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© British Reining 2007

About Reining

What is Reining?

The sport itself has been likened to a Western form of dressage – both disciplines requiring a competitor to ride a set pattern with smoothness and correctness, demonstrating the unity of horse and rider.

The phenomenal growth of this sport worldwide has led to it becoming the first western discipline to gain full F.E.I. recognition with the result that reining is now part of the World Equestrian Games and European Equestrian Games programmes.

Britain was represented in Reining at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez in 2002, the European Championships in Italy in 2004 and 2005 and will again be present in Aachen for the World Equestrian Games in 2006.

So what are the manoeuvres?

Stops: from a lope (canter) to a stop position by bringing the hind legs under the horse, lock into position and slide on the hind feet. The front feet should maintain ground contact, forward motion, and cadence.

Spins: are a series of 360 deg. turns executed around the pivot (inside) hind leg. The hindquarters should maintain their position whilst the front legs and outside rear leg provide cadenced propulsion.

Rollbacks: are 180 deg. Reversal of forward motion – the horse stopping correctly from a canter and in one fluid motion executing a 180 deg. turn and departing at a canter.

Circles: large fast and small slow. The horse maintaining form and willingness to be guided. There must be a clearly defined difference in size and speed, and the circles on one side should be mirrored by those on the other side as to size and speed.

Lead changes: Is the act of changing the leading legs of the horse when changing direction. There should be no change of pace or speed, and must be performed in exact geographical position of the arena, as specified in the pattern, and in the same stride.

Back up: require the horse to be moved backwards in a straight line, a minimum of 10 feet (3 metres).

What's the procedure?

Any of the ten accepted patterns maybe selected for a class. Scoring is based on 0-infinity with 70 denoting an average performance. The patterns are broken down into 7 or 8 (depending on the pattern) individual manoeuvres, which are scored in ½ increments from a low of –1½ to a high of +1½ with 0 meaning a manoeuvre has been performed correctly, with little or no degree of difficulty.

Fixed penalties for infractions during the run (i.e. breaks of gait, late lead changes etc.) varying from one half to no scores, are deducted from the overall manoeuvre score to create the final total score.

Judges have to pass a stringent test to gain their card, and are retested every two years. A judges score sheet reflects the quality of the run content and the penalties.  

Pattern 5 example

Pattern 5 is broken down into:

1. three left circles – first two large and fast, the third small and slow:
2. four left spins:
3. circles to the right – first two large and fast, third small and slow:
4. four right spins:
5. figure 8 with lead changes:
6. past centre marker, sliding stop and right rollback:
7. round top of area past centre marker, sliding stop and left rollback:
8. round top of arena past centre marker, sliding stop and back up at least 10 feet (3 metres).