We instructors all have our pet peeves. For me it’s people who consistently ride with their hands practically on their thighs! Sets my teeth on edge and will get you a sound tongue lashing from me. 
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I think the rationale behind asking what it is called was to see if it is something available on the open market that uneducated hands could get a hold of. Endless says it is deemed to be a homemade device. Someone else says it is repurposed Western draw reins. I think it is really a good discussion to have because that picture is out there for anyone to see. We as a community are supposed to police ourselves. Who wants to see this torture device in the hands of (anyone really) a novice? Not me!
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I don’t disagree, but after 182 posts can we agree that nobody knows the name?
And one look at the pic, I was 95% sure it was repurposed bungie cord neck stretcher or leather western draw reins. 20 posts later when nobody knew the name, I moved it up to 99.9% and unfortunately, even if it was on the market with a name, that wouldn’t stop anyone from making it with even baling twine. Such is the nature of the human race…
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How about if those who aren’t interested in this topic - not read the topic?
Hey, there’s an idea. 
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She was quite the character. You better have a good lower leg because trying to rate her was a 50/50 shot and that horse would jump anything from anywhere. My jump-seeking missile!
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Well, 43 of those posts are someone insisting the thread is about something it is not. I would guess another 100 posts were people stupid enough (me included) to bother to engage with that person.
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This thing has no name. It’s a made up device by the person’s trainer, most likely. Over my many many years, I have seen lots of made up devices by lots of famous german coaches: Conrad Schumacher used to have some people ride with one draw rein (he could not bear not to give a horse a place to go) when they could not get proper flexion; Jo Hinneman had a piece of baling twine that he ran from the girth over the reins and tied to the girth on the other side that he used to provide some leverage with a horse that would not round up and a rider who had backwards hands; the once top guy for airs at the Cadre Noir used to come here and tie people’s stirrups to their girths… This thing is not something you can buy and it’s hard to tell if it’s a bungee or a rope, but I’m guessing rope because of the need to protect the horse’s nose and the lack of the horse’s neck oscillation. It replaces lack of knowledge from the rider. It is better to learn how to ride than to do this crap. For some it’s because they lack the core they need to ride a horse properly. “The legs bring the horse to the seat, and the seat brings the horse to the hands. When the teacher says ‘shorten the reins’ it needs to be translated into: ‘engage the hind legs, sit on them, and then take the slack out of the reins’, because if you shorten the reins from front to back, the horse will only resist.” ~ Thomas Ritter The nose rope is to deal with the resistence to a rider who cannot do the above. Sometimes it takes a lot of core strength to do the above.
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I floated through all of the places I’m used to seeing horse torture tools (like cable brain baskets for ropers) and no luck. I’m guessing as others opined it’s a dark-oiled, round leather draw rein from the western toolkit, cut to size.
What a sad thing to put on a horse.
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The horse can’t gap it’s mouth and argue, you can’t cut their tongue off with it, it’s padded with a poll pad to make it less ‘bitey’ but no more forgiving, and to get to the poll you gotta go through the bit so back to square one.
The jaw is less sensitive than the nasal bone- they did this to ‘contain’ the mare in a shape so someone could canter in a circle. Awful.
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wasn’t there a video? I’m not seeing the link now/
Agree, sort of. I think it was to avoid attaching anything else to the bit to force the frame because the monkey has razor blades already…it might actually help to get the rider off the bit and use her seat more.
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The monkey has razor blades? I do not understand?
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There is an old saying that “draw reins are like razor blades in the hands of monkeys”…in other words, a tool given to those who are uneducated that can work as a dangerous weapon rather than as a useful short term training tool. https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/lifestyle/draw-reins-for-horses-11836/
If someone already has backwards hands, you do not give them draw reins.
The horse in my photo has no throatlatch space and a short, muscular neck. I trained this horse from 60 days to grand prix. Along the way, I had lots of top trainers focus on her face position and the flexion: an experienced FEI 5* judge coached me to get a long shank curb (hella let’s teach horsey to open mouth); a trainer who won at Rolex screamed at me to push and pull; a team rider wanted to use a draw rein type device. None of this shit works if you don’t have a strong enough core to engage the horse onto your seat, and let go your arms to shorten the reins. What attained longitudinal flexion for my horse was engagement to uberstreichen until she was so relaxed she let go of all her tension and could close up her throatlatch without cutting off her wind. But man oh man did I have to have a core to do that.
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Ah, thank you! I was fairly sure I got the gist, but I was not certain.
Monkeys, razor blades, footballs, it’s a head setter.
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That it is. I was trying to explain why they’d use that and not draw reins or some other device…Footballs in the hands of Broncos?
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I am replying before catching up.
Sidereins should not be used unless the person putting them on has been trained.
Sidereins do not kill and maim horses. People using sidereins incorrectly kill and maim horses with sidereins.
Side reins should never be used to pull a horses head in.
In Australia horses are not ridden in sidereins with reins attached to the bit. On the lunge with horses in side reins, the riders reins are attached to the rings on the side of the lunging cavesson. I have removed the lunge rein to let them circle on their own.
Side reins should never be used in walk. If done so, it can cause a lateral walk.
The horse should walk, trot and canter calmly without sidereins first. The horse must be thinking forward.
Once the sidereins are on, halt to trot transition. Trot to canter transition. Canter to trot transition and trot to halt transitions only.
The amount of forward means how high the head carriage is, you can have long and stretched down to up and working with the same length.
Always finish with walk without sidereins or you will end up with horses who won’t walk on the lunge. As they get used to the transitions with the sidereins on.
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Ok cool, but when people ride with them I assume they’re doing 20-30 minutes of work with no break?
I think gadgets have the opposite effect. I have had a few riders come through my barn who had no idea how to use the outside rein, the seat, the leg etc. but they could just plant those hands! Most of them rode with a trainer who put some sort of cords etc. and never discussed the biomechanics of how to get a horse on the bit.
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