They have a 3/4yo hunter class at WEF, way to early in the year for 3yos to be jumping in my opinion…
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Just saw this article shared by Tom McCutcheon on FB:
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This used to be standard, particularly when most were TB and on their second career. Most first year (3’6”) horses were 5 until at least the mid-nineties. I don’t think we actually see horses lasting any longer now that this isn’t the norm.
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Thanks to this thread I’m now watching The Last Cowboy. I prefer cutting horses to reiners, but a horse is a horse. 
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Check out Steve Ross Reining and Performance Horses in Arizona. He always has nice horses in that price range. Videos on them all.
Reining is a small world, any trainer that came up thru the ranks and worked with other trainers while learning knows most anyone else and can tell you what you need and where to find it.
I think reining is so technical and competitive, beginners are best learning from a good, established trainer and getting a horse their trainer thinks is right for them.
The better horses to learn from are those that have already taught others and trainers already know what to expect, having seen them at shows.
Not every reining horse will fit everyone, even the top competitors swap horses when they have one that would do better with another trainer.
Learning from a trainer that doesn’t know that much on a horse that is not quite suitable will make life that much harder for a beginner reiner and it’s horse, just like learning to jump in your backyard with your trail riding horse will not get anyone very far in today’s jumper world and may annoy your horse.
On the other hand, having a nice, suitable horse and a knowledgeable trainer that has won his share and taken students far is a great experience and teaches some skills that helps ride any other horse in any other discipline easier, cross training with reining is becoming one more tool in a rider’s box.
Not reining itself, but the feel you learn while reining is something riders rarely experience in other forms of riding.
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I can’t for the life of me figure how riding simultaneously in two such disparate sports would help a EQ rider. Dressage or eventing, sure, but there’s nothing in reining that would improve Hunter rider. The skills are actually in direct opposition to each other.
That is what this thread is all about, right?
Some are doing just that and doing well.
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But it was stated above that it’s not for training purposes. It’s just that the kid has access to reiners owned by her family. I’m guessing she did it because it’s fun, I ride bareback, but not to help me win jumping classes.
Not the same thing as doing it for a competitive advantage.
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Hmmm. I know little about competitive reining but I feel like the Western disciplines rely much more on using your leg, weight and balance effectively to communicate with the horse and much less on the hands and rein aids. This type of riding I personally feel would help many riders in the English disciplines who tend to overrely on the hand and rein aids, especially until the very advanced stages of learning. Correct me if I am wrong, here.
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Apologies for a “back in the day” reply… in the 70’s and before, many people showed multiple disciplines…western, saddle seat, hunter/jumper. Although I rode/showed Western back then, my trainer gave us (her clients) saddle seat lessons to improve our riding. She rode and competed successfully in both disciplines. Our shows - such as the Del Mar National - had all three disciplines
going at the same time: a saddle seat class, followed by western pleasure, followed by hunters over fences. It was great fun, and we were exposed to different breeds, tack, and riding. Unfortunately the disciplines have branched off into their own worlds, taking education and appreciation for other breeds with them.
ps. the western style back then was showing the horse in a collected frame, level or uphill. The stock horses did their sliding stops with their heads and forehand up, as the hindquarters came under. Today’s western style - be it reining or pleasure - is very much downhill, and to the best of my knowledge, the only discipline to do so.
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I would say that riding bareback would improve anybody’s balance and feel, which could be a huge help in winning jumping classes. Plus it’s fun. 
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I also rode different disciplines growing up while showing in the pony hunters.
But this thread is about equitation only. Not general hunters/jumpers where perfect position isn’t judged. I can’t believe that successful EQ trainers would encourage training in other disciplines with different body positions that would make it harder for riders to re-assume the preferred style.
Maybe I’m wrong. I was very successful in EQ classes at local shows, but never had the desire (or money or horses) to go for the big classes. But I do know that my trainer would have lost his mind if I announced I was going to cross-train in any Western discipline.
I board one of my horses at a barn that hosts the collegiate IHSA Western team, and the local IEA team. They are just as strict (if not more so) about shoulder/hip/heel alignment for their eq riders. One of the IEA kids has been nationally successful in hunter, western and dressage. There is plenty of commonality.
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Blockquote[quote=“chestnutmarebeware, post:48, topic:790447”]
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I can’t for the life of me figure how riding simultaneously in two such disparate sports would help a EQ rider. Dressage or eventing, sure, but there’s nothing in reining that would improve Hunter rider. The skills are actually in direct opposition to each other.
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I’m a professional HJ rider/trainer, and I also ride reiners in my “spare time”. I work with a trainer in that discipline and have my own to compete on. It’s a fantastic experience.
Reining requires you to be SO soft with your hand (or hands…you can ride 2 handed in some of the classes for green horses), so quiet and accurate with your seat, and relies heavily on seat/leg aids. The classic “straight body from ear to shoulder to hip to heel” really does apply, particularly when loping around and/or spinning. If you pitch forward, hunch, flop, or have unsteady hands, most of these horses are going to tell on you. They are so finely tuned, that a slight shift in seat, pulling too much or too strongly, or taking off your outside leg will often cause your horse to swap leads in the wrong place (big penalty), over or under spin, or stop really poorly.
For me, coming from a lifetime of galloping race horses, riding very strong jumpers, and generally coming from the “short reins, long arm” George Morris school of riding, learning to ride with a much longer rein and lighter contact, and being OK trusting that, has been of great benefit, and would be educational to many.
Riding reiners requires you to really think about your body placement, weight distribution, and subtleness.
To be so dismissive really shows ignorance. Everyone I know who has tried it has loved it and taken away something positive from it. I know of several elite HJ riders that also do the cutting and/or reining. Cappy Dryden used to do the high AOs and Grand Prix, and she now does reining full time. Candice King has some cutters and Reiners, Louise Serio’s sister has become a very successful cutting rider and trainer. I believe Aaron Vale also had a significant amount of time riding horses of the ranch horse variety.
There is always something to be learned from another discipline, if you are open minded and humble 
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Thank you, I thought someone else would come along that could explain this best.
The benefits of cross training are many and, as explained above so well, also of reining as a cross discipline.
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This is doing equitation a major disservice by boiling it down to nothing but position. Everything else must already be in place: Soft, quiet, invisible riding (all things reining folks excel at) all come before “shoulders back, chin up”. Medal Finals is a classic example. It’s definitely not whose position is most perfect, it’s who can answer the questions with the most finesse.
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Big EQ is also filled with experienced elderly horses leased solely for the classes just to ensure the riders don’t have to deal with regular, unpredictable horse behavior while maintaining their positions through their rounds. Other than telling them which fence is next, or doing preparing them for a trot fence or halt, these horses could basically do the course alone.
And soft hands In reining are a given since there’s no continuous mouth contact—reins are loose. And leg benefits aren’t a good argument either because they aren’t on the horse continually In Western riding. And riding by seat cues only works with horses trained to them, and I’m guessing most EQ horses aren’t.
Given the discipline snobbery I’ve seen by so many on this thread over the decades I’ve been here, it’s funny that reining is suddenly the golden ticket to great riding and winning EQ medals. But hey, if all these kids want to start riding reiners, more power to them. Hell, I’d love to try it. It looks like fun!
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I think the hardest fall I’ve ever had was off of a reiner. The trainer told me not to lay the rein against the neck. I didn’t quite get it- that horse spun out from under me before I could blink😀.
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Not sure what kind of reining you are talking about if you think reiners " leg benefits aren’t a good argument either because they aren’t on the horse continually In Western riding. "? 
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