We often can see rider's setting their horse's heads by pulling the reins back and forth and the horse ends up in a head set, without experiencing true collection.... so how can we get our horses to offer collection and a nice round head set?

First a brief explanation of why we ‘set our horses heads’:

We like our horses to carry their heads in a rounded and relaxed position with their nose’s vertical to the ground. This is because it means the horse is rounding his top line (arching his spine). This posture puts the horse in a position of power and balance from which he can do more movements and skills; he can jump easier or push himself into a gallop, roll back, etc.

People refer to this in different terms: rounding, framing, collecting, in-hand, flexing, etc in general people use these words to all refer to the same thing (the horse carrying themselves in a rounded posture to distribute more weight onto his hind legs).

In order for a head set to be effective, the horse has to be accepting of the bit and relaxed into your hand. If the horse is bracing against you, then your horse isn’t in a relaxed rounded frame and you will not experience the benefits of this posture from the horse. It is extremely uncomfortable and sometimes physically impossible for a horse to round his top line if the rider position is off (pinching with the knees, too short stirrups, clenching at the hips, weight not down through their heels, etc), or if tack is ill fitting. Make sure you have both your tack and position assessed for correct fit by a knowledgeable professional.

Each discipline has a preferred height for the horse’s head to be carried at. Generally you want the horse to carry their head above the wither line, while still rounded. This is because you want the horse to bear more weight on their hind end, so you feel an uphill like movement, which is more easily done when the horse’s head is higher than the withers. Bearing more weight on the hind end shifts the balance of the horse to become more equal from front to back (because normally horses bear most of their weight over their front end- especially the faster they go), sharing the weight between front and back lets the horse jump more easily or perform movements like lead changes and other tasks that require a horse to be ‘light on their front end’.

When you ask a horse to set their head, you must remember that the right thing (rounding their back and framing their head) needs to be comfortable and the wrong thing (holding their head and back hollow) needs to be uncomfortable.

You want to make sure that you be patient and consistent with your cues until the horse understands what you are asking. If you give up or switch techniques before your horse does what you want, then you will teach your horse that you weren’t really asking for anything in particular after all (you will be
teaching your horse to be desensitized).