CORNERING: That word takes in so much. A lot of people use this to mean different things. What I mean is just bringing that nose around a little, because that’s the start of cornering. Of course, whether you can do that and leave the feet still, just depends on the horse and the ability of the person handling the horse. But you’d like to be able to do that with your horse on the ground and from his back, because when this is in place, he’s learned to feel of you.
It’s important to get that preparation built in there so when you bring that nose around a little, that horse knows whether or not you want him to move those feet. If you want those feet to stay put, or you don’t, he’s been prepared through feel to understand the difference. So many maneuvers you might need your horse to be able to do further up the line depend on this part being real clear to the horse. Of course, the person needs to know about this first, and whatever that person needed the horse to do (with his feet) while they were cornering that horse, that’s the feel they would present. It’s real important for the horse to understand your intent and the way you present your feel to him is how he finds out what your intent is. And if you were sitting on him of course you’d be using both reins to get that message across to him. And you’d ease off, of course, when he did anything close to the area of what you wanted him to do, and you’d build on that from there.
There’s always so many things taking place at one time that a person needs to be aware of them — because one thing’s for sure, that horse is thinking. If you can get that horse to pick up your cornering feel real good, while getting him to travel straight, then he’s learned to feel of you. But, of course, that’s only one way to corner a horse. There’s other things you’d do that figure in there for doubling, and for other jobs that aren’t emergencies. You’d want that horse’s hindquarters to be real adjustable, because it’s so important to the horse to have it that way. And because it is, it should be real important for the rider, too, I’ll put it that way. No, when you have that cornering built in there, why there isn’t any question that your horse has learned to feel of you, and there’s a world of difference in that.