I have been searching for a way to communicate my request for my boy to respond to neck reining. I have decided that I had a choice to either learn to be comfortable in an English saddle so that we could enter some small shows or teach my boy to neck rein so that I could continue riding in my Western saddle. Needless to say, we are working on neck reining.

So, I have tried two different approaches. The first approach involved setting up two cones and making a figure eight around the cones several times until I thought he had the pattern down. Then I crossed his reins under his jaw (so that when I moved my hand that held both reins to the left the right rein would touch the right side of his neck while the rein pulled slightly on the left side of the bit. We tried this for a while and he seems to begin to understand but not completely and there was still quite a bit of resistance.

The next day I tried another approach - doing all our groundwork with just a rope tied loosely around his neck. He certainly knows the pattern while we are doing ground work. So, it was quite easy for him to do the entire pattern without a halter on. This technique seems to be a bit more successful then the other and also helped with his resistance moving off to my right.

My work with Herki is a mix of methods by Leslie Desmond, Bill Dorrance, Mark Rashid, Rick W, Lasell and many of the horsemen and women who practice that particular type of work with horses. Herki and I are working on stepping the front end around to lead out into a circle while I'm on the ground and he completely understands and responds when I ask him to move out to my left. He gets stickywhen I ask him to tip his nose to my right and move out to the right(which put me in his blind eye (right). Rick's suggestions included helpingHerki feel more comfortable with me on his right side with the hope that he will become more comfortable tipping his nose. Interestinglyenough, he prefers for me to lead him from his right side on theoccasion that I am leading from a position closer to his shoulder –perhaps so that he can flee if he needs to, perhaps so that I can protect that side. After we patiently work through my request for him to tip his nose, the only successful way (until today) that I have been able to claim the space under his right front foot is through direct pressure (tapping him with the lead rope or gentlyrunning the lead rope up and down his shoulder). Rick's suggestions included utilizing some of his other senses including choosing and making a particular sound, tapping the ground with my foot, blowing on his shoulder (this may not work well on a windy day). Herki and I did make some progress today regarding stepping the front end around. The other animals made it easy for me to set up my request; they were standing in the pasture next to us. So I asked him to tip his nose to my right, which he wanted to do anyhow so that he could see his buddies. Then I tapped my foot on the ground by his right front hoof, swung the leadrope to make the motion of a bell ringing next to his shoulder but never touched him and said "over". With the other animals as a draw it was very easy forHerki to succeed and, after a few tries, he did. We didn't experiment long enough to find out which of the three communication methods was the one that, ultimately, was the best communication method but whichever it was or the combination of the three must have been clearer then my requests of the past. Then we headed out for a beautiful ride in the crisp December air and I tried it in the saddle – I guess we need to work on it a bit more but the ride was wonderful.S o, here is the question I am struggling with – Herki's mind was not with me when I was asking him to step his front end around. He was clearly focussed on the other animals and I felt more like an annoying fly.

So, I'm thinking, where is that happy medium where you still have the horse with you but are encouraging the draw from something else that creates a disconnect? I would rather if itwasn't an either/or situation. Perhaps it doesn't need to be a trade-off. Perhaps his mind can still be with me even thought his eyes are on his buddies.

I think the other benefit of doing groundwork with the loose rope around his neck is that it creates a better togetherness. Certainly, doing it without anything attached to him in a BIG field would be best but I like the physical connection to remind me of the mental connection.

Now I'm just rambling.....