Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

How much difference can new reins make?

From: Betty

Hi, all. Just a brief foreword--I rode Misty (Goober!) tonight, under the lights, in her pen, for the first time at night in about 2 months. She was pretty good, considering how long it's been since we rode under the lights.

I tried a new pair of reins tonight. They are about 7 ft. long split reins, heavier than the latigo one piece (6 1/2 ft.) roping reins I have been using for several months.

Misty could not seem to make up her mind how she liked them. At first she didn't like them at all, then she seemed to be doing well with them, then she hated them again and then she was doing well again. This is with all other variables being as much the same I as I could get them. :)

For example, sometimes I would ask her to stop and she'd stop immediately with mostly seat and a little "squeeze" on the reins. Other times, it was like she was reverting to our (I was hoping!) distant past when her head would come up and she would fight like crazy.

Two things may be happening here: *I* may be reacting differently to the different reins--i.e., holding them slightly differently; or, maybe she was just a split personality tonight.

What do you think? How much difference can a different pair of reins make in the way a horse acts?? I got the longer and slightly heavier pair because I thought she needed to put her head lower on occasion, although not low enough to BUCK!!

Thanks!! P.S.--she also didn't seem to like the smell/taste of them, and that may be part of it, too.

Betty

Hi Betty! New reins can make a lot of difference, especially if they are heavier than the old ones. Heavier, longer reins will make a bigger loop between your hands and Misty's bit (I know, that's what you WANTED, so that she can put her head down), and they'll also change the position of the bit, and the way the bit feels in her mouth. As you suspected, she's probably also reacting to the new smell. And she may be unhappy with the feel of the bight of the reins on her shoulders -- that's the long ends that are left over when you're holding split reins. They may be flapping on her shoulders and tickling or making a little noise against the saddle -- she'll get used to the sensation and the sound, but right now it's new to her, and she'll find it strange for a while (and for horses, ANYTHING strange is potentially dangerous, so they react accordingly).

Give her some time, do a lot of walking and trotting on a long rein, and she'll settle down. One thing you'll need to be careful about, though, is how much contact you have with her mouth. If she's used to a certain amount of steady contact -- it's hard NOT to have contact if you're using a single roping rein, because it's shorter than split reins -- and you start to use longer reins, the contact tends to come and go rather suddenly until you both get used to the new reins. In other words, with a single short rein, she probably feels your hands at the other end of the reins all the time, and just feels more pressure or less pressure as you close or open your hands -- almost as though you were riding English-style. But with the longer, split reins, she has a bigger area to move her head and neck around in before she can feel your hands, and when you do "take" the reins, she probably feels that bit move very suddenly. So be careful and calm and slow, and let me know how it goes for you.

Good luck!

- Jessica

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