Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Rein length and rein stops

From: Jeanne

Dear Jessica, I hope this is not too trivial of a question for HORSE-SENSE. I cannot get a good answer from anyone at my barn or the owner of the barn or the man who owns the tack shop in the next town.

My horse is almost 16 hands with a very long neck. His name is Rafi but we call him Giraffe because his neck is so long. At your clinic last year, you told me that the reason I rode with my reins too short is that my reins were really too short Rafi is comfortable if I hold the reins with my hands just on the sides of the buckle part, but I don't like the way this feels and I always end up shortening them so that I have about a foot of rein between my hands. But when I do that, Rafi is not happy and he starts that head-shaking and backing up thing he was doing when I brought him to your clinic. So now what can I do? I am using reins made from parachute cord, but they are too light and not flat and I miss my webbing reins with the leather stops. Do you know of anyplace that sells extra-long reins, maybe a place that makes bridles for big warmblood horses? My bridle is a Courbette and I just love it, I wish I could find long reins that would match it, but I called the tack shop and the owner said he didn't have anything like that, all his reins were the same length as mine. You solved our riding problem last year, now do you think you can solve our tack problem?

Hi Jeanne! I'm glad that you and Rafi are doing so well. This question is a very easy one to answer: just go right ahead and order your new reins from Courbette. You're right, "standard" rein length is usually 54", but the better makers of strapgoods usually sell a 60" version of the same rein. It's generally called "extra-long"; some firms call it "Warmblood length", but either way, the 60" length is very popular. And that length WOULD give you the additional foot of rein that you want at your end, since I note you are considerately giving Rafi the amount he needs at his end. Good for you. No wonder he's happier now. ;-)

If you order the reins through your local tack shop, just remind the owner, politely, that Courbette DOES make those "extra-long" 60" reins available. When he answered your question on the phone, he was probably just looking at his current inventory, not at his catalogue. If he hasn't been asked for the longer reins before, he may not even realize that Courbette makes them. I think there's an extra 10% charge added on, so you should figure that into your budget.

As for rein stops - they aren't necessarily a crutch, and they don't have to limit you at all. They can be very useful to help you develop a more even feel of your reins - many people fool themselves into thinking that they are holding their reins evenly, when in fact they routinely have one rein longer than the other. As long as you don't feel that your hand position is being limited by the stops, I don't think there's anything wrong with them. In the case of web reins, the stops give the reins a little extra weight that helps makes up for the lightness of the webbing itself.

As for being a good rider.... don't take pronouncements like that too seriously. A truly good rider won't depend on rein stops to decide where to hold the reins, and so will not be handicapped by the absence OR by the presence of rein stops. Whether a truly good rider PREFERS rein stops is a question that the individual rider will have to answer, but a thoughtful answer should always based on matters of comfort, grip, and desired effect.

Look at it this way, a really good guitarist plays a guitar, which has frets - a really good violinist play a violin, which hasn't any frets - and both of them play beautifully, so obviously the presence of frets doesn't cause a problem for the guitarist, and the lack of frets doesn't cause a problem for the violinist. Guitarists play a great many chords, violinists play a great many single notes - their needs are different. But some beginning violinists find it useful to mark their fingerboards with bits of tape whilst they are learning the basics of hand positioning - similar to the way in which riders may find rein stops useful.

And before anyone asks, Yes, slide guitars do have frets, and no, I don't intend to get into a discussion of the location of frets on guitars, nor will I discuss individual guitarists who use a violin vibrato technique and so need extremely low frets on their guitars. This is just a short digression - and meant to be related to the subject of the HORSE-SENSE question. ;-)

Jessica

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