Lunge = go really fast?

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trundle

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DOes anyone have any suggestions for reminding a horse that its OK to walk on the lunge? The Moose had a problem with her back, so we gave her some time off to recover, and now i am lunging her to get her muscles developed again before I get back on.

On the positive side, she isn't coming up short in trot anymore, which was the main problem last time. She steps under nicely which is really good to see. However, i put the lunge line on her and she takes that as a signal to trot off, even when i just want her to walk, to warm up slowly. She is good to lunge generally, works well off voice commands transitioning through trot and canter, and I don't normally need a lunge whip either.

She just doesn't seem to want to walk, and falls in towards me when i bring her down to walk. Any tips?
 
two lunge reins , put a roller on her and run outside rein rounds her quaters ,inside rein as normal then you can back up your voice commands with a little brakes , she should then get the hang of it
 
Lunging is not good for any horses back, let alone one which has had problems as it puts everything under a lot of strain. I wouldn't lunge such a horse, I would long rein it!

Anyway, to get it to walk nicely on the lunge. I would start off with an assistant who is leading on the other side to the lunge line. Then I would spend time getting the horse 'on the voice' as us driving types call it. The horse will then know the verbal commands for 'woah' and 'walk on' which is a very useful thing for a riding horse to know to perfection ( you will be pleased you took the time to do this come the day that you have a bridle malfunction, or the horse bolts off and locks its jaw etc...)

Oh, and get rid of the whip if you use one and simply use your body langage to send the horse on when you need it.

If a horse has been lunged simply for exercise (in the past) they get it sort of hard wired in to their brains that lunge=speed. Schooling the horse out of this is the only thing to do. Getting it listening to your voice and body language will certainly help.
 
I have tried everything with mine and have finally given in to the fact that he just has to have a bit of a trot before he will listen to the command to walk! He lives out so never goes straight on the lunge from the stable, so has been walking around, so tbh I just let him trot of a bit then start transitions etc! Does she trot nicely or race around faster than you want?
 
I have the same problem. Nelly wants to trot from the outset. I'm going to lunge her this evening so I'll give it a go with two lines. Never tried it before. Hope it works for you if you try it trundle.
 
Thanks all, useful advice. i think i will continue long-reining her (we did a bit, then I stopped and went back to lunging her), or at least working with the two lines. I don't use a whip with her, so thats one small difficulty out of the way.

She does know the voice commands for whoa and walk on, she is fine with them under saddle. I guess its just re-inforcing them. She does usually trot really nicely and steadily right from the off, and we don't just do a fixed circle, we do move up and down the school, so she's not perpetually on a bend.

Time to get the second lunge line, methinks.
 
My mare thinks lunging = go really fast, drag mummy around and buck/fart ...

Will be reading responses with interest!

Hb
 
Buddy is really excited when we start, after following advice i now just let him have his canter and then he is a lot calmer and does listen. There was a time though that he would never walk and use to just want to constantly trot around but he has grown up a bit and does listen to me now.
 
Mine goes nuts on the lunge 50% ofthe time - usually on the days when I'm lunging before I ride so I'm quite happy to let her get the bucks out the way!
smile.gif
 
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