draw reins

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AnnaPK

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Hello lovely people,
I am curious re: draw reins, perhaps it's my time spent on socials but it has always been drilled into me that draw reins are a big NO. I, personally belive that any tack can be abusive in the wrong hands. my trainer has told me I should try draw reins from the D ring. He believes it will help some of the straightness and leaning issues I have been having. Initially I assumed the leaning on the bit could be felt with by making myself stronger, as it did used to cause me to collapse in my seat. Now I go to the gym 4-6 times a week and am physically strong in the core arms back and legs. I dont feel that was the solution at all thus. I feel like the more I work him with him on the forehand the way he is the worse the issue will become as his muscles become more defined and his movement becomes set. He is a big fella at 16.3hh, if anything he is likely to default to being behind the vertical so I defo dont want him any mire behind said vertical. What do you think? Is this a good training aid to help grow muscles through correct movement? someone also recommended me a Waterford bit but again I have heard bad things of those!!! what do you guys think?
Regards from a wet muddy field,
Anna & Benson
 
Gosh, I'm not qualified to answer regarding draw reins, but from what you have said, draw reins definitely don't seem to be the answer.

You shouldn't need strength to ride a horse. Your body needs to be strong in its core, and you need to be able to hold yourself so that you are easy to carry. If your horse is pulling, it means you are pulling.

Anyhow, someone who knows what they are talking about will come along and say something useful.

: }
 
AnnaPK said:
I personally belive that any tack can be abusive in the wrong hands.
Click to expand...
Just one more thing, you have such a lot of leverage with draw reins, so I don't quite go along with this theory. Some things are so much more risky can other things. Twisted snaffle is another example. One of them could never be all right, even with the most skillful rider.
 
Personally I don't think they are the answer to this problem. If he leans on your hands and you hold him there (with or without draw reins) you are 'letting' him learn (mentally and in muscle development) that he can be heavy in the hand or rein. My instructor here would say something like (and I am not an instructor and am paraphrasing) - give a small pull upwards with either or both hands depending on whether he leans one way or straight. Then soften to the point he has to carry himself. When he starts to lean again, do it again. We're not talking a big jab in the mouth but more like a rein half halt to lighten him, but then let go so that he has to carry his own head. Others may put it better, or disagree.

Side note on draw reins - I don't use them for schooling but will use them as a safety device, e.g. with a horse that would nap, spin and head for home when hacking. My hand was neither strong enough nor quick enough to stop the initial spin, but with draw reins I always could. It didn't take long to break that habit. They weren't held tightly to the point that the horse was overbent or forced into any kind of shape just there as a safety backup.
 
It sounds like balance is the issue. Compressing the neck never solves anything, "long the neck,.short the body" as Manolo Mendez would say.

I would find a different trainer but also play with postural groundwork, tackling the issue from a position of first principles. I recommend my saddle fit customers to the Slow Walk Work group on FB, run by Diana Waters who has been writing articles for Horse and Rider recently.

Equitopiacenter.com has some really good resources from all.sorts of different experts to help understand these issues better.
 
As others have said, if he's leaning on your hands more contact/draw reins aren't going to help. A contact should be just a touch on the rein, there shouldn't be enough pressure to require strength.
If you drop your reins when he starts leaning, what happens? If he falls on his nose (obviously try this in walk, not at speed!) then he probably hasn't got the strength to carry himself properly with a rider on board and has learned to use your hands as a 'fifth leg'. In this case, as above groundwork is a good call to teach him to carry himself properly, followed by fittening him up under saddle to carry a rider without having to balance on the rider's hands.
Once they've learned to lean it's a difficult habit to break- once he's doing the fittening work under saddle I would recommend taking up little to no contact until he's put on the muscle to hold himself up and has fallen out of the habit, as it's easy for them (and us) to slip back into leaning rather than put in the extra effort to build strength.
Lots of hill work and going over rough ground at slow speeds is good for building that strength, either on the long reins or under saddle.
 
I took over the ride on a warmblood who leaned. We spent the first 2 months walking & trotting circles indoors on a loose rein. He realised that I certainly wasn't going to hold up his front end, that was his job. You obviously need good balance and I used the indoor because he had a reputation for tanking off. Funnily enough once he'd begun listening to me and understand that my legs might means things like sideways the tanking off stopped.

Everytime he'd start to lean he'd have to 'do something'. That might just mean a few steps of leg yield or we'd turn onto a circle or change the rein - but whatever we did he'd have to bring the weight back himself or he'd fall on his nose. Despite how it feels sometimes horses don't generally want to face plant! Owners hubbie turned up one evening and didn't recognise the horse because his way of going was so different - and it didn't take that long for the penny to drop either. Teaching the owner not to lean on the horse's mouth was a whole different ballgame though....

Start in walk. One of the Ritter exercises is about riding a diamond and smoothing off the sides so you've got part circle / part diamond and I will often come back to that if I need a slower exercise. You are using your legs to guide them around the shape so your reins can be loose and they have to learn to step underneath themselves.
 
I have one that leans and loves to tow along on the forehand, also incredibly strong when it suits and his go-to when he arrived was to tuck behind the contact as he'd always been ridden in a strong contact. I totally feel your pain as I have also had rides where I feel like my shoulders are nearly dislocated and it's so hard to maintain a good seat and soft back on a horse that wants you to hold their head up all the time. I don't think draw reins will fix your problem though sorry, they are likely to just make him tuck his head to his chest more.

With mine when is when he's heavy in the hand it's because he's not working from behind or through his back which is a chronic issue with him. What works with him (alongside working with my trainer weekly on all this) is preventing that 'falling into the hand' by keeping him engaged behind and building his core strength and balance. I will rarely trot down a long-side without collecting him and leg yielding him over, if I ever feel him start to lean I bring him back to almost a half-step of walk and then push forward again to rebalance him, we do lots and lots of lateral work with him - shoulder-in, travers, walk pirouettes. When he is relaxed towards the end of the ride I aim to do 10 minutes trotting long and low where he will offer it. He finds all this hard as he's not accustomed to working this way, so you have to keep a close eye on when they are tiring and keep it short and sweet and focus on quality over quantity. I lunge him in equicore bands for 15 minutes before I get on (in just a cavesson, nothing on his head to force a position) and do walk poles after each ride, he also goes on the water treadmill once a week and in summer we focus on a lot of hill-work. It's been 2 years and he is just starting to offer some rides where he feels lovely and soft throughout the whole session but it is a constant work in progress, but rewarding to see the improvements - he has only just now started to reach down on the lunge in the equicore bands and work long and low through his back after going from 'llama' on the lunge, to a neutral head position for a few months and now starting to stretch and use his core.
 
Draw reins will encourage your horse to get a broken neckline
Including definition below cuz it’s not actually a broken neck 😅

A "broken neckline" in a horse usually refers to
an overbent, incorrect frame where the neck breaks behind the poll (often at the 3rd vertebra) rather than at the atlas/axis, typically caused by improper training, such as forcing the head down with draw reins. It indicates the horse is not working correctly from behind, leading to a reversed, uncomfortable posture.
 
Draw reins are fine… used appropriately. One of my horses was a nightmare out hacking, would rear at anything she fancied.

Put her in a set of draw reins, instant better behaviour without even having to hold on to them.
 
Definitely not what is needed in this instance. Draw reins will give the horse more to lean against. More balance and use of the back end are needed to lighten the forehand. If you can try and find someone who can assess you and your horse, including the horse's conformation as this can play a huge part in things and give you exercises to help. Developing posture and correct muscular development will take time and sadly there are few effective shortcuts.
 
I am a novice so not really qualified to comment, but I did want to say OP that I'm glad you are questioning this because it doesn't sound like a correct use of draw reins or sympathetic/progressive approach to training from your trainer.

Most of my lessons are in walk, I've ridden for years but these walk lessons have taught me so much. Recently I had a lesson where we had been doing a combo of pole and lateral work in walk, and just a handful of walk-trot-walk transitions, and the horse offered some lovely uphill walk. I thought he had grown a hand taller in front of me and couldn't believe this 'posh walk' we had achieved 😂 This is on a big (17hh+), veteran horse who will also lean on me at times. If anything I've learned to be softer and 'do less' rather than get stronger.
 
Draw reins can have a time and a place if used correctly, for example I use them on horses who are a little unreliable out hacking. Issues with straightness is often linked to a lack of suppleness, which you will not correct by schooling in draw reins. If he defaults to being behind the vertical, trying to "out strength" him is not the answer, he needs to be ridden leg into hand, not the other way around. I would be looking for a new coach who has experience with classical dressage.
 
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