Lungeing

[rachelha]

i taught my horse to lunge about 7 months ago.
the past month or so she just wont! she stands facing me, i do place myself behind her shoulder to drive her away but she just turns to face me. after about 30 minutes of this she will give in and start to walk reallllllly slowly and no matter what i do will not go forwards! if i tap her with the whip she kicks out at me and turns in again!
anyone got any ideas? she used to lunge nicely and i only ever lunged her twice a week at most so didnt overdo it :/

 

[spike123]

try using a second line to stop her turning in so easily and give you a bit more control over her quarters. She may put up a bit of a fight initially if she has never had lunge lines around her back end before but you will have far more control over her and will be able to insist she goes forwards.If you have never done lunging with 2 lines before though get someone to show you how it's done first.

 

[BFG]

I would ask someone else to lunge her to see if she is just trying it on with you, if that doesn’t work that ask someone to walk round leading her on the outside and you giving all the commands including lots of praise.

I must admit i have never had a horse that can lunge suddenly decide not to.

Is she the same on both reins?

 

[rachelha]

ive had my instructor try to lunge her and shes the same with her too, i have no idea where its come from!!

& yeah shes the same on both reins, its really strange!

 

[hannah87]

I would try 2 reins as already stated.
However it may be worth ruling out pain. If she was fine before this she is perhaps finding lunging painful for some reason? It does put alot of stress on their joints.

 

[rachelha]

i thought about pain too, arranged for physio to come check her the first time she refused to lunge because it was so out of character and has had a few problems with her back but physio said her back, neck, saddle and legs were fine! and only had teeth done in feb so its not that either.

do you think shes just bored of being lunged?

 

[Gluttonforpunishment]

Have you tried long reining rather than lunging? My mare decided to treat being on the lunge as an opportunity to show her version of the wall of death so we tried long reining to give her a break and worked on that for a few weeks. Gradually introduced lunging again - just a few mins at an time followed by long reining. She is fine with full on lunge session now, still have no idea why she took against it intially but problem sorted. Got several other issues still to work through but that's a whole different story!!