Ok, so I'm sure all you horse people are smarter than me, but this has never come up in conversation and I've never been told of it, so I am sharing with anyone who will listen.

So what I learned on my wired ride Saturday, I can actually control which way my horse freaks out!

Yes I said it! Call me crazy but it helps me figure out what is more dangerous, her freaking out into on coming traffic , into a mailbox ( metal with jagged edges), off a cliff (around here ? no guard rails most of the time) or my favorite... into a road sign.

All of these are only some of the larger visual issues I have to worry about when those motorcycles, dump trucks, or school buses are headed for me or better yet coming from behind me.

The control comes from ME choosing WHICH EYE Sweet Pea sees the moving item with.

Yes! If I am riding down the road and the noise is behind me... I'm constantly checking curbs, signs, mailboxes and anything else that can hurt me or my animals.  So with NO issues I have a noise behind me I leg Sweet Pea to bend, push Navarre into the ditch BUT look at the moving thing behind me with her LEFT eye... not her right!   With her left once she sees it; it never leaves her vision again, she can watch it pass her with no huge issues.

If she sees the moving "car" with her left eye she is going to RUN Jump what ever...  right! away from it !

If she sees it with her Left eye... no matter what I do to control it she is going to jump left RUN forward and no telling what else as it comes up on her faster.  Throwing her rear into on coming traffic, and trying to keep it in her site she will spin, turn and yank Navarre around uncontrollably till it is gone.

I find the support reign is very important when it comes to a car passing me near other objects like a sign, mailbox or ? drop off of sorts.  Or the simple hole, glass bottle, old fencing you know all the standards we never see from a car, but all the hazards that could lame my horse in a minute.The support reign is more important to me,than the leg,  because a leg would push her closer to the yellow line.