Bend Toward Movement
Up to this point, you've probably spent two or three days working with your horse's hindquarter control. It could have been a bit less; it could have been a bit more. Your plan now is to get this slight bend to the left as he moves his hips to the left during one lesson. It should take you 30 minutes to an hour.
Your goal is to get your horse's head to that 100% mark, which is about 4 inches to the left of the left front concho on your saddle instead of to the right, while he does exactly what you've been asking him to do with his front feet and hindquarters. You won't ask for perfection right away. The first step is just to limit by a few degrees how far he bends his head to the right.
The aid or tool that you'll use to keep your horse from bending too much is the outside rein. Yes, the left one. You've let that left rein be slack up to this point whenever you asked him to move his hindquarters to the left. Now you're going to use it to limit how far his head can go to the right when he responds to that right rein asking him to move his hindquarters to the left.
That's a lot of lefts and rights, so re-read it a few times! Think about it slowly as you close your eyes and hold imaginary reins in your hands. Right hand asks for the movement. Left hand keeps the head from moving too far over.
A big factor in making all this come together as planned is your leg cue that keeps the horse moving. It's pretty much guaranteed that the first time he feels pressure from both reins he's going to want to stop moving. Do not under any circumstances pull harder on the right rein to try to get his feet moving again.
When (not if) he stops, keep your hands the same. Brace them in the same position, then begin asking with both legs evenly for the horse to move his feet. When he starts moving again, he'll probably go forward rather than move his hips over. As he does this, with each step he takes forward, continue adding just a little more pressure evenly to both reins. Do not pull more on the right rein than you do on the left rein. This would cause him to bend his head more to one side, which is what we're trying to get rid of.
If your horse just doesn't understand that you still want him to move his hindquarters to the left when there is any pressure on that left rein, then you may have to increase the pressure on the right rein for just a time or two. Keep a little left pressure, but go ahead and bend your horse's head another inch to the right until he gets the idea to move just his hindquarters. The next time you make the same request, try to bend his head a little less to the side.
If this happens, don't view this as a failure for either of you. You're trying to explain to your horse what you're thinking. He doesn't automatically know what he's supposed to do. Any hint you can give him is a good thing. It only makes the learning process easier on both of you.
Try again. Keep light contact with the left rein while you cue for the "hips over" turn with the right rein. Your horse will probably again continue forward for two or three or four steps and then stop all movement again. Use your leg cues to get the feet moving again. He should then move his hindquarters a step or two to the side. At that moment, instantly release both reins.
You've now accomplished an improvement of about 5% less bend to the right! Repeat the same exercise until your horse is doing it consistently with less bend in his neck. Then work on consistently using less and less pressure until he's doing the maneuver on a slack rein.
When you've both achieved this, you're ready for another 5% increase toward your goal. Each subsequent increase should take about the same amount of time. Sometimes it may be a little more, sometimes a little less. As you become more proficient at teaching the lesson, any horse you are working with will generally take less and less time.
When you have reached your 100% goal, your horse's head will be to the left, at the line of your left stirrup and the flat part of his shoulder. When you begin to pick up the right rein, asking his tail (right hip bone, our right hip pocket) to move to the left, the slack doesn't come out of either rein. The horse begins to slow his forward motion and begins to move his tail (right hip, your right hip pocket) to the left.
Win-Win Situation
You win. Your horse wins. He didn't want to bend his head to the right anyway. You'll also have to practice this move to the right, of course. Depending on your time availability, you can do that now or wait for your next ride.
What makes this lesson go very smoothly and quickly is the time and effort you put in to teaching the "hips over" and tail control with the one rein.
When you can move the hips over while keeping the horse's head on the same side as the direction his hips are moving, don't practice letting the horse bring his head to the other side at any time unless you're doing a very short review for advancing to another performance maneuver. An example of this would be when we begin to teach a haunches or hips in and collection. But we'll get to that later…
