Hi Gil,

So glad to hear you are clicking like mad!

Ok… single rein riding. If the horse spins out on a small circle, there are a couple of adjustments you can make. 

My first thought would be to slide down the rein and anchor your hand BEFORE you get to the point of contact. My experience has been that when people learn this work, they slide to the point of contact and then anchor the hand and this ends up making the rein short enough that a novice horse cannot figure out how to find the release. I try to keep the reins as long as possible. If you anchor your hand and there is still slack in the rein, just let the rein slide a bit through your anchored hand by lifting your buckle hand. This will put some “contact” back in the line between your hand and the bit.

If you think your reins are ok, then you can try adding leg, either both or just the inside. If you add inside leg, you might get her to give her hip a little and this will help her give in her jaw.  Alex’s book has the rider teach flipping the hip before the single rein gives. Have you done that?  If you have ever ridden leg yield, sometimes you can put the “thought’ of leg yield into your body and send her out onto a larger circle. As horses expand the circle, they often have a moment when they “give.”

Adding both legs sometimes helps because the horse steps up behind, lifts the neck and softens a bit.  This idea is to add leg or other body cues in a small amount, after you have asked with the rein, to help her understand the rein cue.

I hope this helps…

Katie Bartlett

Elverson, Pa.

www.equineclickertraining.com