22 - The Ranch Sorter***************************************************************************january-february 2013


Head Set for Cow Work-Part 2 Ken McNabb


N RS Training Series By Ken McNabb


ow I know many of you are like me and you want to get to the fun stuff like stops and rollbacks and get out there and get to working cattle, but there are a couple more exercises I want to go over with you before we get to that.


For me, I believe that your horse has to respect the bit and has to be willing to


give you his face before you can have the control that you really need to go into that pen and really work cattle. In the last article we talked about the Circle S exercise and we also talked about circles for self-carriage. This month what I want to talk to you about is actually developing vertical flexion in your horse’s face and it’s pretty simple. We start with an exercise that is called the triangle exercise. This is an exercise


that I learned from Al Dunning. It works on any horse, any breed, any discipline. This is a fantastic exercise for getting your horse’s face vertical. The first thing I want you to do is to go back to that Circle S exercise or the circles for control, either one, for a couple of minutes and warm your horse up. When you have him softening nicely, maintain pressure on your inside rein and then pick up your outside hand, lifting that rein just parallel to the swells of your saddle and reaching to the outside about 8-10 inches away from the swells of your saddle, and what you are doing is creating a triangle. The base of the triangle is your right and left hand and you can draw a straight line and they should be on the same plane or same level. The apex or the point of the triangle is the horse’s nose and your right rein runs from your hand to his mouth and your left rein runs from your hand to his mouth. You already have the horse bent slightly to the inside and this encourages with the outside rein, your horse to bring his nose back across the front of his chest, bringing his face to vertical while still bent to the inside. What happens is, instead of having to bend his poll and push his jaw against his


whole neck you actually soften the neck and allow one jawbone complete freedom of movement while the other one works against the muscle itself. So you are really only flexing and really only working hard on one side of his neck at a time. I like to work this exercise at a strong walk preferably, or even a good trot before


I go to the lope. What I want to do is drive my horse’s hind quarters forward. I have to have good solid movement. People often talk about collection as if it’s the same thing as getting your horse’s face vertical and it’s not. Collection is developing a better way of moving, a balanced way of moving, driving your horse’s hind quarters forward and slowing his nose down and actually lifting the horse’s backbone up and creating a more balance carriage for the horse. While this exercise works toward collection it is not collection in and of itself.


Lots of times you will see a horse with a vertical face that’s not collected. That’s why the strong movement from the hind quarters is so important. You really want that horse driving his hind quarters up underneath. I want you to sit deep in your seat, open your knees, turn your toes to the outside and really push this horse’s hind quarters up underneath of him so that he’s really learning to use that hind end and engage that hind end in the work that he’s doing. As you’re holding the reins in the triangle, as you feel this horse start to soften and come off of your hand I want you to release the rein. Here’s what’s critical and what people really need to learn: You don’t want


to be in your horse’s mouth when his nose is where you want it. When his face is in the frame you want it in and his head and neck carriage is soft and pretty and downhill, you don’t want to be in his mouth. You only want him to feel you in his mouth when his head comes up out of position. For me, again I want my horse to


Building a triangle.


Softening at the walk.


Correct head position using the triangle for stop transition.


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