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Starting Reining Lessons!! What can I expect?

4K views 22 replies 6 participants last post by  Muppetgirl 
#1 ·
Wooo! So, since the first time I saw a reining pattern, I have always wanted to do it! I found out today that the owner of the barn where I teach beginner horsemanship lessons is going to bi-weekly reining clinics with Cindy Lewis. Anyone ever heard of her? Apparently she has worked with Bob Avila and the likes, and travels up here every other week.. anyway

The owner of the barn is going to let me use one of her horses for it :D I'm incredibly thankful and super excited.

What can I expect to learn first lesson? Are there any red flags I should watch for as far as the instructor is concerned? Anything I can do to prepare physically or mentally? (like terms unique to reining?) Anything I can do to prepare the horse? (my first one starts in 2 weeks) :happydance:

Thanks!
 
#5 ·
Lucky you.

Be prepared to use a LOT LIGHTER CUES! The more still and quiet you keep your hands and the more subtle you use your legs and the quieter you 'sit' your horse, the less you will be told all of the above.

Depending on how well-tuned your lesson horse is, most novice riders over-que their horses and are constantly being told to 'do less' and to be more subtle.

Good luck. You will love it.
 
#6 ·
Awesome! Thanks Cherie! That's exactly what I want! I think that's what draws me to reining so much. It's like, the ultimate communication with your horse. I mean, Dressage is beautiful, but reining is on a loose rein! The horses always look so in-tune with their rider. Watching Stacy Westfall perform a reining pattern with no saddle or bridle totally made my jaw drop. I immediately thought "I want to do that!!" I know I am many, many, many years from that, but I'm looking forward to the journey there! Sorry for the rant. haha. I can hardly contain my excitement. I feel like a giddy teenager.
 
#7 ·
I feel your excitement! I have worked for a reining trainer, mostly warm up, cool down work.....however, what an awesome education just warming up and cooling down the horses was! I did do a few exercises, like 'slicing the cake' and a few other things. But because I just got on horse, after horse, after horse all day and did virtually the same thing I got very good at many things because the trainer would make a point of correcting me etc etc....it was like free lessons with all the practice you want!!!
Some of the horses we're so in tune with you, that you just had to think about doing something and it would happen! One had to learn not to think too much!
I'm so happy now because I just bought my first reining horse and I just love him to pieces! He's very willing and is happy in his work not lazy at all, he's not a superstar but he's a gentleman and his is easy to be around....he's also very soft and sensitive but level headed enough not to lay an egg if you do something wrong!

Please update us about your lessons:)
 
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#8 ·
Wow, that sounds like an awesome job Muppetgirl! What is 'slicing the cake'? Congrats on your new horse! I will definitely be posting updates!
He's very willing and is happy in his work not lazy at all, he's not a superstar but he's a gentleman and his is easy to be around....he's also very soft and sensitive but level headed enough not to lay an egg if you do something wrong!
Ahhh yes, qualities we look for in any good man. lol:rofl:
 
#9 ·
Have fun and soak it up like a sponge. It is incredibly fun. You will learn a lot and I have no idea what you have done, but it can be really hard to learn to use such little cues.......and lope SO much! I swear my trainer doesn't think me horse is even warmed up until he has loped at least an hour. It can be really confusing at times, so make sure you clearly understand what the instructor tells you and know 100% how to do that before moving on. Above all-have fun!
 
#10 ·
Slicing the cake or slicing the pizza....or whatever your slicing is an exercise where you jog/trot or lope circles and use your seat and legs to turn the horse in across the circle to slice the pie....it's hard to explain, but you use your reins on his neck as a final cue, it all kind of works together at the same time....haha this is really hard to explain, but you want the horse to turn sharp but not barrel turn, he lifts his front end and comes around very acurrately.....
it's kind of like a square turn, 90o turn from the outside of a circle directly into the circle and across......then back onto the circle and do it again....it's quite fun doing it on a young horse, they pick it up quite fast:)
Someone else here might be able to explain it in better terminology than me that's easier to understand:).
 
#11 ·
Thanks franknbeans! I'm sure I will have tons of fun. The horse I will be riding belongs to Kim, the lady who owns the barn/horses where I teach lessons. You have to bring your own horse to Cindy Lewis, so Kim is letting me use Chexx, she's a QH, about 10 years old, so I will be able to work with her coming up to this lesson. Worked with her today after a lesson and she's fussy about collecting, but we made substantial progress today. I figure collection is paramount in reining, so that was my focus today. One of the apprentices at the barn today said "yeah, she doesn't like to collect but she's so good at everything else that we just let her be" Whaaattt?? Ok, well... you do that... I will work on collecting her. haha. I'm concerned about learning to rein on a horse that is not a reiner, but Kim assures me that she will help me prepare Chexx and she seems to think it will be okay so... We'll see.
Muppetgirl: that makes perfect sense. getting them to use their hind end and pick up the front end for a turn. I shall have to do that with Chexx.
 
#12 ·
Is Chexx reining trained? It is really difficult to learn and teach the horse at the same time....speaking from personal experience here. I would be really careful what you "work on" until you are taught how to do so by the reining person. It is much easier to teach it right the first time than fix a horse that has learned (been taught) it wrong.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the advice franknbeans. You're right, it's easier to teach it right the first time. I spoke with Kim and she said I'm working on exactly what I need to with her. I'm not a novice rider, and this isn't the first time I have worked on teaching a horse to collect. She asked if Chexx was being fussy about it and I said yes. She expressed frustration with not having the time or enough experienced riders to expect collection. She is used as a beginner lesson horse a lot of the time. She said "oh yeah, ryder (another horse) has actually done this class before. You could try him and see if you like him better" He's a 5 year old QH gelding. So I'm going to ride him today after my lesson (teaching, not taking. Haha) and see if he will collect better. Thank you for the wise advice though!
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#14 ·
So, my lesson didn't show up today, (bummer) so I got some extra time to ride. Here's a picture of Ryder, the 5 yr QH. Rode him today and I like him better than Chexx. He collects a little better but his backing needs work. He's catching on quickly though. Got him from being really resistant when backing to taking a couple of steps back without me having to even pick up the reins. I left it at that, on a good note. Next time I'll ask for more willingness and pep in his step when backing up. His trot is big and smooth, I love it. Unfortunately we won't be needing that whilst reining. :)

I know this isn't a great pic, but you get the idear :)
 
#15 ·
Ok.. So I had my first Reining Clinic with Cindy Lewis on Monday.
The BO is on a 10 yr mare- Velvet, and I am on 5 yr gelding - Ryder, pictured above. She starts talking and, between scattered curse words, tells me the first thing I need to do (before she sees me ride, after I tell her I used to teach equitation) was to throw all of my position out the window, that I wouldn't need it and would be doing whatever it took to get the desired response from the horse. She also said that we need to have control over the 5 body parts of the horse - head, neck, shoulders, barrel, hip. So for the head, she said to bump with my legs and that was my horse's cue to drop his head. So we worked on that a little. Then the neck, bending each way. Then the shoulders. take reins across neck, spur with outside leg, step, was the idea. So we start working on this and the horse isn't taking a step. She says "Pull harder, spur harder, kick! kick! kick!" so I'm pulling, kicking, spurring and horse is not moving shoulder. Moving all over but not shoulder, so she is yelling at me to pull harder, to kick harder, so I keep pulling and kicking, and the horse starts to come up to rear, I instinctively start to push him forward as she screams "kick him! forward!!" He goes forward and she says to kick his booty and punish him. Then she says "That's the kind of stuff that's going to get someone killed! That's it, I'm getting on him." She borrows a pair of boots with spurs from another person there, since she had hiking shoes on, and climbs up on the horse, (I noticed she mounted by pulling the horn and cantle, just an observation.) and she gets on and starts doing the same thing, asking for his shoulder to move by pulling, spurring, ramping up to full-force kicking the horse with one spur in the side, and after trying multiple outs including standing still and flinching with each kick, he rears, BAD. so she drives him forward and continues kicking him full force with both spurs. This goes on for a while and then she gets off and the owner of the horse gets on. Same thing continues to happen and the horse rears even worse, and the owner almost came off. Then they get out a piece of wood someone found in the barn, a 1" by 2" (and about a foot long) board broken off of something (sharp at one end) and they proceed to hit the horse on the shoulder and rump with the board. Someone brought out a 2'x4' but it was too long for the owner to hold. So, everyone there is hooping and hollering and cheering the girls on. The horse did not reach the desired goal by the end of the lesson. I have tried my best to present an objective observation, I will add my own opinion to an extent -
I don't feel the horse knew what was being asked of him. I don't feel that the request was fair. But I also don't have very much experience with training. To the reining trainers out there, does this sound right? Because if this is what reining is all about, I'm not so sure it's the discipline for me.
 
#16 ·
Nope.....a good reining trainer won't go to that extent of performing to get a horse to move its shoulder...I've been on a horse who wouldn't move his shoulder and the more you bumped him with your heel or spur, the more he braced.....what worked was rolling the spur on him until he took and itty bitty step sideways.
I'd be embarrassed by my behaviour if I was that trainer. And I've seen some real good ones in action, and in tricky/difficult situations and they have all kept their cool and got the job done....or walked away and given the horse time to breath. I'm not a reining trainer....but I do know how the good ones respond, and they don't react like that. Yeah sometimes you need to thump your heel on a horse, but they just learn to brace against your foot.

Just a side note....I'm short so I use the cantle and the horn to get on my horse....I just can't get both hands up on that horn and my foot in the stirrup at the same time.....not enough streeeeeeetch!
 
#17 ·
Ok, thank you for the reply muppetgirl. There were probably 10 people watching, all yelling "yeah! Kick his (expletive)!!" "He's being such a brat!". I was the only one silent. I'm not a trainer, so I just kept my mouth shut. I rode this horse about 4 times before this, and he never offered to rear with me. The first time I rode him, he was really resistant to backing up, and at the end of it I had him backing up just off of my seat. A week before I started riding him, one of the apprentices was riding him and pulled him over on her. I felt like he should have been rewarded for even shifting his weight in the direction I was asking. But again, I'm not a trainer and I have never taken a horse all the way from start to finish.
 
#18 ·
You are right to be unnerved by this. It was good you were quiet while all this was going on. Hmmmm I would want to back away quietly from this crowd and perhaps quietly seek out a 'cleaner' trainer.....I'm not a trainer either, but I wouldn't want to learn from someone who does not respect the animal they make their living from..... I've seen trainers spank and over and under horses, but for serious behaviour, like major crow hopping etc........but not have a 'fight' with a horse and let themselves be egged on by a whole bunch of people....it's hard for me to explain what I'm detecting here.....but it's not quite right:shock:
 
#20 ·
You need a different "trainer" (term used VERY loosely in this case). Nothing good will happen with this one. I would certainly not continue using any of those methods, and I don't understand how the owner of the horse could sit there and watch this. There is no need for it. Yes, move forward, and try and get the horse to move his shoulder. Pay really close attention, reward the slightest effort and build on that.
 
#21 ·
WOW! I had not gotten back to this thread in a while. Throw out the trainer and the horse. Neither is going to get you anywhere and you will just end up with bad habits that will be hard to break.

Look up 'Les Vogt'. He has about the best program for teaching young aspiring trainers and riders of reiners and cowhorses. He has won 15 World Championships, and is a true 'trainer's trainers' and is a true gentleman. I cannot say enough good things about Les. He is kind to both people and horses and has shown that you do not need to be unethical to win World Championships.

He has a program he calls 'Cowhorse U'. He has a series of people training videos and videos that show the foundation you need in a reining horse. They will help anyone make a better horse. Look up his website and his training videos. Here is a link to his series about getting a good foundation on a horse and beginning maneuver like the 'turn-around'.

Les Vogt CowHorse U Program: Study Program for the Performance Horse by Les Vogt

I think that given the horse and trainer you have available to you, you would be much better served by this video series. You cannot even get started until you know what you don't know about the steps needed to make a horse 'light and responsive' and know how to put the right foundation in one.
 
#22 ·
Wheeeww, thank you guys. I have been thinking "Is this seriously how they get their horses to do all those spins and sliding stops? Screw that, I don't want any part of that" I am so happy that not all reiners are like that. The owner was doing the same thing the trainer was, and everyone there was on board with it (no pun intended). Thanks for the info on Les Vogt Cherie, I'm looking at his website right now. I'm also carefully rethinking everything I have learned in my 2 months at this barn. I'm kind of embarrassed that I assumed just because she owned a barn and a bunch of horses that she knew what she was doing. I'm pretty thankful for this forum today, thank you guys.
 
#23 ·
I've seen a lot of STUFF in other disciplines, and reining is also a discipline that has its STUFF! However after being exposed to good people and great reining riders is when I decided this is what I want to do. I'm not very good at it, but I try!
The proof is in the pudding too! The essence of a good reining rider is softness, subtleness and smoothness. If you can find a trainer who shows these qualities you're on the right track! There are going to be times when things just look down right ugly (ie. counter countering! Haha! Sliding....without actually sliding! ) but these things are par for the course when you are learning and when your horse is learning:)
I've seen people run down the arena to slide.....without sliders ones! Duh! I've seen people actually go through the end of the arena fence.....while TRYING to fence their horse....DUH! Spinning without shinboots or bell boots and having the horse step all over itself.......these are the people you LEARN from - they are good examples of what NOT to do, people who like to show boat and just use a horse for their own personal fun time......stay away from these ones, they'll only make you want to quit......
 
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