10 year old children and draw reins

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silverbreeze

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Do you think they should be mixed? I mean with a horse in there too; not just as a way to restrain your child!
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Interested to hear peoples opinions, do you think a child of that age is capable of using them properly or even understanding the concept behind how they should be used as an aid not a lazy 'quick fix' option?
 
Ditto Rachealstar.

I have an 11 year old jockey riding my pony at the moment and she is a great little rider. I wouldn't hesitate to let her use Draw Reins on my pony if I felt they would benefit them. I wouldn't let her use them unsupervised though.
 
A decent rider would be fine. I had better hands, but just very little strength to back my aids up when pony said no at 10, where as now I have the strength, but because of that don't need draw reins, and if I did woulnd't trust myself to use them.
 
I am not going to say children cant understand the concept but I personally wouldnt encourage a child to use them. I think they encourage people to think the outline is all about the head position whereas in fact it is about working through the whole body into self carriage. If the back end is working and the back is lifted then the head position will come. But it has to come from behind.

So I would not let a child use draw reins. From a dressage standpoint!
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I personally don't like them full stop (draw reins not children lol!) for the reasons dozzie has pointed out. i know lots of horses who have been ruined by them.
 
I don't think kids should use draw reins cos they're generally not strong enough to back them up with leg no matter how good they are and i don't think 10 year olds should be too concerned about the outline their pony is working in they should be having fun at that age. I also hate seeing young children wearing spurs when they've clearly not got enough control of their lower leg
 
Thanks for all your opinions, I can see where people are coming from with the individual skill of each rider (and from that it probably goes on the knowledge of the adult too) etc but the reason I asked was because a 10 year old on our yard was using them on her show pony and I thought it was OTT as wasn't really going to solve the problems they were having. i.e. he is strong and leans into her hands
I felt that she was being encouraged to focus soley on the head carriage as Dozzie pointed out.
Was just wondering if it was me being precious as I don't have kids so can only go on what I knew and wanted to do at 10 years old (which was mainly gallop about and jump as many big things as possible!)
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Elle1085 100% agree with the having fun at that age as I think it encourages them to find their own way with riding and bonding with the horse and they miss out on so much if they don't. I used to have races with my mates, jump barrels all the normal and it really did teach me so much about my abilities and taught me to have a bottom like a limpet!!
Very easy for me to speculate from the outside though I know which is why it's always good to get the different views to try and understand other people.
 
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