by Marcia King
Neck reining to a western horse is like a steering wheel to a car: without it, you have no control over the direction where you and your vehicle go.
It’s one of the first fundamentals a western horse learns, and without a good neck-reining response a “finished” horse won’t finish well in reining, working cow horse, western pleasure or most other western competitions.
Fortunately, training a horse to neck rein is a very simple process – or so says Clark Bradley, and Bradley should know. He’s brought along hundreds of horses in his long career as a trainer, and he’s taken more than a few of those horses to the top, claiming championships in the NRHA Futurity class and in the AQHA Congress Versatility, Western Pleasure Futurity, Junior Reining, Senior Reining, and Team Roping classes.
Getting Started
On a finished horse, the true neck rein is a loose rein, says Bradley. “There’s only pressure against the neck and no pressure with the bit at all.”
The neck rein cue should be very light, and the reining hand should never cross an imaginary line from the horse’s neck to the rider’s shoulder.
Although some trainers start neck reining only after a horse is used to the bridle and understands the gaits, Bradley introduces neck reining in a horse’s first mounted lesson.
He notes that since a green horse must be taught steering anyway, a trainer can incorporate neck reining into that process.
“The first day you ride a colt, you can ask them to neck rein,” he says. “They’re not going to respond, but it’s a teaching process and it’s not complicated.” He usually starts colts in a side-pull for the first couple of months, and then moves up into a D-ring or O-ring snaffle.
After about 6 to 12 months of training, he puts them in a broken-mouth bit such as a short shank snaffle. Training sessions generally last from 30 to 45 minutes a day, five days a week.
Bradley begins by having the horse walk forward. “Then when I want to turn slightly to the right, I’ll put the left rein against their neck. Since they don’t understand, they don’t respond. Then I go to both hands and shorten the inside rein and actually pull their head to the right to get a type of a turn to the right. As soon as they respond, I release the pressure.”
Initially, turns are not large, only about 10 degrees. After obtaining some sort of turn, Bradley rewards with a release, and then repeats the lesson a few more times.
During the first several months of training, Bradley rides with both hands, first asking for the neck rein, then reinforcing with a direct inside rein. “Too many people forget to neck rein,” Bradley warns. “They just pull the nose to the inside and hope the horse turns. They must use the neck rein cue, first.”
The only other aids Bradley uses when teaching neck reining is keeping his legs on the side of the horse to maintain forward motion and bumping the outside elbow with his stirrup or leg to encourage the horse to move his outside shoulder over.
“I want the horse’s whole body to turn, not just his head. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll keep pressure on the reins and use the outside leg to make sure it happens.”
Once the horse neck reins in a circle at a walk fairly well, responding to either just a neck rein or both reins, Bradley starts to neck rein at a trot. Many horses can move up to the trot stage in just two weeks.
When the horse can trot a figure-eight in 30-ft circles really well with either a neck rein or with two hands, Bradley begins neck reining at the lope. He cautions riders not to attempt neck reining lessons at faster gaits until the horse responds fairly consistently in a slower gait.
“I like them pretty broke to trotting before I try to lope them,” he says. “A lot of people try to lope them the first week, and they don’t have enough steering mechanism. They can get in a lot of trouble.”
If Bradley has difficulties getting a turn at a lope, he drops down to a trot or a walk, but always makes sure he get some sort of change of direction before releasing the pressure. “If you neck rein and neck rein, and then decide to forget it, the horse will forget it, too,” he warns.
Because neck reining is a simple command, most horses catch on to the basics fairly quickly. “After you ride them about a half-dozen times, they’ll start to move away from that pressure,” Bradley says.
“To get ready to show in a reining class, it usually takes a trainable horse 6 to 8 months of training, possibly more. If you’re going to the NRHA reining for three-year-olds, then they usually have 16 to 18 months of training.”
Mistakes
Although neck reining is one of the easiest commands to teach a horse, there are still a few ways in which horse and rider can go astray.
The most common mistake a rider makes is when they want to turn, but the horse won’t, so the rider pulls their hands farther to the inside.
“But the farther your hand goes inside, the more pressure you’re putting on the outside rein, which forces the horse’s head to turn to the outside,” Bradley notes.
If the horse doesn’t turn, make the correction by going to two hands and shortening the inside rein. “Put their nose slightly to the inside and move the horse’s shoulder over.”
Bradley often sees riders using just one rein to get a turn.
“A lot of people, especially when they’re riding colts, just pull the rein to the right when they want to turn right. Pretty soon the horse just turns his head to the right, but his shoulder is still off to the left, the hips are swung to the left, and they lose the whole body position.
You’ve got to use both reins on the horse to keep his body lined up. You’d like for the head to be slightly to the right with his body still going straight. Use more left rein to move the horse’s left shoulder over and to keep his body alignment correct. This is important in all stages, but especially in the first few months.”
Another problem Bradley observes is busy hands. “A lot of people, when they’re just riding along, they’re moving their hands all the time, even advanced riders in the show.” This constant hand-movement sends conflicting signals and could eventually make the horse immune to neck reining cues.
Some riders make neck reining for the green horse unnecessarily complicated. “Some people say if you want to turn to the left, you put your left foot here and your right foot there and your hand goes over here…,” says Bradley.
“I want to keep it very simple so the horse can understand: A neck rein means to turn. I use my legs to keep the motion or as punishment.” The only exception, Bradley notes, is a slight leg cue for the finished horse when performing a spin or a fast lope.
By far the worst mistake a rider can make is inconsistency and not following through. Always insist on getting some sort of turn when you ask, and always reward by releasing, he says.
“If you continue to pull across their neck and nothing happens, they learn to ignore the pull. Every time the left rein touches the side of their neck, you must make them turn slightly to the right, then release the pressure.”
By heeding Bradley’s advice, you can make neck reining one of the easiest commands your horse ever learns.
Clark Bradley of Findlay, Ohio, has held an NRHA judge’s card since the first approved NRHA judges’ list was created in the 1970s and is a 1994 NRHA Hall of Fame inductee, past NRHA president, and two-time winner of the NRHA Futurity. A trainer and competitor as well as a judge, Bradley is also a multiple AQHA World and AJQHA World Champion.
