Question for Reiners

[hunt_jumpfl]

While reining is tough physically on the horse, I don’t know that I would go so far as to compare it to racing. I really believe that training practices and management in the barn can go a long way to extending the career of a reiner (things like a slight change in hoof angle can make a big difference on the joints of a reiner). While a majority of the horses showing WEG reining were 6-8 years old a good number were 9 or older. By my count of the entries, out of 63 horses that showed in the team competition there was one 14 year old, one 13 year old, four 12 year olds, two 11 year olds, five 10 year olds, and eight 9 year olds. While these horses are still probably quite a bit younger than the dressage horses or jumpers I am encouraged that there are more than one or two reiners out there proving that older horses can continue to show at this level.

Many of these horses start their competition careers in the fall of their 3 year old year. There is a lot of money to be won in the 3,4,5, and 6 year old classes (note a couple of the horses showing have $300k- $400k+ in earnings). In the last month or so one of the biggest money reining shows in the US, the National Reining Breeders Classic, announced the addition of a 7yo and older class to promote the FEI level horses. I personally think that this along with the growth of reining as an FEI sport will encourage owners and riders to keep the horses in the show pen longer.

[poltroon]

[QUOTE=hunt_jumpfl;5121363]
I personally think that this along with the growth of reining as an FEI sport will encourage owners and riders to keep the horses in the show pen longer.[/QUOTE]

I suspect so also.

One thing I love about the reining horses is that they are SO light, so able to go from on to off, forward to halt, with relaxation. I wonder if Anky will be able to bring this skill back to her dressage horses, for example.

And personally, if a hum means that a horse can come back to collection with less trauma and more relaxation, perhaps it’s time we do incorporate it in dressage.

[Jasper_sMom]

Sounds like very good news for the sport of reining and I’m glad to hear it.

Interesting thought about allowing voice commands in dressage. I have trouble imagining that it would ever be allowed, although I personally would certainly love to see happier looking FEI dressage horses.

And with that said, it is part of the delight of watching the reining horses – they come out of a crazy spin and then just stand there looking as relaxed and happy as can be. For that matter, nearly every ride I’ve seen so far, the horses are clearly listening to their riders with no grinding of teeth, no super swishy tails, no bucking, no spooking. I suppose it’s partly the QH mind at work, but whatever the reason, it’s really wonderful to see.

And as to Anky, ugh, not sure that is a can of worms we want to open here.

[Rabtfarm]

Reining team scoring

Point of perplexity: the top score of the four riders is dropped in team competition? This seems to be the math for the team scoring, except for Brazil where the #334 rider with a score of 216.5 was dropped while #300 was kept at 217.0… ps I like this riding but I am struggling with the “dead” right hand…the best riders seem to make it look much more natural…the others look a bit like Richard Kimball’s nemesis.:winkgrin:

[bugsynskeeter]

[QUOTE=Rabtfarm;5121421]
Point of perplexity: the top score of the four riders is dropped in team competition? This seems to be the math for the team scoring, except for Brazil where the #334 rider with a score of 216.5 was dropped while #300 was kept at 217.0… ps I like this riding but I am struggling with the “dead” right hand…the best riders seem to make it look much more natural…the others look a bit like Richard Kimball’s nemesis.:winkgrin:[/QUOTE]

No, the lowest score out of the 4 is dropped. That is why some teams could still compete with only 3 riders, but they didn’t have the luxury of a dropped score.

Italy lucked out, keeping 3rd place even tho Marco zero’d in the first round.

[jumpytoo]

I personally have a difficult time with the free hand… hanging it down at the hip is ok but makes it harder to mask small mistakes because you want to bring it up to help out the working hand… I don’t wanna look like the guy from the fugitative either… or do the Bob Dole-hold a pen thing… I wish they would just let us go as the cowboys intended and put a beer in the empty hand… it would make so much more sense. Then for degree of difficulty you could have can, bottle,glass,and move up to martini or champagne .The horses are smooth enough and it would add audience interest even more.

Maybe all the interesting stuff has to wait for the Freestyle

[Beverley]

@jumpytoo;5121919

I personally have a difficult time with the free hand…

I still ride western the way I learned decades ago…free hand hanging down at the walk, up as the reiners were doing for trot/lope etc. The alternate acceptable style was to have your free hand touching your leg.

Among other things, having that other hand up helps me keep shoulders square- hips too. Plus it’s easier to go to two hands on the reins if needed on a young horse.

[JinxyPoo]

[QUOTE=jumpytoo;5121919]
I personally have a difficult time with the free hand… hanging it down at the hip is ok but makes it harder to mask small mistakes because you want to bring it up to help out the working hand… I don’t wanna look like the guy from the fugitative either… or do the Bob Dole-hold a pen thing… I wish they would just let us go as the cowboys intended and put a beer in the empty hand… it would make so much more sense. Then for degree of difficulty you could have can, bottle,glass,and move up to martini or champagne .The horses are smooth enough and it would add audience interest even more.

Maybe all the interesting stuff has to wait for the Freestyle[/QUOTE]

LOL I love it! Best idea ever!

I am not a reiner so I was looking at the patterns on the NRHA website: http://www.nrha.com/patterns.asp What does it mean at the end when it says “rider must drop bridle to the designated judge”???

[UrbanHennery]

There’s a bit inspection at the end of the ride to make sure that the bit used fits the rules. The bridle off over the ears and the bit dropped for the judge. Then the bridle goes back on.

[Rabtfarm]

“No, the lowest score out of the 4 is dropped”

I understand now that the scores have been updated…when I looked at the team scores Sunday night after the event ended I thought they had posted all the scores…they had not. I thought I was looking at LIVE scores, not something that comes along a day later…
I do like the right hand holds the beer…champange…martini…mint julep approach to this…could really sparkle up the competition! LOL.

[ZiggyStardust]

I’m watching the session 1 reining replay now from FEItv and am really enjoying the horses and the comments here from the reiners on CoTH! I agree, the FEI commentator could be doing a great service to the sport if he knew more and could help educate viewers; OTH, I’m also enjoying the relative absence of yappy-ness since he admits he doesn’t know much, and he’s not trying to editorialize, it makes it easy to enjoy watching the rides. A couple of observations/questions:

The spectator crowd for this round is TINY! It’s a shame - I’m wondering if the normal reining crowd in the U.S. doesn’t really see the need to pay $$ to see international riders, or are they waiting for the later rounds?

Some of these horses look super athletic. The Brazilian horse, Spin Zone Whiz looks like he wants to come try eventing, what a fantastic shoulder he has.

Some of the riders’ seats and upper bodies look very stiff and unnatural, which is totally opposite of my image of a cowboy :-), just found it surprising. The Aussie, Shauna Larcombe looks much nicer in the saddle, like she really could spend hours in her saddle on the range Alejandro Barragan from Mexico was also a nice sympathetic rider (quite liked his horse, too!). Pretty hilarious they played the Lady Gaga song during his ride.

[Peggy]

Watched some of it on Universal Sports this AM and quite enjoyed it. The horses are athletic, yet obedient. Not everyone wears the same costume. Loved seeing Europeans on QH’s with very western names. Fans seemed to be having a great time. I am looking forward to seeing it in person in a few days.

There’s a wonderful photo on the COTH site of one of the reiners hugging his horse at the end of his routine.

Two questions for our resident reining experts, based on watching this AM and reading the COTH WEG issue:

[LIST=1]

There seem to be an unusual number of palominos. Is there some line that happens to be palomino and also good at reining? Or?

Also lots of stallions. Is this typical? [/LIST]

[KaBoom]

So I have a question for the reining people here. I saw one on the American riders who recieved a very nice score over 220 when in all three of his sliding stops his horses mouth was gaping open. This is punished severly in dressage and with the announcer on FEI tv stating over and over again that no pressure on the reins/ no visable cues with the reins/ no contact with the mouth. I wondered what the heck? at his score. Also the first Irish rider in the very first session had the most amazing spins. His horse hind leg never left it’s pivot point. WOW. Not as fast but the most physically accurate of the ones that I watched.

[bugsynskeeter]

[QUOTE=Peggy;5124160]

[LIST=1]

There seem to be an unusual number of palominos. Is there some line that happens to be palomino and also good at reining? Or?

Also lots of stallions. Is this typical? [/LIST][/QUOTE]

There are several very popular lines that account of the large number of palominos. Wimpys Little Step is the newest one, the youngest million dollar sire in NRHA (Shawn’s RC Fancy Step is a Wimpy son). Shining Spark is another, he may have been the maternal grandsire of a few of the horses. On horse who I totally though would have been a Wimpy was Yellow Jersey, but he is a son of Mr Melody Jac.

And yes, stallions are typical at this level. They seem to have an extra ring presence at times.

and no - mouth gaping is not desired. But sometimes it happens when the horse stops with its head down and the rider doesn’t give the horse enough rein. And a few would gape their mouth the first step of the stop, but not the entire stop. It depends on the severity of the gaping mouth, as well as what the rest of the horse’s body is doing.

And personally, I don’t you can get much better than RC Fancy Steps spins.

[DandyMatiz]

[QUOTE=Peggy;5124160]
Watched some of it on Universal Sports this AM and quite enjoyed it. The horses are athletic, yet obedient. Not everyone wears the same costume. Loved seeing Europeans on QH’s with very western names. Fans seemed to be having a great time. I am looking forward to seeing it in person in a few days.

There’s a wonderful photo on the COTH site of one of the reiners hugging his horse at the end of his routine.

Two questions for our resident reining experts, based on watching this AM and reading the COTH WEG issue:

[LIST=1]

There seem to be an unusual number of palominos. Is there some line that happens to be palomino and also good at reining? Or?

Also lots of stallions. Is this typical? [/LIST][/QUOTE]

1. Hollywood Dun It was a Dunskin (Buckskin carrying Dun) he is at the top of the lists for sires, and he’s known as a tremendous broodmare sire. (His paternal half bro, Hollywood White is a perlino and also a great sire). Shining Spark, Wimpy’s Little Step, Nu Chex to Cash, a lot of the other Hollywood Jac 86 sons, all palomino or dunalino, or buckskin/dunkskins. So yeah… the creme gene is heavily represented.

2. Yes, because it takes awhile to get a horse to that level, and a lot of training, so most don’t put that into geldings, and sometimes you’ll see mares, but usually by now, they have shown there potential and gone into the lower ranks and broodmare band. Probably a mostly economical aspect. it’s a lot easier to keep a stallion in training and show him while also breeding him, than for a mare. some mares with owners who can afford Embryo Transfers, do go quite far… but most don’t, like most disciplines. There are a lot of reining geldings, they are prefered for youth and amateurs ofcourse… but that’s not what WEG has there… It takes a lot of money to get to this level, and people are more willing to spend it on a stallion that they will be breeding down the road, than a gelding. If you go to a local reining show though, you’ll see that geldings are probably the most popular.

[Peggy]

Thank you. I was sufficiently inspired to pull out my COTH WEG issue to check out the breeding of the reining horses. And, now that I think about it, there are definitely more stallions among international-level dressage horses and jumpers (as compared to amateur and junior horses)., so it makes sense that the same would hold true for the reiners

[DandyMatiz]

Yeah. Money talks in some ways… I think a lot of geldings would do great… as well as the studmuffins… but who wants to spend that much money, and not be able to stand it at stud… that sorta thing I guess.