Training a horse to neck rein when he doesn't even move off leg pressure?

I am trying to teach my horse to neck rein. He is 12 years old. He doesn't even know how to move off leg pressure. Here's how I was taught how to do it please tell me if it's right for a horse like this...

Say I want to turn left
1.I would pick up the reins and lay the right rein on the right side of his neck
2. If he does not move...I put pressure on him with my right leg (or should it be my left leg so he "bends" around it?)
3.If he still doesn't move, I keep doing the above but I then direct rein him over and as soon as he moves left, I release all pressure?

Is this pretty much what I should be doing? I'm confused which leg I should be using and how often I should do this with him per day.

I am teaching my horse to do this as well. If I want Koby to turn left, I lay the right rein on his neck as applying pressure with my RIGHT leg. If he doesn't turn, I bring his head around with my left rein also until he turns. As soon as he turns (and I mean a good haunch turn) I release all pressure. I have tried other methods to get him to neck rein and this has worked the best. I wouldn't work on doing this longer than about 10 minutes, then move on to something else. I have been doing this for about a month and Koby is doing great! Keep trying and don't give up!
~Kayla

For one that doesn't neck rein in the slightest, if going to right, I very lightly ask with right rein at same time I press with left leg firmly, and lay left rein against neck firmly. Not a SMACK firm, but a solid pressure/movement with the left cues, and very light feather touch of right rein.

And if your horse isn't moving off of leg cues already? That is because your cues are too heavy more than likely. You may have taught him to not be responsive, by always giving too much cue, instead of bare whisper and upping the ante if you get no response.

Light, light, light cues, getting progressively stronger, not heavy cues followed by light ones.

Whichever rein you've got on his neck is the leg you use to put pressure on. You don't want them to bend you want them to move off from the pressure. So going left is right rein & right leg going right is left rein and left leg. I would really recommend you start with him moving off your leg first though as it makes it much easier and leg aids are always a good thing for horses to know.

I think your goal should be to move off leg pressure right now, and then work on neck reining later...

For a straight turn, I always use leg and rein on the same side when neck reining, like you said. Left rein + left leg = right turn. It's not until later in his finishing that you would need to worry about using both legs in a turn to create bend. You've got the basic idea but you need to have the progression a bit different. Put leg and neck rein on at the exact same time, then direct rein to reinforce your cue almost immediately if he doesn't respond. When he turns, then release all pressure. If done correctly, it doesn't normally take too much time for them to catch on to the basic idea of it. I can have a horse that is neck reining decent after only a couple of rides where I was actively working on it.

The best way to get them used to it quickly is to not really do set times where you spend only a bit of your ride working on neck reining. It should be a constant work in progress. When you decide you want him to start learning, then you need to work on it every single second that you're riding him. Start expecting him to neck rein when you're riding on the trail, when you're in the arena, when you're riding down the road, when you ride from the arena to the trailer, etc. The more consistently you ask for it, the more consistently he'll pick it up and the quicker he'll be consistent with the cues.

Once I start really teaching a horse to neck rein, I will start riding them with 1 hand and will only ever use the other to reinforce a cue if he is a bit sluggish to the initial cue or if he seems confused.

Another problem most folks run into when they start trying to teach a horse to neck rein is that they pull the rein across the horse's neck to the point that it cues the bit. The problem that creates is that if you are pulling the left rein across the horse's neck trying to get him to turn right but the left rein is tight enough that it's pulling on the left side of the bit, then the horse is getting conflicting signals. The rein says "turn right" but the pull on the bit says "turn left". What normally happens is either the horse turns the wrong way or he does one of those ugly turns where he turns right with his nose pointed around to the left.

Here is a pretty good video about teaching neck reining. Not the very best example I've ever seen, but it works.

I've been training Page to neckrein. She didn't move off of leg pressure or neckrein, now she does both pretty well walk trot. Haven't tried neckreining at a canter yet.

We started with the leg pressure first. It made the neckreining SO much easier because I had the leg to back it up, which is still moving away from pressure so the same idea, instead of having the direct rein being my only plan b she understood.

If you don't mind me asking, why aren't you teaching her about leg pressure first?

If I want a right turn I lay the left rein on their neck and put light pressure on the right rein. Like Smrobs said, once they start getting a clue you can put both reins in one hand and do the same thing with very light cues. The other thing I do is put them on a narrow trail and rein around every single wiggle in that trail. By backing up your rein commands with visual clues they pick it up in a hurry. You can have them neck reining in only a single decent trail ride, of course it takes more to polish them off but you'll have a good foundation started.