One Rein Stop? Video attatched!

The times I have screamed at my children "pull on one rein" at the top of my voice whilst they were being tanked off by a pony ;) I thought it was common sense!
 
Yes. Touch wood, it appears that a 1 rein stop comes quickly to my hand at the first sign of bucking, rearing or bolting. I hope that continues to be my first reaction. In order to do those things the horse has to "engage" their hind end. If a 1 rein stop is done properly, the hind legs keep crossing, or disengaging, and the horse can't carry out the act. I would hold the 1 rein stop until I feel a softness down the rein, then release and walk the horse forwards.
 
Mind you, he's wrong about "you can rarely stop a bucking horse in a halter". You most certainly can, a bit of metal in the horse's mouth doesn't make a heap of difference. If that were not the case there wouldn't be so many reallly good horse trainers (I'm not talking Parelli) starting young horses and re-starting problem horses in rope halters. I have a tiny photo somewhere to prove that I'm speaking of what I know from experience... but I've had a few bucks to deal with in rope halters, and the 1 rein stop has always worked.
OK, can't find the bucking photo, but this is a serious thought of rearing being dealt with. Sadly, the rearing was a result of pain, and this is my last ride on my beautiful horse, so please no negative this time. Of course, even though I realised there was a serious problem, I had to get off safely before I could deal with it.
These are two of a series of grabs from video, but I've only got these two shots uploaded.
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I know it looks tough, but I was being seriously thrown out of the saddle by the time the second photo happened. I think we'd had a couple of spins by then.
 
Ravenwood said:
The times I have screamed at my children "pull on one rein" at the top of my voice whilst they were being tanked off by a pony ;) I thought it was common sense!
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Absolutely Ravenwood, it just has a name now!:)

I can hear my old DC screaming just that as we'd thunder past her on rides!
 
I'm sure it's always been useful to distinguish between a 1 rein stop and a 2 rein stop, and it's nothing new as it's a western riding term, so no new name invented.
Something I don't think they teach often at Pony Club is how to use the 1 rein stop with more sophistication, so that it becomes muscle memory for horse and rider. Normally, my 1 rein stop is just a lift of my hand, and that is often all I need to do to ask my horses to come back to me mentally when they get a bit scattered. This means that you catch the thought if you're lucky, and stop the bucking, rearing or bolting situation before it develops and without force.
 
I've used it a few times (more for taking off than bucking) and mostly found it great... exceptions:
1) little pony in a happy mouth straight bar on a cheap webbing bridle - bit went right through his mouth and left him with webbing between the teeth!
2) v flexible and fwd horse who could canter with his nose on my thigh - at least he could gallop that way though!

If your horse is bucking you do need to consider the reasons as well as your immediate safety: discomfort is always the most likely. There was another thread on here abt bucking earlier today, have a little search maybe as there was loads of good advice.
 
MagsnPaddy said:
Sounds like you were in the same PC as me Enfys :D Funny so many of the old "commonsense" methods are now being recycled as new theories.
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As I said above, it's not an old common sense theory being recycled, it's a term that's been used in western riding since goodness knows when. It's something I've known about since my riding teens, and I've heard it mentioned often by various styles of horsemen over the years. However, as I also said above, nobody explained about refining the one rein stop in my "BHS/Pony Club days". I learnt that when I met up with western style horsemen. As I was taught it then, it is a manoevre that can be used to great effect to avoid a problem before it gets started.

If a horse is cantering with his nose on your thigh, you've taken the one rein stop too low, your hand needed to be higher. However, at a flat gallop that's not so easy to take into account. If you take a one rein stop once the horse is doing a flat out gallop then you run the risk of carrying out an impressive stunt fall, so give and take on one rein at a time, or if you have room working the horse into a decreasing arc, are better ideas.
 
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Loving this post! You look very accomplished Tinypony, sorry about your horse . I learnt the 1 rein stop and taught it to my horse as a youngster to fully establish the stop aid, I think it is different from what we were taught as kids and is a more refined technique which also teaches the horse a 'calm down cue' I learmt it mainly for my own confidence when i lost my nerve hacking out!
 
The one rein stop as in those photos is just an emergency measure isn't it? (I don't know if I'm accomplished, or if I was just in terror of being spun off into the fence!). I've got two one rein stops firmly established in my head, and as you say, they are quite different, but both useful.
 
Funny how again people come up with the old sneer "common sense" again.When I was taught to ride I was taught by my riding instructers to pull both reins and if that doesn't work "saw at the mouth" (!)
It wasn' till comming back to riding and learning the western way that anyone mentioned the one rein stop
 
jinglejoys said:
Funny how again people come up with the old sneer "common sense" again.When I was taught to ride I was taught by my riding instructers to pull both reins and if that doesn't work "saw at the mouth" (!)
It wasn' till comming back to riding and learning the western way that anyone mentioned the one rein stop
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It wasn't meant as a sneer JJ - but it was a commonly taught method when I was younger - either spin as TP is doing above to stop a rear, or both hands to stop a bolter. As a small skinny child (those were the days :o) riding problem ponies I was taught various methods - for those "oh crap" moments some worked and some didn't - this was one that did.

It may just be that people are taught very differently now. As someone that has been out of the loop slightly with riding horses (been more involved with drivers for the last few years), I am occasionally surprised at what people haven't been taught.
 
yes it is clearly an emergency but it looks instinctive which is the point. I used to practice one, rein stops out on the lanes, my young horse used to shoot forward in the school and I had lost my nerve after an operation so kept sitting shaking waiting for him to do it again, pathetic really! Anyway I hit on this idea of getting the whole technique so practised it would help me feel confident, now he only does one step I close my hand on the rein and he stops, its that established, even when a horse bolted running into the wall next to him throwing its rider and badly hurting her, my horse barely moved when I went into 1 rein stop move!! Fab!
 
That's a good one rein stop in action then Nigsha.
Magsnpaddy, I think maybe it's not so much what people have been taught, but what they haven't as you say. Nobody taught me a one rein stop at riding school. I first got the idea as an adult, after a break from horses, when I was reading a Henry Blake book. Then when I met the western (and the Parelli!) people, it all fell into place. Like you, it's a first instinct with me now, thank goodness.
 
Thank you so much for posting this on here Omarkiam, as I have never heard of it before now. So I will start practising and see if it will work on polo pony - fingers crossed because I really don't want to be thrown off in the middle of the road again! Thanks again :)
 
I was taught the one rein stop, western style, as a movement - something you teach the horse thoroughly and then use to whatever degree, as and when.

The "one rein stop" I was taught in Pony Club etc was much more of an "emergency brake" and was usually lumped in with the somewhat similar "pulley rein". I do remember "practising" it in walk, trot then canter but I can't remember anyone ever explaining it as a specific aid for a specific reaction.

Then I was also taught to "spin" horses (no relation to reining spinning, of course) that were attempting to run off, rear etc. Again, at whatever level the problem seemed to require. I do a mild version quite often, effectively riding a very small circle forward until the horse "releases" physically and mentally, rather than using it as a punishment.

They all have their place, though. The trick is know which to use and when.

It do like the emphasis on practising the movement in western riding, as just another basic request. As with so many things, while you practise to know how to apply the aids BEFORE you really need them, I suspect the schooling is helpful in its own right.
 
jinglejoys said:
Funny how again people come up with the old sneer "common sense" again.When I was taught to ride I was taught by my riding instructers to pull both reins and if that doesn't work "saw at the mouth" (!)
It wasn' till comming back to riding and learning the western way that anyone mentioned the one rein stop
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I agree. I do find on here people expect you be born and instantly know how to ride through common sense!


Thank you too everyone who has replied, I have read all of your replies and its helped me greatly, I definately see from pictures etc that the one rein stop is indeed very useful!
 
polopony said:
Thank you so much for posting this on here Omarkiam, as I have never heard of it before now. So I will start practising and see if it will work on polo pony - fingers crossed because I really don't want to be thrown off in the middle of the road again! Thanks again :)
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No problem! Just something I stumbled across and figured I had nothing to lose in trying it!
 
I tried this instinctively one day when the horse I was riding bolted forwards, trouble was he then bent so much I came out the side door! Probably being stupid but is he saying to put your inside leg on, or off to disengage the hind quarters?
 
Put your inside leg on to disengage the hindquarters, if you need to.
The 1 rein stop is taught in stages (so that you build the muscle memory and hopefully avoid emergencies). When your horse is standings still ask for some lateral flexion. So that you don't spoil this, it needs to be nice and soft, not forced and no twisty neck. So watch, if the ears don't stay level, your horse is twisted. Lift rein in one hand, take it over to the opposite shoulder and turn your knuckles upwards. By now, many horses have disengaged under you and you've already released them. If they haven't then just feel with your inside leg to encourage that hind leg to step under. If a horse is really stuck I don't do much leg work, I'd probably transfer the rein to my opposite hand while holding it in place, then reach back and pat the rump on the inside to encourage that leg to move.
The idea is that all of those stages vanish, as you release your horse as soon as he responds to your ask. So I'd like to end up with a lift to get attention, then a turn of my fingers upwards to disengage.
 
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