i have a 2 year old paint filly that i am having trouble lighting a fire under her rear to get her enthusiastic about doing stuff, she kinda just loligagles along behind me on the lead rope with me having to tug quite a bit. i have tried to lunge her in smaller circles using a whip to get her to walk and she will do it but as soon as i stop tapping her she stops moving, i am wondering if i am doing something wrong?
brad

She sounds like she's reading your body language. You might be telling her to "go, go, go" with the whip but it sounds like your stance is telling her to relax. Check this article out. It helped me a lot with my issues with Chance. Granted I know it's titled for a weanling but the same things can be applied to an older horse as well.

Weanling Ground Manners | MyHorse.com

Where is your body in relation to hers when you're trying to push her in a circle? Make sure you are standing behind the girth line to push her forward, and step in front of that line to slow/stop her.

i have trying to stay positioned behind her front shoulder, while telling her to walk and it has been working a bit better, but i think it may just be a time in the seat thing for her really, kinda repition, she is starting to catch on a little but i am new to the lungeing thing too so i am trying to stay positioned correctly and use the same words to keep the directions very black and white for her. thanks for the input.
Brad

Try this,

when leading her (you may want to lead next to a rail or fenceline, to keep her straight the first few tries), position yourself at her head, facing forwards, lead in right hand -hold close to her head.
In your left hand carry a dressage whip or something of similar length. A Parelli stick works fine. But something long enough that you don't have to turn around and reach with it.

Hold the whip to where the end points backwards at a downward angle, towards your filly's hindquarters behind you.
A thin rope halter works best for this.
Start her walking, apply pressure to her halter. if she pulls or drags along for 2 seconds, give her a tap with the whip and apply the firm pressure to her head again. If she doesn't speed up, DON'T continue to tap tap tap. This is just nagging. You need to change your method. If no response in 2-3 seconds, give her a FIRM tap (one of those "I mean it" taps) while continuing to walk forwards. You need to find a way to get her to learn to move quickly without continual asking and asking. If she doesn't move off with light pressure, move on to a firmer cue, and preferably within a couple of seconds.
The instant she speeds up, stop, praise her, let her rest 5-10 seconds and think it over.

Remember we as humans can calculate in our brains faster than horses, so you need to give her enough time to think about what just happened. She will probably drop her head a little and/or lick her lips. This is a sign of submission and "I got it!"

It will take several tries to get her to do this automatically as soon as you apply pressure on her head asking her to speed up for you.

You might do this several times in a day, in a spot where she is not distracted by other horses, highways etc.

Be sure to stop and give her 5 to 10 seconds to absorb the information AS SOON as she responds correctly to your cue. You want to make this cue lighter and lighter, until she eventually speeds up to pressure applied to her halter.

If holding the whip behind you is to complicated, have someone walk at her hindquarters behind you and hold the whip for you (out of kicking range!) only using it when you need it.

This is something I have always used on my young horses to teach them to trot at my side. Hope it works for you! You may find other techniques by googling as well.

if you are new to lunging or horses in general do yourself a favor and invest in the clinton anderson videos. he does a great job of explaining horse relationships in a way thats pretty commonsensical.