When a horse lowers its head to the balance point, many things happen.

 Not only will the horse engage its backend,as I have many times said, but the resistance muscles become flaccid and the carrying duties switch to the topline muscles. At the moment that the switch occurs, the reactive side of the brain, evidenced by the high head carriage,and wild eye,also switches to the thinking side of their brain, evidenced by the relaxed carriage and soft eye. At that moment learning can occur.A horse cannot learn when they are in their reactive side of their brain. That point is when they also calm down on cue.

 This is also the only reason a one rein stop is effective. Any good horseman knows that a horse can run away with you with their head pulled straight back. The reason that a one rein stop works is because to do a one rein stop two things must happen. One is that the horse stops. Two is that the horse gives or yields his face.At the point that the horse yields, that muscle change occurs and the horse relaxes.So if we teach the horse to yield in a one rein stop, it switches from reactive to thinking side of its brain. At the point of panic, it is on its reactive, resistance musclesand not thinking. If we do the one rein stop and the muscle change happens , the horse calms and says "thanks I needed that". Its not the act of a one rein stop , its the muscle change and subsequent mind change that makes it effective.

 So in conclusion, balance change has many benefits other than engagement. It can produce a very happy horse and great friend. More on this next time, happy gaiting!