Accomplished Hunter Rider Goes Reiner - How Did You Adjust?

[pryme_thyme]

Hello fellow Cother’s, call it an early mid life crisis but after riding a few western horses and after a few injuries over my life I decided to make the switch from Hunters.

Tell me, anyone with a strong English background, what tips helped you make the transition to relax your hip/seat rather than hold through your core?

I ended up buying a finishing older Reiner to teach me, boy, does he ever have responsive buttons that I’ll likely never find!

The English type cue for ‘canter’ clearly mean go crazy round and launch

Of course, I’m fortunate to be able to take lessons from a fellow English convert now pro barrel rider but lord, I feel like I cannot ride
Hero to zero is a horse swap haha

To all my fellow western riders, dang, your horses are very well trained! The tuned in, tapped in feeling is something I have never experienced in my years as a hunter.

TYIA

[Paint_Party]

I’ve had a very similar journey, from decades of hunters and eq medals to Western. I tried a couple of western disciplines, including 3 years doing Paint shows, but have settled on ranch and reining.

I bought a finished reiner who’d already packed around an older ammy, so my mare is tolerant of my errors. And in the beginning there were many!

I had to learn to be conscious of keeping my calf on my horse, and in the correct position, because “leg off” means downward transition and “leg forward” means stop. Immediately.

As for my body position, my biggest issue is after a lifetime of two-point and a half-seat, I tend to still sit on my crotch vs. my butt, and my upper body is slightly ahead of the vertical. It’s like my default position, but I’m working on it! Having a good reining saddle helps, and then I ride a few minutes each time without my stirrups.

Overall, I appreciate my mare’s prompt response to my aids. I like her honest, earnest mindset, too. The all-around Paint competitions were so slow and laborious. I got bored. This is much more… zippy.

[pryme_thyme]

Oh this is awesome! I am so glad to have the moral support haha. Yeap I noticed I’m doing the same and gribbing in the thigh which means GO to this Reiner hahaha

Sorry buddy… still learning hahaha

[pryme_thyme]

Paint - your horse sounds more forgiving

[NoSuchPerson]

Years ago I took an older horse who had been doing not much of anything but low level hunt seat his entire life to a wonderful cowboy colt starter/reining trainer I knew. I had only owned him a year or so, but was continually aggravated by his seeming inability to bend and other holes in his training that I lacked the skill and patience to improve.

After riding the horse for a couple of days, the trainer said to me, “I’m about to wake this horse up. Are you sure that’s what you want?” LOL.

[Bluey]

@Paint_Party

I’ve had a very similar journey, from decades of hunters and eq medals to Western. I tried a couple of western disciplines, including 3 years doing Paint shows, but have settled on ranch and reining.

I bought a finished reiner who’d already packed around an older ammy, so my mare is tolerant of my errors. And in the beginning there were many!

I had to learn to be conscious of keeping my calf on my horse, and in the correct position, because “leg off” means downward transition and “leg forward” means stop. Immediately.

As for my body position, my biggest issue is after a lifetime of two-point and a half-seat, I tend to still sit on my crotch vs. my butt, and my upper body is slightly ahead of the vertical. It’s like my default position, but I’m working on it! Having a good reining saddle helps, and then I ride a few minutes each time without my stirrups.

Overall, I appreciate my mare’s prompt response to my aids. I like her honest, earnest mindset, too. The all-around Paint competitions were so slow and laborious. I got bored. This is much more… zippy.

“Sit on your pockets” is the first advice I received learning cutting and reining.
It helped, may try that.

[Paint_Party]

I got my mare from an NRHA judge and trainer. He’s an excellent instructor so I haul back for lessons and clinics. Last time he got on my mare to “tune her up” a little.

She really, uhm, perked up and went from my normal Subaru to a Corvette, zipping through a reining pattern.

I’m thrilled that she’s capable of that, but I’m not there yet. I’m still getting used to there not being a “jog.” It’s trot and extended trot. And lots of extended loping. Which honestly is a welcome change from all that western horsemanship and pleasure stuff.

[bugsynskeeter1]

Sit back. No matter if you think you are sitting back, you aren’t. You will feel like you are leaning back when you are actually finally sitting straight. Agree with the previous poster who said “sit on your pockets”.

Whoa means whoa. Now.
Cluck to trot
Kiss to lope
Humm to slow down - how much depends on what you are doing with your legs

[saddleup]

For me the hardest was to let go of his face and ride on a loose rein. Trust my horse. Keep my hand low and centered. Breathe.

And that extended lope to a walk without contact was um, difficult. But the extended lope to a stop is AWESOME. Again, sit back and trust my horse.

It’s so much fun.

[pryme_thyme]

Omigoodness I love and appreciate all these comments, it is so wonderful to hear your stories. I felt out of water in my area doing this

Thank you everyone!!! I can’t wait to hear more

[Bluey]

English riders tend to be handsy.
Western riders in the more technical disciplines like reining has evolved to be, is different, basically more about you and the horse in balance and communicating thru subtle changes in that balance, horse “willingly guided” an important part of it.

That balance is what tells your well trained reining horse what and how you want to proceed.
I call it a more refined kind of trick riding, you learn your cues, mostly from your seat and leg and the horse is trained to respond.

It is hard, is more about concepts of riding than seat of the pants riding for a common goal like roping or jumping or barrel racing, where you can be less clear with your body signal and less polite with your hands on the reins and still accomplish your task.

Any horse will tell on your riding, a reining horse will be more loud about it because of it’s training for a finesse other disciplines don’t require of both of you.

If you like riding to communicate totally with your horse, reining is for you.
It will demand much of you, but a good ride will keep you happily patting and thanking your horse and smiling for hours.

[Bonnie2]

I was fortunate to ride one for a bit. He was so exquisitely broke and polite! I swear he would say “pardon me ma’am, but you don’t know what you’re doing”. He taught me his proper way to execute walk/canter and canter/walk transitions and that has improved my dressage horse’s transitions. The best thing about horses is that there is always something new to learn! Have fun!

[Montanas_Girl]

As a fellow hunter-turned-reiner/ranch/cow horse rider, I will add: Work on softening your lower back. This is my biggest struggle. The slight arch in the lower back is exactly the opposite of what you need on working western horses - almost think about rounding your spine, especially in the stops.

I am learning to rein on a mare who is not “finished” but is very broke and forgiving. I think it’s actually easier to learn some things on one like her, where the buttons aren’t quite so sensitive as on a finished reiner.

My second piece of advice is to try to find a reining or ranch horse trainer to take some lessons from. A barrel racer is probably not going to be able to help you the way you need when it comes to learning how to ride a finished reiner. That’s all I’ll say about that, in the interest of being diplomatic. Lol.

[Jarpur]

@Bluey

If you like riding to communicate totally with your horse, reining is for you.
It will demand much of you, but a good ride will keep you happily patting and thanking your horse and smiling for hours.

I had the chance to take a lesson on a well-trained reiner, and it was unlike any other experience I’ve had on horseback. I’m not a heavy-handed rider, and I’m very accustomed to riding a sensitive horse with its motor running – the type that’s a psychic mindreader – but I’d never ridden one like that reining horse.

I kept lightening up, he’d respond, I’d lighten up further, he’d be even more responsive (how was that possible?), I’d lighten up again, ditto, on and on and on. It was incredible! I actually started laughing – it was “Zen and the Art of Horse Riding,” think it and he will do it. He was absolutely great.

I was happy, horse was happy, trainer was happy. It’s been many years – horse is long gone, trainer is deceased – but I’ll always remember being given the opportunity to ride that horse. It’s a wonderful memory.

[NoSuchPerson]

@Bonnie2

I swear he would say “pardon me ma’am, but you don’t know what you’re doing”.

I had one of those one time. He frequently told me, “You’re not doing it right!” And more than once at shows, he clearly said, “Just sit still and leave me alone. I know what I’m doing. You’re just going to mess this up.”

[TheHunterKid90]

Ex hunter rider turned reining trainer 11 years ago.
You’re going to want to keep your legs still and tight, but you need to let them lay like wet washcloths on your horses sides. Bounce your leg on your horses belly.
Sit like someone punched you in the stomach. Think round and loose in your lower back.
Remember that woah means stop and get back two steps. Nothing else. Never use woah to slow your horse down. It means nothing other than put it in reverse.
You are going to find it very hard to ride on a loose rein but it will make life a lot easier. Start at the walk and play with steering with your feet and legs.