Does she have front shoes and is the saddle pinching at the withers?
Thanks for this too. We are having the same problem with the longing and someone encouraging from the ground. She gets overwhelmed with someone also chasing from the ground and Ii get nervous with people chasing-- bad memories from trainers many years ago 
On the longe circle she would fall in and then go up and down in front.
Sit trot does help. I have been trying to sit trot and then post when she is forward because she has a lot of trot and she is inverted so you don’t really have a place to sit. Whiich just leads to more tension as you saiid.
She is a niibbler so I feed her treats very rarely but she loves a praiise and scratch. Ii said before her saddle has been fitted and now we’re touching up with shiims between fittings. She doesn’t have shoes.
Definitly would recommend shoes - and cookies for going forward. Also on hamd work tapping whip at girth where your leg is means forward.
So for both the help from the ground and sitting trot to posting trot, make sure you aren’t getting tight in your butt cheeks, legs, and knees. Especially when you move from sitting to posting, we often add more tension in the legs to rise.
It has been a conundrum for me - the more behind the leg he was the more I’d kick and squeeze, which adds tension to my body, which shuts my horse down. I have to get a good enough response from a single kick + whip tap to be able to immediately release my legs, seat, core and allow him to feel relaxation in the forward response. And also being a typical dressage rider, as he’d slow down I’d keep trying to squeeze a few more steps out of him, where I really just needed to kick + whip one time and let him go forward again rather than trying to make it look pretty while covering up the lack of response to the leg.
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Ok for what it is worth…. I am doing the same thing as you do. I started my now 4 year old last fall and although I am experienced I am also 60 so somehow it took me longer than I wanted to get into a routine with her. During the winter I lunged her a lot and I didn’t canter her for about 3 months….
Finally in May I decided that now we would get serious and I took some lessons with her with my trainer. Until then I never rode her when I was all by myself. So I still rode her only three times a week and Our progress was pretty slow.
We also had one day where she was sticky but on that day I tried another saddle.
For me two things made a huge difference…
first I upped her grain. In the beginning I did not give her too much because I wanted her mellow and gentle but then I found out that she really did not want to do any bad so now she gets the same amount as my older horses and it does make a difference.
The second thing was that I took her to a clinic in another facility. We had so many firsts at that clinic it was incredible. And on top there was a young horse rider who worked for the owner of her sire and started him. She offered to ride her and by watching her it became clear to me that I was pretty stupid because she could handle more then I thought. This young horse rider rode her beautiful but without compromise. A lot of connection in the front and she had spurs (I never used spurs with her until then). It was an eye opener for me and since then I ride her every day all by myself and simply make no concessions with what I want…. And it works beautiful. With a young horse you need to be consistent and self confident !! Good luck it’s so much fun!!!
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As others have said - there’s no timeline! I have some things for you to maybe think about.
Any chance you have access to a good western colt starter or trainer? Even just to take some lessons for yourself? Something they generally do VERY well is install the go button - many believe going wtc on day one helps the horse realize it CAN do all kinds of crazy things with its legs while still carrying a rider. Traditionally horses are started in a bitless setup, and it’s very relaxed, if not particularly dressage-pretty. Western style is also more seat and less leg or hand generally, so riding that way can make sure the rider isn’t shutting the horse down with tension or clamping. Like one poster said above, you may be blocking her energy a bit and she feels like she CANT go forward (because she doesn’t yet know).
Even if you can’t get to a trainer, maybe just try sitting on your pockets on a loose rein and rewarding FORWARD for a while. If you don’t have a reliable one-rein stop, it might be worth backing up and installing one. This is a great emergency brake as well as a way to give the rider confidence to LET GO a bit (which IME is the biggest struggle with people on their first dead green horses. They like to micromanage).
Shorter sessions, hacking out even just in her paddock or on the driveway, and installing PROMPT voice commands from the ground all might help. Then flop around a bit and teach her she can trundle along with a sack of potatoes rider without worrying.
Good luck - and don’t put any pressure on yourself to hit certain timelines. Every horse and human is different!
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Don’t blame you about not being comfortable with ground chasing help or riding while on a longe line. Too many things can be miscalculated.
Verbal cues (“trot”) along w leg etc are safe and can help. Good luck, stay safe and use your own common sense because you are the one sitting on her. 
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There’s no timeline with babies, but a balky youngster turns into an older horse that rears.
If you’ve checked out her saddle fit, teeth, back, feet, consulted a horse psychic, made sure you aren’t overworking her, then it comes down to forward is the only answer period.
Did someone start her under saddle and this is your personal 10th ride?
Have you considered sending her to or back to a pro or having a pro ride once a week?
If a horse is being sticky too many transitions can be a mistake.
Believe me, I’ve been there done that wondering why my horse won’t go forward, creating a problem, then a trainer gets on and the horse is magically forward.
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She is a bit backwawrd thinking at times. In the beginning of teaching her to longe her way to say no was to face me and pull back. Ii don’t love this about her but II do love her and I would not have known this about her when I bought her because she was completely unstarted.
I’ve started her completely myself which has always been a goal of mine. My trainer and I discussed thisd and she’s helping me along. My trainer has brought up young horses herself.
Honest question… Can you explain your reasoning on why you think shoes are necessary for this horse?
Shoes themselves don’t make a horse go faster, or be more willing to move forward. Shoes should be used to prevent excessive wear, to correct a conformation fault, correct the growth of the foot, aid in management in “unnatural” conditions, or aid in traction to increase performance. If there is a legitimate issue with the hooves, conformation, environment etc that’s one thing, but the OP has not mentioned anything like that. The OP has said the quality of her gaits has increased, so I am genuinely curious what jumped out at you and is making you think shoes are required, or even recommended.
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Shoes and more grain are suggestions here? Good grief.
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Well for me, more grain made a difference. maybe the OP already feeds the max to her horse 
. I don’t know. But I wanted to add something to my post anyhow.
If the horse gets sticky there is the slight possibility that the rider is not totally self confident.
With my young horse I ride her with a lot of leg and core. about the same as my upper level dressage horse.
The young horse needs to feel that the rider is extremly self confident about the situation and has no doubts…. If the horse feels insecurities it will stop….
Let’s hope you like that advice better
It’s just such a bizarre recommendation. Same with shoes.
The horse is 4, and doesn’t know the game yet. More time and repetition, and hacking out whenever possible. K.I.S.S.
(not “sugar”! or shoes!)
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She is Fatty McFatty, only gets a small amount of complete feed and free choice hay or almost never without hay. They go out to graze for a couple of hours a day. I am actually hopiing she slims down a bit as she grows older.
She has good growth in her feet and gets done every 6 week this summer. My farrier is very good and neverr said anythng about needing shoes so far. He asks to see her move about every other time he comes when he has time to evaluate how she maturing and if he should change his trim.
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So what did you do when she faced you and went backwards on the lunge???
Obviously I only give bizarre advice (although I am probably the only one here who is exactly in the same situation ) but to me it sounds a little bit like you are a bit insecure and your horse sensed that… She also is a mare and I don’t know if she is your first mare??
mares do have this thinking of hierarchy. In a herd they are always trying to improve their situation in the herd. If they believe they are smarter and stronger then the mare above her they take over. They need to do this because a herd needs ideal management in order to survive. So they don’t mean it bad. If your horse thinks you show weaknesses she will take over. Usually she has no problems if you tell her “No, I am the boss and I tell you what to do” in a confident way. A lot of people don’t understand this and that’s when they start to give regumate to their mares…. Some even spay them…
I wonder that you didn’t get that advice yet….
So maybe simply focus on your confidence and tell your mare in a very consistent way with your core and your legs that she is supposed to go…. Maybe even shift your weight a bit to the back…. Tell her that you are the pack leader and that you are in charge!!! She will probably be thankful for you being the leader…. It’s safer for her to follow….
I have three mares and all of them work that way. none of them gets regumate or is spayed and they trust me also in dangerous situations because they know I will handle it…… and because I am not a dominant person this is tricky but totally worth it!!!
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[quote=“endlessclimb, post:32, topic:788373”]
Shoes and more grain are suggestions here?
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Check off the boxes, do due diligence, then it becomes a behavioral issue. Most horses want to go forward and don’t get light in the front for no reason.
It sounds like this mare has the OPs number and has learned how to get out of work with info added or OP has grabbed her in the mouth/bad balance and mare has learned it hurts to go forward. Without eyes/video… who knows.
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Ii’ve had many mares. Mine has never gotten Regumate or anything unusual either.
On the longe when she does that II just step to the side, guide her with my hand, and swing my whiip at her shoulder to move her away from me again. She’s stopped doing this but every person who longes her has to deal with this at first. Otherwise she is very sweet to handle. Never have to scold her for anything in the barn
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I have a young horse who’s a bit of a donkey. Everything else is fine. He’s just, well a bit of a donkey. Being a pudgy slightly nervous adult with little time on my hands I sent him to a pro because when I think I’m asking them with everything inside of me, I’m really not and a pro to install the forward button early can prevent some life long balky issues. Lauren Spreiser just put out an article that might rub some people the wrong way, but many of us ammys spend time with saddle fit and supplements and really the problem is us.
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Some BNT said along the lines of “get your tack right and then be done with it” in an article I read ages ago. That really stuck with me. The old KIS route.
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