#horses - #Help/advice with lungeing on a line without a round pen?

Help/advice with lungeing on a line without a round pen?

Hello everyone! I've never posted in this sub, but I love the community and am not sure where else to ask!

I recently was given/came into possession of an absolutely lovely mare ( her name is Blue Bell! ) and overall she is an angel. She is curious, willing and receptive to learning, and you can really tell that she tries her very best to process and work with new situations I throw at her. I've only had her for about a month, and I've just started working with her more since I wanted to get her to be accustomed to a new place and just get to know her, but this week I've moved into lungeing.

There's no round pen where I'm boarding her, and none anywhere nearby, either, unfortunately, so I'm forced to simply try to teach her to lunge on a lead rope. However, I am having some problems with myself being able to communicate clearly what I would like, I think.

I will raise my arm and lean in the direction I would like her to go, and gently tap her on the shoulder with the lunge whip and putting pressure on the rope in the direction I would like her to go. She only knows really to come forward towards me with pressure on the rope, so she will step forward and come up to me (she is unphased by jiggling the rope so that she will back up) because that's all she knows, which is not her fault. Once I can get her to move in the direction I'd like her to, it goes like this

• I hold/put pressure on the rope about 1 1/2 feet from the clip to guide her in the right direction - She doesn't quite get it with more distance.
• Once she starts going and walking or trotting, she will walk about a half of a circle
• As she is going, I will release more rope and she gets more distance from me as she is moving, however as soon as she reaches the distance of the rope, and there's an inevitable tug on it from that, she will stop and turn in towards me - which isn't her fault since all she knows is pressure on rope anywhere towards me = she should come over!

SO, what is the best way to keep her going (I will waggle the tail of the rope on the ground behind her to keep her going when she slows, but it doesn't seem to do much when she stops) as well as get her to keep from walking towards me when she stops?

She is by no means pushy at all and doesn't try to bowl me over, I believe she just likes to be close, but I'm honestly not sure how to get her to understand she can't do that while lungeing, but meanwhile not making her afraid to approach me any other time?

So, if you've read my entire novel and have any advice or tips or links to resources, I'd love to hear them! <3

Submitted July 18, 2017 at 07:19PM by rottingseams
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