I love a good “bridled” horse. There is nothing prettier than a horse that stays within the bridle and works as lightly as a hummingbird. I love nice controlled spins, dynamic slides and lead changes that seem to come about because someone stroked the horse with a thought.
Sadly, these horses rarely exist nowadays. What I see in the reining ring are young horses, ridden by huge men, and popping their hocks on every stride. I see absolute shit shoeing jobs, bits that should be banned and evidence of drug abuse.
Of course these statements will drive the reiners crazy and they will deny, deny, deny. Too bad for them that the videos showing reining on youtube bear my statements out. When is it acceptable for some 250 pound man, on a 60 pound reining saddle, to be galloping a 14 hand reiner around? There are videos of reining horses so small that all you can see sticking out are the horse’s ears and his tail.
Drug use? It’s prevalent. I’d go so far as to say it’s condoned and encouraged. You can walk through the barns after a reining show and find syringes laying in the aisles. The dumpsters are filled with drug paraphernalia after every show. How’d those syringes get there? Little drug fairies must have brought them in the night just to give the reining people a bad name. That stuff falling from the sky itsn't rain, it's dexamethosone condensing and forming drug clouds over the NRHA.
The reigning problem in reining is the use of shit bits and blocked tails. Reining is supposed to be a dance between horse and rider. It should not be an inquisition where the torturer uses some Myler jaw cracker to get a hard slide. Yes I know about bridleless reining. I’m as impressed as anyone by Stacey Westfall. She’s a good trainer. But there is only one of her. There is an industry full of big redneck guys on little bitty horses jerking them all over the place and trying to hide it with drugs and blocked tails.
And what is with the screwed up riding style? Is there some unwritten rule that if you show reining that you can’t use the slightest bit of equitation? I have a word for the riding style the big reiner men use:Drequitation. I’ve seen 4 H kids with better seats. And what the hell is the deal with pushing your legs in front of the horse’s shoulder? Does having a balanced seat elude people? If you’re such a hot trainer shouldn’t you also be a hot rider?
I’m sad about the state reining has reached. You’d think with their own national organization they’d do better than anyone else.
