Have you ever wondered how a reiner can guide his or her horse through a reining pattern with such ease and finesse? The pair seemingly float around the arena, performing a series of maneuvers and changes of direction with very subtle cues. Slack appears in the rider's reins yet the horse is accurate, collected, guiding softly and most importantly, willing.

The primary component of teaching a horse to neck rein is to ensure the rider's reins are held and directed properly. Being able to do this requires the proper bit for the job you want to do.

Horses can have bad days - there's no question about it. But before you decide to get on and make this bad day worse, there may be a few things you can do to relieve some of your horse's pre-ride anxiety.

As a trainer, I am approached daily by people who question my methods. My answer to them has always been, "this is the way I do it based on common sense and trial and error. It's up to you whether or not you would like to do the same."

The ultimate goal of our ride is to have our horses maintain soft head carriages, with their backs round. The term is coined as "collected," "round," or "in a frame." We ask our horses to carry themselves like this so they carry more of their weight on the hind end. This concept goes against the horse's natural body carriage - normally the horse carries 60% of weight on the front end and 40% on the hind.