From: moseley@u.washington.edu (Steve L. Moseley)
Subject: Re: neck reining -was- Countersteering_FAQ please post
Organization: Microbial Pathogenesis and Motorcycle Maintenance
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In article <1qmetg$g2n@sixgun.East.Sun.COM>
 egreen@east.sun.com (Ed Green - Pixel Cruncher) writes:

>Basically, there are two ways to steer a horse, plow-rein and
>neck-rein.  Plow-reining steers him by keeping the reins separate, and
>you pull in the direction you wish to go.  Neck-reining steers a horse
>by holding the reins together in one hand, and pulling against the
>horse's neck in the direction you wish to go.  When training a
>plow-steering horse to neck-rein, one technique is to cross the reins
>under his necks.  Thus, when neck-reining to the left, the right rein
>pulls against the right side of the neck, but the left side of the bit
>(which the horse is used to from his plow-reining days).

I learned when riding bareback as a kid to "palm-reign", by just 
pushing on the right side of the horse's neck with your right palm to turn 
left - a lot like countersteering. So that came pretty easy to me in the 
transition to motorcycles. It took a while however to break my habit of 
kicking the rear fender with my heels to go faster.

Steve
__________________________________________________________________________
Steve L. Moseley                                  moseley@u.washington.edu
Microbiology SC-42                                Phone: (206) 543-2820
University of Washington                          FAX:   (206) 543-8297
Seattle, WA 98195
