Side reins for lunging...yea or nay?

[endlessclimb]

I have side reins, vienna reins, and a chambon.

When I want OUT and down, I use the chambon. It does not impact the tip of the nose at all. Adjust so the tension hits when the poll is 2-3" above the wither. I won’t do a full session in it, because it’s too easy for the horse to get excessively on the forehand.

The vienna reins and the side reins I use based on horse preference. Young horse prefers the vienna reins. Old Man prefers the side reins (though it’s a rare day he gets lunged anymore, honestly). The vienna reins allow the horse to find a comfortable place, and gives them more options in my opinion. I’ve not seen vienna reins with elastic, but I’m sure you could just clip them to a short piece of tubing or something if you wanted more give.

[lenapesadie]

That’s great side reins work for you and your horses. Lots of folks feel the same way.

[SuzieQNutter]

@lenapesadie

That’s great side reins work for you and your horses. Lots of folks feel the same way.

Yes, Mum used to lament when I was a youngster that she wished I would lunge the horses as much as I lunged the dog!

I didn’t lunge much as an ammie. I was too busy galloping around the State Forest.

I learned about side reins working for a Grand Prix Dressage Rider. Then I lost the use of my right arm and had lecture after lecture from Doctors that I would never ride again. I should be at home having babies.

Yeah right!

But the years my arm was really bad I kept the horses in work with lunging and learnt even more from the horses than with the Grand Prix Rider.

I would love to take a course to long rein and lunge like they do at the SRS. I dont know of anyone doing that in Queensland., Australia.

And Ingrid Klimke, who everyone has to admit is one of the best riders in the world and could ride rings around just about all of us on this forum, says her youngsters are lunged solely every second day and ridden every second day. With the lunging them on there own in side reins they get to find their own rhythm and tempo. So even she thinks she can’t do that as well in the saddle and I am willing to bet that her youngsters are better than our horses.

[lenapesadie]

That’s great that side reins work for you and your horses. Lots of people feel the same way.

Including Ingrid and her dad. She certainly could outride me.

Anky could also outride me. That doesn’t mean that I agree that all of her methods are the best.

Not every successful horseman ties their horses’ heads down.

Different strokes for different folks.

[SuzieQNutter]

@lenapesadie

Not every successful horseman ties their horses’ heads down.

Different strokes for different folks.

Who is tying their horses heads down? Lunging correctly in side reins is not tying a horse’s head down. Incorrectly lunging with side reins is tying a horses head down.

[lenapesadie]

No, side reins are indeed a device that ties the horse’s head down. Like it or not that is exactly what attaching reins from the head to the girth/surcingle is doing. Their whole purpose is to prevent the horse from going around inverted with its head up.

[Bluey]

@lenapesadie

No, side reins are indeed a device that ties the horse’s head down. Like it or not that is exactly what attaching reins from the head to the girth/surcingle is doing. Their whole purpose is to prevent the horse from going around inverted with its head up.

Maybe properly used side reins is a skill that some have yet to learn:

[lenapesadie]

My point is even properly used, side reins are still a tie down same as a martingale. It’s a fact.

I posted an opinion that I don’t prefer to use them and the poster I replied to seems to be on a mission to change my mind.

[Bluey]

@lenapesadie

My point is even properly used, side reins are still a tie down same as a martingale. It’s a fact.

I posted an opinion that I don’t prefer to use them and the poster I replied to seems to be on a mission to change my mind.

My point was, any tool can be misused.

You can “tie a horse’s head down” with reins in your hands also if you so choose.
Is a fact.

[lenapesadie]

Well pull a horse’s head down unless I’m tying my hands to the saddle and the reins to my hand.

Absolutely any tool can be mis used.

[Moneypitt]

I have two friends, who both, lost horses in unrelated incidents; that were being lunged by a ‘professional trainer’ in side reins. Apparently, the horses flipped and died immediately in one case, the other needed immediate euthanasia. Horribly sad. Horses and trainers completely unrelated. Both horses were mares.

Sad. So no to side reins for that reason.

[Bluey]

@Moneypitt

I have two friends, who both, lost horses in unrelated incidents; that were being lunged by a ‘professional trainer’ in side reins. Apparently, the horses flipped and died immediately in one case, the other needed immediate euthanasia. Horribly sad. Horses and trainers completely unrelated. Both horses were mares.

Sad. So no to side reins for that reason.

That doesn’t make much sense?

Most everyone in the English world uses side reins at one time or another and do it properly and horses are not hurt, much less killed by using side reins?

I expect there was way more wrong with what those trainers were doing when horses died while being trained than wearing side reins.

In our continental Europe riding program instructor courses we learned about all kinds of gadgets and how to use them and when not to and which ones not use at all.
Standing martingales were not to ever be used, we were given many good reasons how bad they were and so very dangerous.
I came to the US and guess what, practically every horse was showing in hunters in a standing martingale and no one was being killed.
In the western world, ropers and barrel racers and speed events most use standing martingales, “tie-downs” and have their reasons for that.
All we were told how bad standing martingales can be is still true, but evidently, in the right place, used properly, they are what works best for those there.

I would say, let’s keep minds open and always be ready to learn.
Don’t just accept what we hear as gospel until we have really the full knowledge behind it.
When we hear others have different ideas, listen, maybe we are too sure of something we really don’t know that much about.
After we know more, we may decide we are right on track, or may realize there is more than we knew and maybe we should consider that also.
The old, “never say never”.

[Spudsmyguy]

I had this happen to a horse I sold. When I lunged in side reins she did rear once. I immediately loosened them and she went around happily. The incompetent “trainer” that the buyer used insisted she go in them tight. Horse reared, fell over and broke her neck in two places.

[BatCoach]

So this was your horse that you were selling? Why in earth did you allow a trainer that you didn’t know (who I presume was there with a client to try your horse) do something with your horse that you would not do yourself? That trainer is at fault, not the equipment.

[Moneypitt]

So very sorry for your loss.

Yes side reins can be dangerous.

Makes me cringe to see them used while riding. Including on vaulting horses.

[Spudsmyguy]

No the horse was already sold when this happened. Oh I agree, the trainer was totally at fault. I still use them but judiciously.

[Bluey]

@Spudsmyguy

No the horse was already sold when this happened. Oh I agree, the trainer was totally at fault. I still use them but judiciously.

Very sorry about the horse, that is terrible.

We gave many longe lessons to beginners and advanced riders and we always had a longing cavesson and side reins for that and of course for vaulting, unless it was longing only for a few minutes before turning rider loose for the rest of the lesson, then we were using a bridle, or some times the longing cavesson over the bridle for that bit of time.
Side reins when longing were adjusted according to what each horse required, mostly fairly loose.

[SuzieQNutter]

If you read, probably, my first post above, it is not side reins that kill and maim horses, it is side reins used incorrectly that kill and maim horses.

It doesn’t matter if that person is a backyard ammie or a money earning professional. If they don’t know how to use them the horse is in danger.

You need to be taught to use side reins and you need to be taught by someone who uses them correctly.

The horse must never step backwards, ever. That leads to rearing and possibly going over and death.

The reins should never be used to pull in the head, or as others are saying in this thread to tie the head down, that is working front to back and in dressage we want to work horses back to front.

Use absolute minimal walk. Walking in side reins can cause a lateral walk.

My horses can stretch down in their solid side reins, they can also go inverted if they want to, because all horses in our paddocks suddenly startle at something, and I lose their focus. This has happened once but shows it is possible, so they are certainly not tied down.

The reins should always be put on loose, even on an experienced campaigner to get forward. You never know if something has happened to their mouth, that you have not picked up grooming and you want the horse thinking forward before you tighten to what length you want. Both those lengths are the length the horse needs, not the length of the reins you have. If they are too short do not use them.

The difference between stretching down and then coming through and working with a higher head carriage is because of the lunger. The reins don’t need to change length for that to happen.

The reins are attached higher as the horse progresses.

With a lot of people they get into trouble with tbs because they do not work their horse. If the horse is not being worked it is being made fit and creating muscles.

The day will come that the horse is too much for the rider. What the rider also does not know is that walk, trot and canter and going over jumps is not work.

You can learn to lunge at a higher level than you ride and to work the horse, even if you are not yet capable of that in the saddle.

This keeps the rider safer.

So in answer to the opening question.

Lunging correctly in side reins yea.

Lunging incorrectly in side reins nay.

[S1969]

@SuzieQNutter

If you read, probably, my first post above, it is not side reins that kill and maim horses, it is side reins used incorrectly that kill and maim horses.

Or accidents. If a horse in side reins trips, it’s going to be ugly.

Really, give it a rest. People have stated repeatedly that they don’t prefer to use them.

[Bluey]

Use of properly adjusted side reins for the task at hand is important, as is the use of any we chose to use.

I found this picture, some 60 years ago, of teaching apprentice and assistant instructors how to teach a beginner’s vaulting class.
We also were evaluating a new horse, a part draft horse, that may be suitable for longe work and maybe eventually as a vaulting horse.
Mostly we had worked on the barrel first and now were going over some basics with the horse standing there and, best I remember, we did a bit of just trot and canter work running with the horse and eventually while cantering vaulting on and off on the off side.
The horse was a star at it, his disposition wonderful for any we did with him.
We were not sure he would be suitable physically, that would take more fitness to evaluate.

Notice the side reins there, to give the horse a little more to go by where to keep his head, a bit like a seat belt, just there, won’t come into action unless needed, if he were to want to sling his head more than those permitted.
I would not say side reins were in any way considered to be “tying his head down”?
Used shorter, for that horse, in that specific situation, would have been wrong.
If he trained well, muscled up properly and was expected to have a more collected canter to do real vaulting work later, they may have been adjusted shorter, as his way of moving may have been also given him a shorter, more compact outline, but still never so short he had “his head tied down”.
By the way, as much as we used side reins, in all ways and circumstances, over decades, never had any problems or accidents from their use.
While we hear about such, I expect those are very rare: