The other night I decided to give Fox a little exercise. I put her on the line and sent her left first. She did perfectly fine; kept a steady speed, changed gait when I asked, paid attention to me. When I stopped her and tried to cross her over to go to the right, she wanted nothing to do with it. She kept turning around to go left and if I did get her going to the right, she would be loping around like crazy, tossing her head, bucking, and totally ignoring me. Any ideas what her deal is? Any suggestions for how I can work her through this?

Is she used to lunging in both directions?  It could be that she just doesn't know how or she's got your number.  Give us more info on her.

Are you sure you weren't "blocking" her path to the left, at least initially? Try making sure you are standing even with her flank or further back. If you let your body creep up so that it's around her barrel or shoulder area you are no longer driving her forward and she'll either be confused or want to turn in on you. Also, try keeping eye contact with her flank, not her shoulder. This will make a difference in some horses that are really sensative to body language.

Other than that, assuming you are sure it's not pain, just keep making her go right. She'll eventually learn she's not getting out of anything and will hopefully get stronger on that side as well.

BoylesHeightKid: She has always lunged well in both directions.

 

QHAllAround: I don’t think I was blocking her path. She even acted up when I sent her straight out to the right. I’m nearly 100% sure she’s not in pain, I rode her around the other night; loped in both directions and she didn’t feel off or anything.

Will she really be able to notice if my eyes are looking at her flank? I’m not disagreeing your advice, I just didn’t know it could make a difference. Thanks!

A good sensative horse that has been well trained will definately lunge off of cues so subtle as eye movements, yes, I've seen it. It was quite amazing what this person could do with her horse; she never had to say anything to him and hardly moved...never gave "visible" cues for anything...

Lunging, especially free lunging, you are utilizing the horse's flight instincts and the behavior of a predator or dominant horse to get your horse to move away from you. If a predator is staring/ squared up with a horse in the shoulder or eye the BEST thing for that horse to do is turn around and run the other way (so this is why stepping sideways/forward towards the shoulder causes the horse to turn in and around). If a predator is farther back and squared up at/starring at the horse's flank the best path for the horse is to run the direction they are going because they are ahead of the predator (that's why we want to stand at the horse's flank to send them forward on the lunge).

Also, humans have this funny way of orienting their bodies where their eyes are. (notice when your riding and your eyes are looking at your horse's withers your shoulders drop too even when you think you are being sneaky and just looking down??? ;) ) So, if your eyes are on her flank then your shoulders are centered towards her flank, your feet are pointed towards her flank, etc (more than likely, unless you are making conscious efforts otherwise). This is where you want to be, body language wise, to send a horse forward. Your horse may or may not notice your eyes, but she WILL notice your shoulders and overall body position and whether you realize it or not your eye position effects all of that.

Ahhh, makes more sense now. Thank you very much for explaining it to me!

Sure. I doubt this is your problem really, but it never hurts to be conscious of it and check yourself. I know I've caught myself sneaking up towards the shoulder many times. When Bozo was coming off his broken foot I was soooo obsessed with catching every little bobble up front that I think I must have started staring at his front feet the entire time (and hence dropping my shoulders, telling him to go the other way, looking submissive, and every body signal that makes for a bad lunge lesson, LOL)... Yep, you guessed it, he started lunging like crap, not wanting to go forward, trying to change directions on me, etc. Whoops.