Are horses being ridden by the world’s best in draw reins suffering and abused? Probably not.
But this is a spectator sport. 99.99% of horse riders and owners are not capable of jumping around a GP track, or riding a GP horse. But hey, we’d all like to be. So let’s watch the pros really closely, and learn what we can. If they do it, it must be a good idea.
(Funny how everyone says that draw-reins (etc) are like razor-blades in the hands of monkeys, but no-one ever thinks that they’re the monkey).
Before we all jump on the band-wagon of “people outside the sport don’t know what they’re on about”, let’s remember why we do this. People who sore gaited horses tell us we don’t know what we’re on about, as do people who bleed western pleasure horses, drug show hunters, and so on.
I’m not sure that the ban is useful, but let’s take the opportunity to reconsider what we deem acceptable in this sport. It’s silly to say that top-level jumpers need to learn how to ride, or need to train their horses better. But it’s also silly to give them carte blanche simply because we could never hope to ride that well.
You do see draw reins used more like a standing martingale, loose until the horse’s head gets quite high. But you also see them used (by good riders and bad) to actively hold the head very low, with heavy flexion on the neck, and little opportunity for the horse to see in front of themselves. The first instance I am comfortable with not calling abusive. The second starts to blur the lines for me.
