One of the most ignorant, uninformed articles I've ever read...

The Insanity of Reining

Rening and other western disciplines - horse shows


This person's website is full of things like "ALL spurs are evil," "ALL curb bits are evil," "ALL dressage riders are evil," and the usual.

But reining? Where on earth did that come from? Is it just me, or is reining one of the least corrupt disciplines out there?

What do you guys think?

Heh... no, it's just as corrupt as all the other ones out there. I've been to two major reining barns in my area now that have no problem using a mule bit on their horses to either "make them stop harder" or to "get that &*%$ horse off the bit!"

This is a mule bit in case anyone doesn't know:

Not sure who the trainers are but as a norm reining is not bad in compairison to other events. It is one of the few disciplines that MAKE you drop bit to the judge and will walk ALL the way around the horse and WILL DQ a horse/rider to the slightest mark.

I have seen that sight before. Would be nice if they actually knew what they where talking about. It is like trainers and others who put reining in their list of things they can do and train but have no idea of what reining really is.

If anyone has to use a mule bit to get their reining horse to stop or get off the bit, has no clue what they're doing. As for that article, I agree that the person has no clue what they are talking about. For all we know, that picture of the horses feet could have been due to lack of TLC, not shows and what not.

*Sigh* Another blind guide... One of many out there. Terrible article; embodies ignorance of a discipline and close-mindedness. The author probably watched a YouTube clip, shouted, "That looks painful!", and, despite the evidence, never strayed from his first assumption out of pure subborness.

Just a note, I'm not condoning the article one bit; it's very poorly researched, and very opinionated. My point is that reining certainly isn't a discipline without its own skeletons.

I agree that ever discipline has its problems. I have been in the reining industry for about 15 years. I have yet to see some of the things I see in other disciplines. It just does not work. With just one horse I have lost over $1K in earnings b/c of scratches on the horse. Not even marks bad enough to draw blood just scratches. I am not the only one. The judges are very very strict on these things. Even if it is old they will call you on it. SO do do things that will mark or hurt the horse in any way will cost you more then you will ever earn back. I have also seen some of the top open and non pro riders in the NRHA put on probation and not allowed to show for infractions of the rules. Does not matter who you are if you are caught you are out.

Does this mean there is no problems with in the NRHA? No there are things that I would like to see changed. Some have changed over the years but have reverted back in the past few years. Really too bad too. I would also like to see some drug police in place. Not as strict as the EFI but more then we have now. Which is nothing.

Well, of course there will always be problems... But I still think it's absurd to call reining "one of the most preposterous riding disciplines of all time."

I don't think you can say any entire discipline is "preposterous" or "insanity". But with a lot of disciplines, I can see how an ignorant, quick-to-jump-to-conclusions person might think it. I just don't see that with reining...

Wow...i couldnt even finish that article...