If you want to teach your horse to counter arc his body, you must first understand you can’t teach it overnight. Also, it’s not an easy thing to teach either.
It takes plenty of time and most of all it takes patience. Plus, a little know-how helps a lot too. There are different ways to teach this and I’ll reveal one way here.
You can start teaching the basics by using a fence. So the first thing you want to do is have your horse travel with his head bent while going along the fence. Your horse walks straight along the fence and then you bend his head to the fence. Why are we using the fence? This keeps the horse from going the direction his head is bent.
Gradually, as your horse gets better and better at this, you ask the horse to move away from the fence. The whole time his head is bent. After you’ve done it one direction then do it the other direction.
There are other ways to teach this but this is a great example because you can visually see this going on in your mind.
I should probably also say you’ll want your horse to understand leg cues too. After all, when you take him away from the fence he’ll need a leg cue to tell him to move. So as your horse’s head is bent, you’ll bump him with your leg. You don’t apply constant pressure – instead it’s a rhythmic bump.
Be aware of how you’re sitting in the saddle too. Sit balanced, sit straight and deep in the saddle. Also, be very aware of how you do this each time with your horse because it is vital you are consistent with how you teach the horse. Teach it to him the same every time. However, if you find you’re not having luck teaching your horse with this technique, then learn another technique. You always want to know more than one way to teach a horse something.