[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Actually, I can relate a little.

LOL...you're doing better then me. I'm one of those people who have to DO it to see/understand it.

I think I have been dropping the outside rein and raising the inside, on the turns. If I'm reading this right, that is backwards???. I was under the impression that you used the reins to control the shoulders, and since I didn't want the horse drifting out on the turn I figured lowering the rein, was closing the door.

Doot usually understand this stuff better then me and explains it to her poor ole mom:) Doot read post #806.

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

When you lower the rein, you open the door. (Obviously you don't want to lower WAY down or raise WAY up - no lower than your thigh, no higher than the midpoint of your chest.) The distance of your hand from the midline of the horse's neck also makes a difference. Opening the rein (moving it away from the midline) will open the door also. For a good bend, you want the outside rein to be up about two fists higher than the inside hand and an indirect rein - that is to say maybe a fist's width from the mane. It should be relatively static or vibrating slightly - not a pull at all, just something solid that the horse encounters if he pushes that way. Think of it as a wall that the energy caroms off of and goes into the other rein . . . (there I go with that weird energy talk again - but it's the only way I can think of to explain it. Once you get the knack of this you can actually feel the bounce.)

The opposite of this is if you let the outside rein go slack - the horse will "duck" in that direction. The younger kids in our riding lessons often let their reins go slack as they get into jumping position approaching a fence. The pony will sometimes take that opportunity to run out under the slack rein! Highly embarassing.