Reining is quickly gaining popularity as a Western riding discipline. Performance horses spin and slide across the arena floor, but what does the sport entail?
Reining competition involves judging a horse and rider pair as they complete one of 12 pre-determined reining patterns and their maneuvers. The maneuvers in a reining pattern include rollbacks, 360-degree spins, and sliding stops. Additional points are awarded for attributes like the smoothness and finesse of movements. The pair with the score closest to perfect wins the class!
Spectators love to watch this fast-paced, thrilling sport. Learn more about reining by continuing below.
Reining Origins
The sport of reining began with an appreciation for the Old West, where horses were key to running a successful ranch. Speed, agility, responsiveness, and hardiness are essential qualities of a great ranch horse. These traits ensured that equines could endure the long days of herding and moving cattle across the land. Cowboys and ranchers competed against each other to see who was the best at handling their horses.
A reining competition celebrates and assesses these qualities and the pure athleticism of ranch horses. The highest levels of competition show off ranch horses at their most refined.
What Is A Reining Competition Like?
Reining competitions are exciting, fast-paced, and thrilling. Spectators watch and cheer on the riders and horses as they compete. The louder and more enthusiastic the crowd, the better.
Each class involves horse and rider pairs completing one of 12 recognized patterns. Similar to a dressage test, the horse and rider compete in an arena and include a series of maneuvers or movements in a specific order. Furthermore, each maneuver in a pattern is scored individually, and the overall performance receives a score from 0 to infinity. A score of 70 is the average score, and every pair starts their pattern at a 70. The pair with the highest score at the end wins the class.
From here, judges watch from different areas around the arena and give each maneuver in the pattern a score in the range between -1/2, which indicates poor performance, to + 1/2 for high-quality performance. Judges give points for finesse, attitude, quickness, authority, and difficulty of each maneuver. They deduct points if the horse strays from the pattern or the rider loses control of the horse.
Maneuvers in a reining pattern include small, slow circles, large fast circles, flying lead changes, rollbacks onto the hocks, 360-degree spins, and the sliding stop.
It takes years of training to compete horses at the highest levels of the sport, which makes reaching the top all the more fulfilling. The NHRA Futurity and Derby are the largest national reining competitions.
Reining horses undergo a lot of stress as they train and compete. BioPro Armour is the best choice to help them stay calm and keep them healthy so that they can give their best. Powerful thymic proteins and zinc simultaneously boost the immune system and impart calming properties.
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