REINING is the most important discipline in Western Riding and it is a high level competition sport.
The word "Reining" derives from the English word to "rein", which means harness reins.
However this name leads astray as in the REINING the horse is not ridden with short reins like in the classic
riding disciplines but all manoeuvres should be performed with loose reins.
In the different classes of this discipline, which has to be ridden in a lope and which is considered as
the sportive variant of dressage, it depends upon perfection in performance.
The aim is: a minimum of visible help and a maximum of control riding one-handed!
REINING history….
It began with the Spanish desire to discover a new world. As Christoph Kolumbus came across America in 1506 during searching a way to get to India, the colonization of the American continent began. With the first ships of the conquistadores the first Spanish horses, the Andalusier, arrived in America.
Many of these horses were released into freedom, run away or were stolen and gradually they banded together in big herds, called mustangs.
The Indians realized pretty soon the advantages of the "holey dogs" - that is the way they called them - concerning their ability during fights and work. Soon the horse became irreplaceable as a companion for the Indians and for the Cowboys during war , work or recreation. Just because of their help, they could survive on this huge and impassable continent.
Consequently the horse became the most important partner for the cowboys during daily work. The REINING today originates from the cowboys` way to work cattle. Therefore the horses had to be trained in a special way: high speed, agility and the exact realization of the asked manoeuvres were the basis for the cowboys to make a good job.
For the recreation and sportive area different disciplines of Western Riding developed from the wild life of the cowboys.
REINING today contains Know-How, accuracy, much money and desire and it is exercised in Germany since 20 years now as a high level competition sport.
In the year 2000 REINING was officially recognized from the FEI as the seventh Olympic riding discipline and not later than 2002, when the FEI World Equestrian Games took place in Jerez, Spain, this discipline got ennobled . In these days the Americans got the Gold Medal in the team and single performance and Germany was on the 4th place. During the World Equestrian Games 2006 in Aachen REINING became the favourite attraction for the audience and the team of Germany placed fourth once more after the teams of the USA, Canada and Italy.
Worldwide there are more than 50.000 of Reining fans and in the future this " dressage of Western Riding" will grow even more.
