One Rein Stop vs. Pulley Rein

Another post I was reading made me think of this, and I was just wondering if there's any real difference between the one rein stop and the pulley rein.

As far as I understand it, the one rein stop is just pulling one rein to your belly to bend the horse's neck and guide it onto a circle. You spiral the circle in smaller and smaller, which eventually allows you to stop the horse. With the pulley rein, you basically "choke up" on the reins, hold them in one hand, then reach up with the other hand to grab further down the rein. This gives you leverage to pull one rein with enough strength to slow the horse.

To me, this sounds like two different approaches to basically the same thing. Is that accurate? The pulley rein sounds a little harsher, but it might also be more effective in an emergency. Can anyone clarify?

Two very different methods. The one rein stop uses hind end disengagement as the primary tool. There is only contact one the inside rein. This method is best for times when you can catch the horse before it gets to a full out bolt.

The pulley rein is very harsh on the horse's mouth and should only be used in true emergencies. While it also ultimately disengages the hind end, it does so much more harshly by planting one rein at the neck and pulling the other one up in sharp and rhythmic pumps until the horse is under control. If done very severely, it can permanently damage the bars of the horse's mouth.

One rein stop works for 99.9% of problems, so just concentrate on that one.

They are two methods to get control of a horse, yes. But you use them in different situations. In short:


A one rein stop is what you'll use 99% of the time when your horse is acting up.

A pulley rein is serious shiz. If a horse bolts -- I mean truely bolts and gallops off with you, and you are unable to stop him---, you use a pulley rein. Pulley rein uses an amazing amount of leverage and can hurt a horse, especially in a harsher bit. I don't practice pulley stops for this reason.

When I was taking lessons while in college (studying equine studies), the pony I was on decided to take off. My instructor was telling me to make the pony go into circles and to make them smaller and smaller and eventually he would stop. I not knowing what she was talking about, could not figure out why I would make the pony go in circles in which it could throw its balance off causing us to tumble over. After reading this, I know now that she was telling me to one-rein stop the horse. Thing is, I wish they would have properly taught us this BEFORE an incident happened because I totally freaked out and refused to ride that pony ever again. I will keep this info you all have posted in my mind for future reference. Thank you!

Ok, thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense... the pulley rein sounds much more drastic, and I'll focus on the one rein stop. Good to have in mind just in case.