Draw reins

[jennyr]

Someone has suggested that I should ride with draw reins to get my horse working better instead of me fiddling with the reins all the time to get the outline.

Can anyone help me with how I ride with draw reins? How do I hold them with my normal reins as well. When I come to turn and need to ue the reins as well as my leg should I still have hold of the draw reins. Very confusing.

[eventerbabe]

if you don't know how to use them then don't! i hate the things and don't believe they do any good. correct schooling is the way to work into an outline, not gadgets

[Foxylady]

I'd be careful using draw riens if you havnt before, overuse can do more damage than good.
If you know someone that has used them and you want to use them best bet is to get some advice and make sure you use them properly - they can put a lot of stress on the horses neck so dont use them for long they have to get used to them gradually.

Agree with eventerbabe though - best not to use them if you dont have to, good schooling should get your horse into an outline!!

[ZAULTAG]

well i dont use them becasue i have an arab but i do belive in gadgets [ no ignorance to eventerbabe] my friend uses the on her section c and he has a beautiful outline and nice head carraige. She doesnt use them often but when schooling occasssionally will put the on. They are attached to two loppes on the girth between the legs and up through the bit. The more pressure applied the more the head comes in but be careful of combining the reins and the draw reins when controling.

What i tend to do is lunge with a roller and have side reins attached fromt he D Ring of the roller to the bit. Therefore working in outline but they are not to be tight as it should only be used to mouth the horse

[cvb]

Originally posted by jennyr
Someone has suggested that I should ride with draw reins to get my horse working better instead of me fiddling with the reins all the time to get the outline.

Not answering your question, but an easy answer - stop fiddling !!

Q: what advantage will draw reins give you ?

- if it is to stop you fiddling, then try not fiddling w/o the draw reins :D
- if it is stop the horse objecting - well what happens when they take them off ? Have you done anything to change that situation?
- will they really make the horse "work better" or simply put him in a particular head set ?

IMHO - for a horse to "work better" it has to be through their whole body - not just head and neck.

There has to be a quality contact from the rider
The horse has to be straight, forward and active - AND accepting the rider's aids.

I don't believe that draw reins improve the horse's acceptance, just "enforce" it. In doing so, you often get some weird mucle development going on - which shows up in all its glory when you take them off....

Much better to start with a good foundation and build up, not try to fix on the surface and still have the problems underneath...

[martini55]

Personally I hate the things. I've seen them do more damage than good. With one horse I knew he would carry himself and look pretty but it wasn't a true outline and his neck was shortened up and his stride as a result. I think it's taking the easy option, no offense to anyone. But if I can get a stroppy, 15yr old mare with a 'I can't possibly do that attitude' who was poorly schooled when I got her into an true outline (ok so it took 3 years of working through other problems to get there) anyone can;)

As I say it makes them look like they are in an outline but they are not using themselve properly. Best bet is to work through the problems in your schooling. Working with my instructor I had to work through all other areas of stiffness etc. and got my horse using herself correctly, an outline then came easily and naturally to her ... when she wanted it to;) Much more rewarding too.

[eventerbabe]

cvb, you explain things so well!!! i was always taught a horse had to work from the back end through his whole bady to achieve an outline. completely agree, draw reins force the horse into a way of going.

Zualtag, gadgets may have their place, but not in my tackroom!! :D

[cvb]

jennyr - you might be getting a bit of a theme to the answers here ;)

But just to add some more nails to the coffin we are trying to build - some practical things about draw reins

- draw reins are often webbing and quite bulky. You need to ride as if you have 'double' reins - like a pelham or double bridle - but instead of having normal plus skinny reins, you have normal plus OMG reins !! It creates a lot of bulk in the hand and that makes it difficult to handle and maintain any kind of quality contact.

- the bulk will also make it difficult to adjust the length of the pairs of reins

- to get a decent response you STILL need to be riding leg into hand etc. The draw rein does not suddenly make you a better rider !

- you need to be able to reward any proper response quickly - difficult with 2 sets of rein and if you are not a very skilled rider. What tends to happen a lot is that the rider has a contact all the time (with the draw rein) so you are not re-educating the horse, just forcing it into position

- because of the constant pressure, a lot of horses will back off and curl up. Not an easy one to stop and prevent

Overall you need to be a very skilled rider to ride in draw reins and not get all the horribly stuff happening. And most "very skilled riders" get the response they require and don't need to use them !

One other thing to add - its normally quite easy to spot a horse that has been ridden in draw reins before.... they have a distinctive "kink" where they flex their neck at around 2nd or 3rd vertebrae. This is not "normal" neck flexion and can be spotted a mile off. Once they do this, it is incredibly difficult to stop.

Is that really what you want ?

[Wally]

Don't bother, they cause more problems than they solve. Get a horse to react badly to them and you've made a rearer too!

[kayjayhorses]

Draw reins force the horse into an outline as there is no other way the horse could hold his head when you use them, but this doesn't teach the horse to work in an outline as he would feel very uncomfortable and would resent it, instead it would probably teach the horse to avoid the outline.

The best way to get an outline is a slow precedure, which encourages the horse to learn it at his own pace and be comfortable with it, plus you'll have longer lasting effects.

Sorry personally don't like draw reins.

[kelsey]

I have a very nicely built Trakehner mare who was draw reined to death before I got her. She got oohs and ahhs from people for her nicely arched neck and tucked in face. However, her hind legs trailed out behind her when she moved and she was not using her back end at all.

I am giving her the winter off and restarting her with my classical anti-gadget coach's help in the spring.

My coach prefers the way that my cobby gelding goes - I have never used gadgets on him. He has been schooled slowly and correctly using lots of transitions, bending lines and lateral work. A lot of it I worked on myself in between coaches with the help of Walter Zettl's book!

Moral of my story - Gadgets seem up front as if they will save time and get you there more quickly, but when you find out that you have to back up and go to the beginning again, you realize that you actually wasted time.

[hackedoff]

Echo above - there's no short cut to any place worth going.

[ZAULTAG]

I said i wasnt sounding rude eventer babe, i guess it is just whats right for the personall approach, as i said i dont use them for my mare no need but my old horse needed a little incouragement.

People must use them even if they say they dont as there is such a high market for them.

[jennyr]

Thank you to everyone - You will be please to know that I won't be using draw reins. I can get her working in an outline but constantly having to play with the bit and keep nudging her forward onto the bit. I guess carry on with the schooling and hopefully it will come. Thank you everyone for your help.

[cvb]

jennyr - if its just that you're having to keep asking her to soften, consistency DOES come with time ;)

[ZAULTAG]

i think its was more of a debate than anything, lol but its good people can just express there feeling towards stuff like that without it turning into a row