Starting the New Year "Right"

I'm so pleased with Nox's progress.  The difference between the way he moved six months ago and how he moves today is amazing. 

At first, I only let Nox trot in straight lines, because circles would put too much pressure on his injured hoof.  As his strength has improved and his injury has healed, I've gradually introduced circles.  The past few weeks I've been "free lunging" him in the indoor ring on days that I don't ride.  Free lunging is when the horse walks/trots/canters in circles around a person standing in the center of a ring, but the horse is not on a line or rope.  It's a great way for Nox to build strength and stamina, and also helps him learn to balance himself in smaller circles than he's used to.

Nox quickly understood what I was asking him to do when I free lunged him the first time to the left (his racing direction).  After one session, he would walk, trot, and "whoa" on my voice commands.  When I asked him to turn around and free lunge to the right, he completely fell apart.  He raced around like a maniac and kept trying to change direction.  A few times he refused to move forward at all. 

Some trainers think that horses do not have any right-to-left brain connection - meaning, if they learn how to do something going in one direction, they cannot carry over that knowledge to the other direction.  They have to start over and learn it from the beginning.  I'm not sure that I believe that.  I agree with other trainers who think that horses have a favored "side', like a human is right or left handed.  Horses are usually more comfortable moving in a certain direction when they are moving in a circle.  As a rider, you can feel that their gait is smoother going in one direction than the other.

Since Nox was a race horse, it makes sense that he would feel more comfortable moving to the left.  The left side of his body is noticeably more muscular than his right side.  I'm sure that he feels very unbalanced when I ask him to go to the right.  It would be like forcing a right handed child to do everything with his left hand - the discomfort would eventually boil over into frustration!

I think that's what happens when I ask Nox to move to the right when I'm lunging him.  Without a rider to help him balance, he feels uncomfortable and acts out.  I've been working with him for a few weeks now, and yesterday he finally walked, trotted, and cantered in both directions calmly.  He's still a little hesitant to the right, especially at the faster canter gait, but he understands what I want and he's trying hard to please me - and that's good enough for now!