Lunging

[horsehelp]

penny is always falling in on the cicrle wen i lunge her? how can i stop this?

[wildponies]

It could be that she doesn't know what she's doing, so you could get someone to start leading her and start teaching her how to lunge. It could just be that she can't be bothered running around in a circle so has learnt how to get out of it by running in towards you, shoo her out with the excess lunge line or use your whip or voice.

[iloverocky]

1) find a good length of the lunge rope and keep it that length
2) get the lunge whip and guide her around the circle with it
3) do this in walk and trot
4) dont let her canter on the wrong leg

those things should help and yer get someone to lead her around :D

[BackintheSaddle]

Are you driving her haunches or her shoulders? Sometimes, when they are just learning, if you drive their haunches, they end of sort of running away from you and forcing you to run in a circle. However, if you point with the rope in the direction you want her to circle, then use the lunge whip to drive her shoulders, she should move out and stay on the circle. I don't know if this works for all horses, but it has worked for me so far.

[Stella2]

I also find it helpful to point the whip at the shoulder to ask the horse to move out. Also people often step back without realising it if a horse begins to fall in, on the contrary though, you must walk towards the horse so you are also sending it out with your body language.

If the horse is still learning about lunging, it will get it wrong sometimes, but it will soon improve.

Hope thats helpful

[horsehelp]

thanks for all ya help!