In this video Karen coaches a professional (and DN student) with a young horse who shows some anxiety about the contact with the reins. He tends to curl up and lower his neck, while getting ‘balled up’ in his body. She says relaxing and letting the reins go longer hasn’t helped him. He seems to get ‘lost’ in the problem and feels like he gets increasingly anxious. She came to find a way to help him out of this dynamic.

This is not an uncommon problem. The particular technique I am going to show in this video takes excellent feel and timing, especially if the horse has any anxiousness... You will see an excellent example of how well it can work!