Question about neck reining and trips away from "home"...

[lurath]

My mare, Deli, is at the end of a rehabilitation track for a popped/fractured splint bone after being kicked by a pasture mate and to stay off boredom (for both of us) I have been teaching her to neck rein. I know HOW to neck rein, but I have never trained a horse to do so

Comments

[colebaltblue]

You can try a calming supplement for Deli, but part of it is just her breed too. My friend has a 23 year-old TB that has been showing (a TON of shows) since he was 4 and is still a psycho away from home. They can manage it to a certain degree, but don't expect a little angel at all times (I know you don't).

I've never trained any horse to neck rein, but I once asked someone about doing so and they suggested crossing the reins under the chin before bringing them up to your hands. That way, when you move to the left and press the right side of the neck with the rein you actually apply direct rein bit contact to the left side of the bit. This might work better if you have split reins and can loop them without having to buckle them.

[lurath]

Oh, I fully expect her halo (when she has it) to be held up by her devil horns at all time

[coneycat]

The problem I would foresee with that idea is, if anything unexpected happened it would be difficult to go back to a regular rein aid, because they'd be backwards.

Unless you had two sets of reins on your bit--buckle reins set normally so they could be picked up if needed. Or someone on the ground to help out if something spooked the horse.

Had the person who offered the suggestion had good results with the method, or were they just theorizing, do you know?

[colebaltblue]

The person that suggested this trained Arabian horses and showed them for people years before I met her (she also was a hot-shot hunter/jumper when she was young too). I actually didn't get into too much detail with her about training western horses. I did see her dressage training methods and really liked them. I also rode with her trainer and loved her. I rode some of her horses she trained from the ground up (dressage) and they were lovely horses to ride, but she was never in the business and did training as a side gig and mostly for pleasure people who didn't want to pay a Big Name Trainer type by wanted good, quiet, rideable horses

[coneycat]

It certainly doesn't sound like she's the type of person who would just theorize about something she knows nothing about. (Although I have run into people with very odd ideas about what western riding "must be like.") In that case, this could be a usable method, but if I tried it I would definitely use a snaffle with a large ring, or the kind of shank bit with a dee that the shank is built off, and attach backup reins for actual steering.