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Becky,

I've just read over your training advice and really appreciated your comments, and thought I would stand in line for some advice.

I'm about to start working with Misty in the round pen again. (I hope, if things settle down here). I haven't done much with her yet, just got her in there and tried to mimic what our trainer was doing with Lightning.
With Lightning, we put him in the round pen, and use the lunge whip to control/motivate him. He responds to it quite well, and does pretty much what we expect of him. Misty, on the other hand, as soon as she hears the whip crack, immediately turns and walks straight to me and stands in front of me. I know I need to establish my space with her, but I haven't been able to get her to do anything else

Misty is a 15 year old mare that has been used as a trail
horse. The previous owner, I've found out, knew less than I do about training, and I think, allowed her to develop some bad habits. He has since told me that he would chase her around the round pen by slapping the ground behind her with a rope to exercise her before riding, and apparently that was the full extent of his training knowledge.

Lightening's trainer watched her do this, and his advice was to sell her and buy another horse. I think it would be less work to get her to come around than selling her and buying another horse would be.

He doesn't sound like much of a trainer if you ask me. Why would he want you to get rid of a perfectly good horse that has a few issues and buy another one, who is probably also going to have issues too, just different ones. Unless he has a perfect push-botton horse for you in his back pocket, which I doubt. But even if he does, that horse is going to cost a whole lot more than the one you have. I say it's better to dance with the devil you know than take a chance on one you don't. I'd try to work the kinks out yourself, unless she's dangerous or something, which by your posts I don't think she is. I'd much rather have a horse that'll come to me than one who won't. Just my 2 cents worth. :o)

Could be somewhere along the line she was trained to do that - our horses are trained to stop and come in when told to do so. If she's not charging you and it doesn't sound like that, it may just be how she was trained at one point.

At her age, she's probably had several owners - it may be fun to learn what she knows. Try voice commands and see what happens :)

I know that Becky will answer that she is not a fan of free lunging or free round pen work, and I'm not a believer in it either. It teaches only the most very basic lessons of 'run away' when I chase you, which is really not all that helpful to us in preparing horses to ride and work. I would teach the horse to lunge with a line and teach the horse to respond to verbal commands to walk, trot, canter and woah, enforced by lungeline correction or the whip as needed. It teaches skills and responsiveness to commands with a lot more precision than free lunging.

Misty, on the other hand, as soon as she hears the whip crack, immediately turns and walks straight to me and stands in front of me.

Depending on her attitude this can either be a challenge of you, standing her ground, or it could be a fear and confusion response. It's vital to know which thing she is doing.

Stopping and facing is a very common pot-hole they fall into while training to lunge. Sometimes they just don't know what you want and they stop and face you. The key for you in that instance is to reposition yourself so that you are 'aft' of her shoulder, looking at her hindquarter, and get her going forward again. It's important to not go to her, but don't be overly hard on her either.... when she moves forward praise that with voice. Don't let her stop or come to you until you ask for a woah and pull her in.

I do free lunge (without a saddle) and rope during the exercise. Everyone I guess develops their own style. Using both works for me in different ways. Occasionally mine will think I want her to face forward instead of walking too, which is usually my fault because I gave her mixed cues. (I use verbal and physical together) I do know that the more you lunge them the better you both get and I wouldn't give up on her. Usualy in my case it's just because I wasn't being consisent and off, and mine didn't know what I wanted her to do so she just stopped and did nothing:')</p>

momof2, deaconjim brought up something that I want to clear up.

When I speak of lunging, I ALWAYS mean with a lunge line, not freelunging.

I don't even have a round pen. When I start one lunging that hasn't before, I do use a corner of the arena to help as a guide, but no round pen.

Once a horse knows how to lunge I move all over the place to do it. That way they learn whose in control:)...LOL. I admit I'm a control freak:)

Becky