Possible, being able to see her body language instead of just imagining would help us know... I am comparing what she is doing to what Cyn does when ecurbh was learning to lunge her. She's been round-penned. I think she's just confused and evading what she views as punishment by coming in. They'll either do this to avoid leaving their hindquarter vulnerable to the whip, and/or because they are really confused and seeking comfort.
Free-lunge guys like Monty Roberts reward this behavior as "OK, I submit, don't hurt me". I think some horses use that to avoid work. In this pic... ecurbh has gotten his line all FUBARed and he's got the whip in the wrong hand (it's hard to see because it's green), was giving her mixed signals, so she came in to him.
Here he's getting her going again by getting behind her and driving her forward.
