Controversial Opinion on lungeing Aids!

A month ago I post on Instagram 2 pictures of two different horses lungeing.

The purpose of the session was Stretching. I asked which horse do you think is doing it better ?

Around 200 people answered Horse A which I agree with. But I also said that one picture was photoshopped. Is finding out that Horse A is using a lungeing aids would change your opinion on which horse stretch better? It should NOT , fact is that A , aids or not is still doing it better. Yet some people that found out the answer of Horse A changed their mind…. Why the horse didn’t change his movement….

Now regarding all the comments, and the passion that some “ All natural work with no AIDS what’s so ever’’ believers put into it, I had to explain my self and write this blog article.

The principal difference we have to accept is the muscles build with this training system on “no help, never” is non sufficient for high level of showjumping on most horses.

You can NOT have the same strength from a soft home gym with no band or weight as someone that goes to the gym and use weight resistance and so on.

Before we get into it i would like to tell where I’m standing regarding this new wave of animal welfare.

I’m convinced that our sport has to change , that awareness needs to be on the top of our conversations. That’s being said, i also think that we need to make a difference between extreme activists thinking and healthy changes. What I’m seeing online at the moment, is NOT a conversation for the best , it’s simply shaming with barely no knowledge. For a conversion to be successful, both parts need to LISTEN and argument their opinion in a genuine manner to have the outcome we want, a better sport with Animal welfare in the center.

But right now it’s not the case, by being disrespectful , shaming, aggressive and closed minded the problem will only get bigger by human being stock in their opinion pushed by aggressive argumentation in place by the opposite party.

I’m for natural methods, i have been riding and jumping in rope halter since 2010. Not for the fame tho, SM barely existed…. I’m a showjumper and I use clicker training, positive and negative reinforcement and so on.. yet the horses i train / trained were true athletes and so for, needing a professional fitness training. Even for us, qualified professional rider it is hard to have a horse work through his body the right way. It take year of experiences from the rider and a lot of patience in the training.

So promoting a “ All natural no Aids” training method to the average amateur riders is unfortunately not gonna have the outcome we are looking for. New pathologies will start ( already did in the recents years) appear in the amateur horse environment. My vet just came back from a seminar and they were talking about it, the raise of back pain and back problem in general… i wonder why!!

This statement is not to discriminate the amateur world , it’s the opposite,It’s here to help!

You need to have objective opinion about your riding skills. Reading studies is good, but it unfortunately doesn’t give you all the skills you need to incorporate this kind of training in your life. By saying that a good amount of those riders doesn’t have the skills to build muscles on their horses in the proper way without help, in an healthy way for the horse. (Most of the studies have those conclusion)

By focusing on protecting the Pole ( which again, i agreeeeeeeeee with it) some refuse to ride with anything, but they are not skilled enough as riders to be able to build the top line and abdominal muscle group. So what is happening is that they protect 1 bone ( the pole because Social Media said so ), and deteriorate in exchange 5 to 10 vertebras as a result… Let’s that sink in!

Now, Hight intensive training in ANY sport, is hard. I want you to ask any athlete you love watching perform on TV if his training is nice and easy without body soreness, if their micro facial expressions is always like their wedding picture when they make an effort… Ya i saw recently a bunch of people screen shooting jumping and dressage horses’s face while performing and saying: “ See his facial expression, clearly the horse is in discomfort” Well i want to see you running a marathon with an happy face the all way through and i’ll be waiting with my camera to catch the relaxed meditation face you think you’ll have.

Why I’m saying that is because most of the arguments I’m seeing online are in my opinion very hypocrite. Not saying that the studies are wrong, we definitely need those to evolve. But If i follow the wave of the one who said we need to ride and train with nothing almost, because everything damage the horse here or there, some scientific studies to back it up, my genuine question then is : Is it not damaging the back of your horse then when you ride him?

Right apparently this argumentation doesn’t go both way… and that why i think it hypocrite. If ( because it’s the subject here) a Soft Rope Elastic is bad for lungeing because it put a slight pressure on the mouth, and behind the wither, what the hell does the weight of a rider then?

End of my statement here, let’s dive into the lungeing aid effects, and studies that i could find. I found ONLY 5 on google, and only 1 was about the Sof Rope, the rest were not specifically for this Aids but for lunging with some aids. Please send my way if you have more, I would love to read it!

Unfortunalty so far they were very not conveincing for various reasons that we will go through …

The answer is Horse A was Photoshopped and is using a lunging aid, but in my opinion is still doing a much better at Stretching. The Waldhauser aids, or Rubber band, or soft rope is LOOSE. No tension anywhere, no contact on the it, no pressure in the jaw, no tension.

If someone is imaging tension in a loose loop rope as show in the picture then my answer is : it’s in your head ! Proof on picture but alterated by a judgement.

The shoulder movement has a wild range, yet some of you would find 1000 of wrong doing in this picture and not be objective just because you can see the aid.

Keep reading before jumping into conclusions.

Did you know that in the 60’s studies were saying that Smoking was a good way to PREVENT CANCER …. True fact, so please don’t fall into extreme thinking at the first IG post you read.

The problem right now online is the way of thinking that is all Black or all White. We have the tendency to believe what we see at first sight without questioning. This thinking goes to extreme, and as everything in life , extreme is DANGEROUS! Nothing is perfect, and nothing is only 1 perfect method.

Here is a good example of what kind of image is used to backup the fact that lungeing aids are bad. The problem is that it’s wrongly used and over tight on this picture, to show you the negative effects of it, and pretending that it is how it’s made to be used. This is FALSE informations… and unfortunately a lot of people believe it.

I’ve heard the other day a well known Phisio saying she hated the Gogue aids, goes on for few minute for ending the topic on “ i hate it so much that I never even tried it, just saw pictures and read studies about it” …Wait what?????? It has a lot to unwrap in this, but yet spread her negative opinion wildly on something that she has barely no knowledge and never seen used correctly …

So between the extremely bad pictures you see online and some questionable studies that are out here … I can’t stop thinking on how can we bring back an honest conversation around animal welfare.

For a more objective view, on this picture you

can see how it’s supposed to be used!

The aids is loose, period. It’s not here to force anything, or any movement but just control the head to not go too hight where you can damage the back.

The too hight will depend on the physiology of your horse but basically, just here to prevent an inverted top line.

Let’s now dive in into my answer.

Here is my controversial opinion based on experiences and Studies…

Yes studies because for some of you, training professionally for 15 years ones of the best horse athletes in the world to compete at the highest level, apparently doesn’t give me knowledges and the experience to know how to do something when it come to horse training properly.

So I spend few nights researching and reading some studies about the topic, i will here talk about 5 studies that i found so far, and here are my concerns:

( I’m sure there are more Studies , but on Google search couldn’t find more than those ones. If you have others, please send it my way i will be very happy to keep learning )

I did find only 1 Study yet on this specific aids.

STUDY 1: “The Effect of The German String Training Aid on Equine Stride Length, Tracking Distance and Head and Neck Position”

Olivia Hammond, Bishop Burton

Take home message from the study: The German String training aid (GS) significantly alters head and neck position but has no effect on forelimb stride length or tracking distance. This supports previous work suggesting training aids impact the horse’s way of going in a superficial manner.

The GS has no significant change on horse engagement.

It the the only one I found out there that look well done, yet couldn’t the full documents or images they took.

Ps: German string IS soft rope, etc…

My concern on this study :

• It says that this Aids is “made to put the horse frame on the vertical”. False information, the Soft rope is not suppose to have an significant effect in the nose frame, but control the high of the neck.

• The woman who did the research is still in University for massage therapy certificat. And the study is based on her “experience” in uni…. No shaming here as I think it’s the best study about this aids so far that has been done, but the knowledge and experience are questionable here.

My Conclusion: The study is well done , with accurate number tracking. Yet no negative effect were shown , just saying that the horses weren’t engaging more with the aids.

But only to have a conclusion on “ Further study into the range of equine training aids on the market would be beneficial to identify which are able to positively influence the horse.Effects on muscle activation through use of surface electromyography should be explored to enhance our understanding of how manipulating the horse’s frame may impact the use and development of muscle.”

STUDY 2 ( not really a study but an Osteopathe article): Demonstrating the negative effects on the neurologique system. on the cervicals, mouth,  thorax and wither with restraint movements on the shoulders.

Here is my questions :

• Pressure behind the  Wither from a rubber band (few Grammes only)  is that more damaging  than the weight of a rider and saddle on the back  (average of 60 KILOgramme, and wilder zone of pressure on the spine than the 5 cm band)

• Pressure and /or sewing movement on the mouth : Same here, used correctly horse should NOT have pressure on the mouth consistently. Pressure Is about few grams again and goes to 0 when horse goes to an adapted attitude , HOW MUCH the HAND / CONTACT of an average rider is on the mouth ? I’ll wait ….

• About the sewing, it can be minimize by using the original ring attach to it to cross the rope under ( left to right and vice versa) but not so many use it…

• I would agree on movement restriction to a certain point , as it’s well know that to avoid injury during lunging the best thing to do is to work on slow and control movements. Which this Aids help you to do so.

So for STUDY 2 , my conclusion is that it doesn’t show more negative effect than riding itself . Why we hear all equestrians saying that the back of a horse is made to support rider weight but is not made to support a rubber band weight ???? Ironic or Hypocrite, not sure which one!

STUDY 3 : “Lungeing with Aids in general on body temperature” (Science Direct )

This study (and the others ) DOES NOT have picture or videos showing how they lunge their horses.

It was done on 16 horses from Riding school with 50 MINUTES of lungeing each day.

Their conclusion : “… concerning RB  ( Rubber Band similar as Waldhausen or Soft Rope) and TR, may suggest an improvement in load, more even load, on all four limbs.” The thermography has shown changes in superficial temperatures of the distal portion of horse limbs after lunging. …The RB enables a more even load on all four limbs.”

My questions about Study 3 :

• School horses instead of horse athlete ? No mean judgment here but we all know that those horses are poorly muscles build due to their activity.

• No photo or videos , I think this say it all. How can we know that they lunged it properly ?

• Plus it says that is their handler who did it. It’s already hard to find 1 person who lunge properly, so here they had 16? Not considering that changing human handler in each case will alter the results. So We just have to believe their words here blindly that they all lunged perfectly?

I WON’T!

• Finally , are they insane when it come to timing? 50min of lunging every day? Have you never heard your vet saying 20 min MAXXXXXX (exceptionally 30 min) and max twice per week….

My conclusion:

In my opinion, they put all the conditions to have negatives outcome on AIDS from the study and YET their conclusion is not BAD on Rubber Band aids hahaha and says : “enable more even load on all four limbs”

STUDY 4 : “Evaluating Horse Owner Expertise and Professional Use of Auxiliary Reins during Horse Riding”, by researchers at the Free University of Berlin.

“Of respondents, 296 used training aids mainly for lungeing, and most only attached auxiliary reins after the warm-up phase, but half of participants did not adjust them during the entire session. Three quarters could identify what the horse’s correct head position should look like, but 50% adjusted the reins too tightly and did not adjust them, even if the horse showed signs of breathing issues.

The researchers concluded that there is lack of information, and a need for clarification, among owners regarding the pros and cons of using training aids and the effects of the different reins used.”

My conclusion on Study 4: I think it speak for itself about lack of information and knowledge…

Last one,  STUDY 5:  “Equine training aids: can they really improve performance?”

Williams, J. M.

Published in:

UK Vet Equine

Publication date:

2020

“Equine training aids are often used to influence the horse's head and neck position and by default to impact spinal kinematics and stride length (Rhodin et al., 2005, 2009; Gómez Álvarez et al., 2006) or to increase engagement of the horse's core musculature and hind limbs to improve propulsion or generate muscle recruitment or hypertrophy (Dyson, 2017)…

..Elastic resistance band Training and rehabilitation techniques aimed at improving core muscle strength may result in increased dynamic stability of the equine vertebral column and would be a beneficial addition to an equine training programme (Pfau et al., 2017).”

My conclusion on Study 5 : very interesting study, yet saying that we don’t have ENOUGH studies about this topic. That lungeing aids can have beneficial effects in training depending on the “ Human” experience and knowledge.

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So now that you have read what the studies says, but also the opinion of someone that use classic & non-conventional methods in the respect of the animal, believe in evolving for the best, always learning but most importantly open minded, I HOPE that you gonna start questioning your doing if you find yourself in one of the 2 extremes!

I wish by writing this article i make you aware of what nonsense you can find online sometimes. I hope that you can see that some research are yet not demonstrating the negative effects that it was suppose to be, and that some of those are very questionable on the How they perform their study.

It is up to you to believe what kind of rider you want to be, but please keep in mind that ONLY an honest open minded conversation will be beneficial for changes. Surf on the wave you fell right about, but let’s try to all go to the same destination = Happy and Healthy horses.