Lunging Help Please

[Ravenwood]

My horse is rather chubby and lost a shoe, so thought I at least ought to lunge her to try and keep on top of her big belly!!

She is 14 and probably hasn't been lunged for 11 years! Anyway she started off quite well, a bit worried, but soon realised she was mean't to go around in a circle! She is generally a very fast horse and broke into trot almost immediately. I struggled a bit to push her out but when she realised she could go larger she was happy to accept that.

My main problems were

1. Stopping/slowing her. She is actually very good on voice command as I use it a lot anyway but on the lunge I just couldn't slow her down or stop her. Infact at one point she was going so fast, I was trying to stop her with my voice and taking up the lunge line but she was just making her circle smaller and smaller at the same speed and I was worried she was going to fall. Eventually I had to put my hand up and almost out in front of her! How do you teach them to slow/stop on the lunge.

2. How do you encourage a correct circle and avoid a semi circle or oval. I tried gently pushing her out with the whip and I think with practise we will probably get this correct anyway but any tips?

Many thanks

ETS my daughter took some pics on phone (mostly of tip of nose and a flash of tail but there are a couple I might load into PG later)

 

[OrangeEmpire]

it is all about practice and body language.
To slow, soften your appearance by rounding your shoulders and use your voice as you are doing. Also pull-and-release on the lungeline (like halfhalting when you are on them) gets their attention on you and encourages them to slow up. I put my hands close together too for added emphasis (based on the fact you widen them to go faster).

To push the horse out, point the whip at her shoulder but make sure you keep the lungeline shoulder forwards (it is natural to bring it back) and say OUT clearly. Keeping the lungeline shoulder forwards is strangely key to this!

then practice lots and use lots of praise. She'll get the idea.

 

[Christmas_Kate]

Have you tried using two reins? It's fiddly to start with, but once you get used to it it's great. It's much easier to keep them out on a circle and tech them what your voice commands and body language mean. Once they've got the hang of staying out, stopping slowing down etc from your voice you can go back to one rein pretty easily.