What Is Reining

A Fast Growing Sport

Reining is designed to highlight the athletic ability of the "ranch type" horse in the confines of a show arena. Contrary to the seemingly relaxed attitude of both horse and rider and the loose reins typical of the discipline, reining is a high-level competition sport requiring concentration, athletic prowess, control, and speed.

As is stated in the NRHA handbook " To rein a horse is not only to guide him, but also to control his every movement.  The best-reined horse should be willfully guided or controlled with little or no apparent resistance and dictated to completely.  Any movement on his own must be considered a lack of control.  All deviations from the exact written pattern must be considered a lack or temporary loss of control and therefore a fault must be marked down according to severity of the deviation.  After deducting all faults against the execution of the pattern and the horses overall performance, credit shall be given for smoothness, finesse, attitude, quickness and authority of performing various maneuvers while using controlled speed which raises the difficulty level and makes the run more exciting and pleasing to watch to an audience".

The American Quarter Horse Association first recognized reining as a sport in 1949. Its members, be they competitors, coaches, breeders or horse owners, greatly contributed to giving the western ranch type horse the international recognition it enjoys today. That said, Reining is promoted with great success by many of the different breed associations such as the Arabian Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association and the Appaloosa Horse Association, just to name a few.

Reining has become the most recent discipline to be recognized by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI). International reining competitions are now being held for both team and individual competitors worldwide. Reining was included as a medal discipline for the first time at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain. At the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games, the Canadian Reining Team earned the Silver Medal for the team competition, and Duane Latimer took the individual Gold Medal for Canada. While reining is recognized by the FEI and performed at the World Equestrian Games, it is not yet an Olympic medal discipline.