Don’t cross over the neck!

Many western riders don’t realize that neck reining is a very advanced skill. And if they realize that neck reining is for advanced riders only, they don’t realize why. One big rule of horseback riding is to always keep the horse between your legs and between your reins. This even includes when you are turning your horse; if you’re making  a simple right turn your horse should round his neck and it’s ribcage around your right leg, turn his nose slightly inside and keep the shoulder straight throughout the turn, without dropping in or outside of your bending line. In a neck rein, many times the rider will let the outside rein lay across the horse’s neck and the horse will move away from it. If the horse is trained nicely and the rider didn’t overly ask, the horse will follow through the turn while staying nice and straight. However many times with a novice rider, the horse will start dropping its inside shoulder and start making a heavy turn to the inside.

Let’s say we are riding two handed and making another simple move, such as a leg yield. If we were to leg yield right, your right hand would open to allow the horse to move over and your left hand would half halt toward the wither, but never making contact with the neck. Your inside rein should have a space between the neck from bending the nose in, while opening the outside rein invites the horse to step over while keeping his body straight and true. It seems instinctive to cross the neck to reach your destination, however the horse is more inclined to barge into a crossing rein than to yield to it. Think of someone asking you to perform a chore, rather than demanding it. You’re more likely to respond positively to a polite request. Especially with some of you more stubborn folk out there, myself included! If you try to force me somewhere, or expect one rein to push a thousand pounds over, you’re going to get a fight. But if you use your rein to bend the whole body in a subtle way in the direction you’re asking, you’re more likely to get there in a much more efficient manner.