All about the sport that took Western riding by storm and may soon be going to the Olympics.
You’ve seen reining images on magazine covers for years: A sleek horse slams to a sliding stop, raising a cloud of dust. The rider, perfectly balanced, directs his mount seemingly with just a flick of the wrist. But what exactly is reining?
The practice was born in the Old West, when horse and rider needed to be in sync to herd and cut cattle. Since the 1980s, reining has become increasingly popular as a sport, leading to rumors that it might soon become an Olympic event. It’s the Western equivalent of dressage, but faster. Riders in reining competitions guide their horses through a series of maneuvers (especially circles, spins, and stops) at a lope and gallop.
Reining is designed to show off a horse’s athleticism and responsiveness. Competitors are judged on their speed, accuracy, and finesse at performing specific skills. These maneuvers are usually part of the competition:
•Walking from the gate to the center of the arena. Poise and confidence are what the judges are looking for here.
•Running circles. The circles should be perfectly round at various speeds—large circles at a gallop and small circles at a lope. Judging is based on the circle’s form and on how quickly the horse responds to the rider’s commands to speed up or slow down.
•Executing a flying lead change (changing the lead at a lope).
•Galloping around the arena, also known as the rundown; this must be performed before a sliding stop.
•Sliding stops—coming to a complete stop by skidding on the hind feet. This has become the iconic image of reining and the most crowd-pleasing trick performed in competition.
•Executing a rollback—making a 180-degree turn immediately after a sliding stop.
•Backing up in a straight line.
•Spinning while keeping one hind leg stationary.
•Pausing between movements and remaining poised and calm.
Any breed of horse can participate in a reining competition, but the most popular is the American quarter horse. In fact, it was the American Quarter Horse Association that, in 1949, first recognized reining as a sport. Today, the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) oversees the competitions. In 2000, the NRHA started working with the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the governing board for equestrian events in the Olympics, to get reining on the schedule for the 2012 London Games.
The FEI’s recognition also helped to increase reining’s popularity around the world. It’s best known as an American sport, but several countries (including Italy, Israel, Brazil, Canada, and France) hold their own national reining competitions.
The three most prestigious reining competitions are the FEI World Reining Masters, an annual event that began in 2004; the FEI European Championships, held every two years; and the World Equestrian Games (WEG), a major international equestrian competition and the contest that now crowns a World Reining Champion every four years. It was only in 2002 that the WEG even started to include reining, but supporters call it a major step on the road to inclusion in the Olympics. (Of course, some equestrians maintain that the WEG is better than the Olympics anyway.)