# Riding with a cordeo/neck rope?



## Elizabeth Bowers (Jan 26, 2012)

I'm a little confused with this? Training horses to be ridden with a cordeo or neck rope. I like the idea, and i find it fascinating. I just don't understand it. Could some one please clarify this for me. Thank You!! I posted a link below.
Why use a Cordeo in Training? « Equestrian Harmony


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Just from having read the blog post, I would say that is an excellent way to ruin a horse and get someone hurt. 



> Using a cordeo allows the horse to make a choice: whether to listen or not. He learns that if he doesn’t want to do something, you can’t make him.


That's fantastic *eyeroll*. What happens if you're riding the horse in the neck rope, he gets spooked and takes off at a run and decides he doesn't want to listen when you try to turn him away from the huge ditch or the fence that he's running right toward?

People buy into the whole "be gentle/kind/soft with your horse" thing way too much. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not one of those "beat them into submission" types...far from it. It's just my belief that being a good horseman doesn't come from attempting to use only items that can _never_ ever hurt the horse or force them to do anything. 

Being a good horseman means working to gain the knowledge and experience and ability to use whatever you want on them from a neck rope to a spade bit and being able to make one just as easy on the horse as the other.


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## Elizabeth Bowers (Jan 26, 2012)

Aaahhh i see. I got that notion too when i first read the article. I was like what happens if the horse just freaks out? Thank you smrobs. I see your point exactly.


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

I lead my horse in & out of the barn with a lead rope around her neck. I always thought it was because I was too lazy to halter her & she knew there would be food waiting at both ends.
Little did I know it was because she loves me & we have a special bond!:wink:


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## DancingArabian (Jul 15, 2011)

I thought you used those as an "oh crap strap"! Now I am educated.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## rookie (May 14, 2012)

I have seen my horses thought process and yeah he has some terrible decision making skills. I think you can get your horse to have a bond and to follow you. I think this cordeo neck thing is like training to any other tool. I am sure that with time you can get your horse to respond to it. heck people have trained their horses to ride bridleless. On a trail ride or in an open area or on a green horse or a fresh horse do I want to have the cordeo rope on him? NO! Pain is no fun, getting killed because I can't stop my horse is even worse.


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## nrhareiner (Jan 11, 2009)

Need to put a warning at the top of this thread about needing Muck boots. That is such a load of .....


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## Elizabeth Bowers (Jan 26, 2012)

LOL thanks everyone. I never said i was going to try it, just that it was interesting and i don't understand how it works. :-D
I ride my mare bareback and bridleless, she responds to me pulling on her mane.


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## rookie (May 14, 2012)

I think its the same idea as bareback and bridleless but for people who don't want to pull on their precious angels mane. Which is just silly.


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## OwnedByAlli (Nov 8, 2011)

smrobs, that quote you pulled out got me annoyed when I read it on the website too! I just thought 'ppffft! Bet that horse gets away with a lot' 

I like the principle- train to be as quiet in your aids as possible, but the website just made me want to stay away from it.

Yes, the whole point of training a horse with any item of tack is to get the horse willing to do what you say and take your lead, with minimal pressure on your behalf. However, saying 'oh, he decided he didn't want to listen today so I wont make him' is pure dangerous. Like others have said- what happens when the horse bolts and decides he doesn't want to stop? And horses don't think rationally like we do. They don't think 'if I stop now, I wont run into the danger that _could_ be infront' they think 'holy **** theres something scary behind me, RUN!'

I, personally, train my horse so she is always- not mostly- _always_ going to listen to me.


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## nrhareiner (Jan 11, 2009)

While a neck rope has been used in the past in Free Style reining and I am sure other similar events it is the end product of good training. It is not the training in and of itself. This is where people get into trouble. They look at people like Stacy and many other reiners and even some Dressage riders doing bridleless riding and then think hay I want to do that. Not thinking that the horse did not start out like that. It takes thousends of hours to get a horse to work like that consistently and well. To the point that you can really trust them.


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## Elizabeth Bowers (Jan 26, 2012)

Alli i've had quite a few O $#@! moments when bareback, good thing i decide to stay in a familiar/close vicinity and get her calmed down quickly. The whole if he doesn't want to listen thing is just strange. I'm not much for that way of thinking.:hide:


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

No need to hide, EB :wink:. We're all of the same mind. The folks that wrote that blog and the folks that follow that way of thinking, IMHO, are suffering from Black Beauty Syndrome.


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## Elizabeth Bowers (Jan 26, 2012)

LOL living in a fantasy world!! and no i don't wish to join. :lol: Some peoples ways of doing things scare me.:shock: i will stick with professional advice, and methods and what i've been taught and learned over the years.


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## BlooBabe (Jul 7, 2012)

Wow this is utter idiocy. I doubt this person has ever taken a wild or unbroken horse and been able to break it perfectly using only a neck rope. And all the talk about "controlling pressure" isn't that what the neck rope does too, only on a more sensitive area, like the horse's throat? How does chocking your horse mean that you've got a good bond with it. I know plenty of people who have tried this and failed because the catch is the horse had to be trained to ride and listen to leg/verbal cues before you can ride like this (which was left out of the info section on the web site). Someone will get hurt doing this to a horse with no training.
Now this isn't to say I never hop on my boy with just a lead around his neck because I do, but it's and 'oh sh*t' handle and the only reason I can do this is because my horse is trained to listen to me, not because I pulled him from a field and thought 'he can make his own choices, after all he is a wild horse and he'll instantly trust me enough not to throw me when I hop on with nothing but a piece of twine around his neck'. Sorry, too sarcastic?


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## FaydesMom (Mar 25, 2012)

LOL, she sure spends a lot of time in a bridle and saddle, just like everybody else training their horse! 

What a bunch of hog wash!


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## ivyschex (Jun 27, 2007)

Hey, everyone, just to clarify, when I wrote that article, which was 2 and 1/2 years ago, I was using the cordeo a lot from the ground. I wasn't not doing much riding with the neck rope nor doing all my training with it. 

I learned a lot about being light from using it with my horses on the ground. You can take it however you want and accuse me of whatever you like, but I still learned much from using it safely! 

Traditional riding/training always balks at something new, but it is up to each individual to decide what training style is best for them. 

I don't do it because my horse "can do no wrong" or because I don't want to pull on the horse's mane. The article was almost entirely talking about using it on the ground, especially to start with. 

I ride my horse in a bitless bridle almost all the time. I am doing dressage and my horse can do piaffe and passage. I don't tell anyone that they need to use a cordeo, but simply that they can and that they can LEARN from using it correctly. 

Thanks,

Ivy


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## arrowsaway (Aug 31, 2011)

ivyschex said:


> Hey, everyone, just to clarify, when I wrote that article, which was 2 and 1/2 years ago, I was using the cordeo a lot from the ground. I wasn't not doing much riding with the neck rope nor doing all my training with it.
> 
> I learned a lot about being light from using it with my horses on the ground. You can take it however you want and accuse me of whatever you like, but I still learned much from using it safely!
> 
> ...


I agree that there is value in teaching a horse to be responsive and supple, and that a horse ideally should be willing to do whatever the rider asks of it. However, this is not always the case, and when I'm handling a 1,000lb+ animal, my decisions are not open to discussion. Allowing an animal that can easily kill you "decide whether or not to listen" is way too risky.


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## BarrelracingArabian (Mar 31, 2010)

I will say when i got an arab mare a couple years ago i rode her with just a rope around her neck and bareback simply because i was lazy haha however it was always in an enclosed area and she did not get to choose whether to listen or not. She did not have much mane to hold either lol.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

I ride my horse with a string around his neck frequently. I first did it with my first horse when I was an ignorant(& invincible, egotistical:lol teenager, to begin with because I always had baler's twine on me & often forgot the halter! In hindsight, in his case, I'm sure it was not always beautiful or gentle - baler's twine is thin & strong - and I did take him out like that on occasion. I didn't appreciate just how good a horse I had under me back then.... or how lucky I was that I didn't have any mishaps.:-|

So these days, it is part of their training, that I teach them to yield to pressure in all sorts of ways, in which a neck string is just one more. The last horse I started under saddle I didn't actually use a halter on until he understood the basics with a neck rope. The last few horses I've taken on to 're-educate' I've found have done really well starting off with it before going back to conventional methods they've already learned to have a bad attitude about. Somebody said something about an 'oh crap! strap':lol: & this is sort of how I use it or reins, in that it's a backup if the horse doesn't listen to legs or seat, not used with any real pressure otherwise. 

I think riding like this really helps you & the horse get 'fine tuned', but these days there is no way I'd ride a horse outside the paddock(or arena, yard to begin with...) without a halter - it's all very well to be idealistic & my horses do respond as well to this as conventional reins, but safety comes first & I don't consider riding in the open or public safe without halter & lead.


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