"The lead rope is a symbolic line of the connection between the rider and the horse."

A symbolic line of the relationship that exists between the two of you. The quality, the consistency, the attraction between the two of you. Who is the leader and who is the follower. If at any time the line tightens between the two of you, this is a sign of where there is a problem with the relationship between the two of you. An area of disagreement in how the two of you interact with each other.

A well-developed relationship will have the horse watching the rider, not putting weight into the lead rope instead following the rider at all times on an equally loose line with the same amount of non-weight in it all the time. Halting when the rider halts, walking when the rider walks, slowing down and speeding up to match the rider. Showing that you have created a secure relationship between the two of you.

This is the third article in the series of how to train the horse to the rein through the lead rope. To review from the first two articles on how to train the rein through the lead rope, and how this is the first lesson that we teach the horse. We can have three types of reins/feels through the lead rope that the horse receives from us. We can yield, pull or we can have an unyielding hand.

The tenets of good horsemanship demands that we must never pull. While "it comes into operation by instinct and most of the people most of the time do not realize it at all; they merely imagine that the horse is pulling and that Herculean strength is needed to stop him from doing so; they fail to realize that both parties are pulling and that both parties act in accordance  with exactly the same instinct."