Question # 140: I have a question about lunging. Normally my horse is very good on the lunge line,
but I have started lunging her out in pasture we also use for xcountry schooling in order to help her realize this is a place to work and get her to calm down some before we ride out there (our first ride in the field didn't go so well....). She is much less attentive to me and my commands while we're out there. The biggest issues we're having on the lunge is that she cuts in toward me for about half the circle and I can't get her to slow down. I try to spend a lot of time making her calmly walk on the lunge line and get her focus back on me. Sometimes she does, sometimes she just takes off trotting. Once she is sufficiently calm walking on the lunge, I ask her to trot, and so on. Once she's trotting (not so much at the canter), she trots VERY fast and I have a hard time getting her to slow down. At both the trot and the canter it takes sometimes up to 3-4 times around the circle for her to come down to the next gait once I've asked her to. Any suggestions on how to handle this? (Kayla)
Hi Kayla!
Diving in towards the middle of the lunge circle and rushing almost always go hand in hand. This is because they severely lose their balance when they fall in, and will then run to catch it. When I have a horse that is erratic on the lunge, falling in and/or falling out on the circle, I... (Click on Question Title above
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