to replicate under saddle.
Achieving confidence and straightness
Before you think about asking your horse to go sideways, you first need to be confident that you can move him forward and in a straight line. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it’s crucial to establish before you step it up a level. Your aim is to have a horse who’s happy to go forwards on his own, and this means you’ll find yourself marching along to keep up.
A good way to test your horse’s straightness is to work him away from the side of the arena. For a weak, green or spooky horse, this can be a particular challenge as working without the support of the arena wall means he has to hold himself on a straight line, rather than relying on the boundary or fence line
When approaching a corner, think about making a square turn, then driving him forward and straight on the exit. This encourages him to engage his hindquarters and step under his body on the turn while maintaining control through the rest of his body, essentially revving up his engine and generating power.
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Unless your horse is already very established in his lateral work, it’s a good idea to have a helper on hand to assist while you teach him what to do. If you don’t have anyone around to help, begin practising leg-yield steps into a corner where you’re able to take advantage of his natural inclination to gravitate back to the track.
Positioning yourself for lateral work
Where you stand in relation to your horse has a big impact. For instance, if you want him to move from right to left, step to the left (outside) of his quarters. This is especially important while he’s learning the basics of lateral work. Placing yourself to the outside naturally creates pressure from your inside rein along the side of his body and influences his inside hindleg, just as your inside leg would if you were in the saddle. It also puts you in a good place to reinforce your aid to step across with a flick of the inside rein if needed.
Getting started with lateral work
Whether your horse’s level of experience, teaching or revisiting the fundamentals of lateral work is always time well spent. Leg-yield steps are a good place to start because horses tend to pick them up quite quickly.
To begin with, work on a three-quarter line, with a helper positioned at your horse’s girth. Ensure he’s going forward and straight, then step to his outside and ask your helper to push behind his girth (where your inside leg would be) to encourage him over.
As soon as you get a couple of sideways steps, praise him and take the pressure off before repeating the process.
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Maintain a light contact with your horse’s mouth to encourage him to remain in a soft frame as you ask him to move over, aiming for a soft bend through his body as he steps sideways.
Getting the hang of it
Once your horse starts to understand what you’re looking for and gives you some leg-yield steps on both reins, ask him to move over using your aids via the long-reins rather than pressure from your helper.
If he isn’t sure what you mean, ask your helper to step back in while giving the aids with the line at the same time, to reinforce what they mean. Repeat this process until he understands the aid and moves when you ask.
Progressing to shoulder-in
The natural progression from here is shoulder-in. It’s the basis of more advanced work and, once your horse understands how to move his body on three tracks, it paves the way for developing renvers, travers and half-pass.
Your positioning is similar to leg-yield, but the preparation is slightly different. Just as you would when introducing the concept under saddle, start by working your horse on a 10-metre circle at the beginning of the long side. As you come to the point of completing the circle, maintain the angle and ask your horse to move down the long side. Ask your helper to push on your horse’s girth to support him in maintaining bend through his body. You’ll need to balance the pressure on your inside rein with that of your outside in order to control his outside shoulder.
This will take a bit of practice, so don’t rush it and avoid introducing it at the end of a session – you all need clear minds to focus on the demands of the movement. The most important thing is to not ask for too much too soon. If your horse gives you a couple of steps of shoulder-in, reward him by allowing him to go straight again and praise him with your voice.
Keep practising and gradually build up the number of steps, angle and consistency of his frame as he becomes more established.
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If your horse starts to lose angle through his body, tap with the outside rein to ask him to bring his shoulder away from the track again.
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If you begin to lose momentum or your horse starts to get worried, take the pressure off him – do a circuit of the school and allow him forwards freely before asking again.
About turn on the forehand
Turn on the forehand is another exercise that lends itself to work on long-reins due to the need for straightness to execute it properly.
Firstly, your horse needs to understand your aid for half-halt via your voice or through the reins, or a combination of both. To do this, think about asking him to make his steps smaller rather than slower, encouraging him to keep going forwards as you ask for the half-halt. This will engage his hindquarters, which is key to making a turn on the forehand.
Once you’ve practised this a few times, bring your horse onto a square and give the aid for a half-halt just before you make your first turn.
Ask for the turn with your inside rein, but keep his head and neck as straight as possible so you don’t lose control of his outside shoulder. Encourage his inside hindleg to step under his body to make the turn, giving him a tap with the rein if needed to show him what you’re after.
Once you’ve made the turn, move forwards and straight before repeating, and then try it again in the opposite direction.
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It’s important that, as well as practising the exercises, you regularly release the pressure and allow your horse to go forwards freely as a reward.
The world is your oyster
Mastering lateral work on long-reins won’t happen overnight, but it’s worth the investment of your time. Once you have these foundation exercises in the bag, you can start mixing it up and combining exercises to challenge your horse further. You’ll soon feel the benefit under saddle of your time spent working him from the ground.
