Reining Tips: Rein Holding and Adjusting

Article and photos by Annie Lambert

You are on deck at the back gate. The butterflies are flapping in your stomach and your heart is pounding as you mentally negotiate the long list of things you need to remember while steering around the reining pattern. The last thing you should be worrying about is organizing your reins.

National Reining Horse Association million-dollar rider Mike McEntire points out how poorly handled reins can cause you grief accented with less than sterling performances. Practicing to handle and untangle those reins when it counts may help boost your scores.

Mike, who trains in Ione, California, believes it is helpful for non-pros to practice adjusting and untangling reins when schooling at home to lessen the stress and learn to make stealth corrections when having to rectify rein issues on pattern at a show.

Being aware of NRHA rule updates is also important, according to Mike, chairman of the association’s judges committee. A rider needs to know his options, and rules have been modified that allow competitors added leeway. 

Reining Rules

There was a NRHA rule change in 2017, which allows the rein slack – the excess rein not between the bit and rein hand – to be rearranged while the horse is moving on the pattern, not only when stopped within the pattern as previously demanded. As a NRHA alliance partner, the rule (SHW482) was also adopted by AQHA that same year.

“Before the rein rule was modified, the old rule stated that the horse had to be sitting still anywhere on the pattern before you could fix your reins,” Mike explains. “The rulebook states that a horse must be sitting still to untangle or straighten the horse’s mane or fix saddle latigos, but your reins (the slack ends) can be fixed while you’re moving.”

Both the older rendition and the newer directive state that you can only fix slack by reaching behind your rein hand. The correcting/free hand can have no contact with the reins between the bridle bit and rein hand. However, you can move behind by reaching under or over the hand holding your reins.

“The committee decided to change the rule because if the rein slack is across the rein, sometimes a horse won’t run straight to a stop or it won’t stay in the circles,” Mike offers. “It’s really a good thing and the exhibitors like it. It gives everybody a chance to get their horses shown to the best of their ability. It allows them to get their horses shown even when their reins get tangled. People are getting used to it and the judges are getting used to seeing it, so it is no problem.”

Only Adjust Behind Hand

There are many ways for the rein slack to tangle with manes and leather flying during intense sliding stops and running circles, not to mention the centrifugal force of fast turnarounds.

Ends of reins don’t weigh enough to stay where intended during a reining run, but Mike reiterates that they do weigh enough to send mixed messages to a horse when out of place.

“If both ends of the slack flip under the neck and over both reins it can really get in a horse’s way as they are trying to circle,” Mike states. “For instance, if your slack is laying over both reins and you are circling to the left, it usually hangs over and weighs outside, so it is going to pull that horse’s head to the right. Our horses are doing hard maneuvers and sometimes that slack is just going to fly places we can’t imagine.”

If a rein flips and creates a kink where it attaches to the bit, the only solution is a quick prayer and a shake of the rein hand. Riders are still not allowed to touch the rein between the hand and the bit.

“We don’t allow touching the reins in front of the hand because a rider could actually bump that side or pull that side of the horse’s mouth, which would be a direct rein contact,” Mike points out. “If we allowed that, then we’d have some issues. People with a guiding problem might reach in front of their hand saying they were straightening a flip in their rein, but in reality might be helping the horse guide with a direct rein. If they were in trouble, it would save them, so we can’t allow that; that would be a two-handed issue.”

Practice Adjusting Reins

Mike believes that non-pros should practice reinsmanship at home so they have the confidence to make flawless, covert corrections while on pattern in the show pen.

One of the most common issues riders experience is the ability to adjust their rein length – from the hand to the bit. With only the index finger between the reins, or no fingers between them, loosening the hand and feeding additional rein will extend the rein length. To shorten the rein, the rider must creep the fingers/hand down the rein toward the horse’s head.

“You can’t pull slack with your off hand,” Mike says. “You can straighten the slack end of the reins, but you can’t hold it and pull to adjust rein length. It’s the same if you are using romal reins. You can pitch slack, as long as you don’t pull it with your excess rein.”

The actual, overall length of split reins is important as well.

“There is also a rule that if your reins are dragging the ground, to the point where it is dangerous and a horse could step on the slack, you can be scored a zero,” Mike acknowledges. “You want to make sure your reins are short enough that your horse can’t step on them. We’ve had some reins that literally drug on the ground, which could be a wreck.”

Mike has a rule of thumb for non-pros to determine the proper length where they should hold their reins. It is also taught at NRHA judges’ schools, according to the chairman of the judges committee.

“You want to be able to touch your horse’s mouth when you pick up your hand,” he says. “If you have too much rein, too much slack, so when you get in trouble and need to touch your horse’s mouth you won’t be able to; your reins are too long. That is not good horsemanship and we don’t want to practice that.

“When the rider lifts the rein hand toward his body he can touch the horse’s mouth. But when your hand is down, there is a comfortable loose slack that shows you’re guiding and controlling your horse with the reins alone.”

“Cheating the inside rein” is a phrase used when a rider shortens only the inside rein, leaving the inside shorter than the outside rein. It can have drawbacks, Mike says.

“This is a practice that good showmen have,” he explains. “However, it is telling the judge you have less control of your horse than one that can be shown with more slack in the reins, guiding off the outside rein.”

Another rule that Mike feels some riders are not aware of involves dropping a rein. It seldom happens, but has the potential to be very dangerous if the horse is moving fast. For that reason, a rein dropped on the pattern while in motion is scored zero and the judges excuse the exhibitor from the arena.

If the rein is dropped and the horse is standing still, however, the rider can pick up the rein with the rein hand and will remain on pattern. That scenario is not considered dangerous.

Reining Rulebook

Reinsmanship is a simple subject, but rules can have grey areas, says Mike, who encourages riders to study the rulebook. Rein management is a matter of rule clarification and practice.

“I think it is important for a rider to practice maneuvers at home while holding the reins the same as they will in the show pen,” he points out. “It is also important not to develop any bad habits such as putting more than one finger between the reins.

“Being chairman of the judges committee, I have seen several videos in the past year where riders reach inside the reins with more than one finger and did not even realize they had done it. Practice makes riders more comfortable riding one-handed and with enough practice and show experience this will all become second nature.”

About the Source: Mike McEntire

National Reining Horse Association million-dollar rider Mike McEntire started his successful career in the eastern United States. He and his wife, Nathalie, moved from Selma, North Carolina, in mid-2015 and operate their training barn in Ione, California.

Mike has been ranked on NRHA’s top-20 professional riders’ list since its inception and has won numerous NRHA Futurity and world championships, including winning the prestigious All American Quarter Horse Congress Open Futurity twice. His current NRHA lifetime earnings stand at $1,121,407.

In addition to training a barn full of all-aged horses, Mike coaches a large contingency of successful non-pro clients. As an avid clinician, he has mentored students around the world.

Mike is also an NRHA- and United States Equestrian Foundation-accredited judge and serves as chairman of the NRHA Judges Committee. He has judged prestigious events, such as the NRHA’s USEF Finals in Gladstone, New Jersey; the NRHA Derby; the German Futurity; multiple reining events in Italy; and The Western Festival in Mallorca, Spain. He is also an international clinician.