This morning while I was cooling Mac down after my ride, I placed my reins on the saddle horn and just walked him out, controlling his direction and speed with my legs.

This go me thinking about the difference between moving away from leg pressure and understanding the outside leg mean turn away.

What’s the difference you ask? When I first started riding Mac, I would start a turn and introduced the idea of my leg on his side, his first thought was to move his belly away from the pressure. Which cause his body to curve around the leg I was applying the pressure with. Which is the opposite of the finished product any trainer would be looking for.

Here you can a rough finished product as Mac has been on hiatus for a couple of years, the technique is there but he’s rusty. But you can see when I apply my right leg, he curves his body to the left.

This is because he truly understands the concept. IF he didn’t really understand you would never see a result;t like this. If you can train your horse to move away from leg pressure like this, your neck reining will be that much smoother and eventually you may not need the reins at all!