Horse Training Source

Horse Bits and Reins

How do I get my horse to go on the rail correctly?

Whenever I try to get my horse on the rail. She will do it just fine but with her nose completely pointed towards the rail. Pulling on the outside rein a bit and using leg pressure to keep her at the wall doesn’t work. She ends up completely ignoring the leg pressure and going to the inside of the arena, off the rail. She doesn’t really need to learn how to respond to leg pressure because she responds to it wonderfully doing anything else (such as circles) but my horse always has her head completely pushed into the wall. Any help?

If your using any kind of snaffle bit (O ring, D ring, full cheek) then DO NOT USE INDIRECT REINING this will only serve to confuse your horse, because that not the way they are meant to be used (they work on direct pressure on the corners of your horses mouth).

I had a trainer who had me do this with my horses and it only made the problem worse. I have also seen other horses really messed up because riders used indirect pressure with snaffle.

What worked really well for me was practicing circling onto the rail and keeping the horse bent that way. I also will to a lot of side passing onto and off the rail.

You also want to make sure that when your asking for bend that you don’t jerk on the horses mouth, or pull to hard because the horses Natural reaction to a jerk is to jerk back.

You might also check your bit for sharp edges that might be making your horse uncomfortable, and you might try a different kind of bit, like some type of curb so you could use indirect pressure.

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