Draw Reins and Draw Backs

By Christian Moon

A client asked me to re-tread two of his horses after playing in the 12 goal leagues for the summer. He told me a bit about each horse over by his trailer right after the last game and we agreed that the horses should come to my place and that I would play them, though the likelihood of being able to was somewhat dubious.
After a new set of shoes the horses arrived and were assimilated by the herd and incorporated into the schooling program.

Their owner had not given these horses much accolade other then their original cost which I assumed should reflect their original quality. The owner could care less about that now and was most annoyed that these two horses, his most expensive, were now useless to him after just two years. One was a leaper, and the other a run away. His flowery descriptions of their behavior told the rest of the story.

I was told the hardware that was required to play these monsters was as monstrous as their tendencies. Sure enough when I first saddled up with a snaffle and a comfy saddle on the Run Away there was no stopping until we had climbed several hundred feet, but at the top of the nearest hill, an intense three minute canter up a steep slope, she seemed to stop on a loose rein but bore down on the bridle just as I wanted to let go and relax. She ran on through the point of stopping for no reason, so really we had just slowed down. I turned her in a sharp circle with a direct inside rein and eventually we stopped, but the mouth was very hard and her neck as stiff as a board.

Hills are great especially if the way home is directly down hill. On a leaping horse it is possible to very gently stop and then rein back. You can feel if the horse is responsive in the mouth, and if it is, then the leaping is probably more barn sour then anything else.

Barn sour is treatable with consistent schooling and the establishment of a work ethic in the horse, so leaping becomes an easy thing to fix if approached this way. However in this horse the problem was exacerbated by a very stiff neck just like the run away.

As an aside I used to ride some difficult horses on some very steep sandy hills as a way to stop them from leaping. I found that with their legs under them on a sandy hill they would concentrate on sliding down the hill. The trick is to find a hill that is long enough to stop on. Then rein back. Do this many times going home down hill.

Back to the stiff necks.

The owner had been using a lethal combination of “solutions” to the problems he was facing with his horses. In the run away’s mouth he placed some good hardware, as was logical, and in his hand he placed some leverage in the form of a draw rein or running rein.

In polo the running rein is used almost universally. It is used with great effect by many and has a place in the game, but although it’s virtues could be sung by many a player I am sure they would all agree that if it is used incorrectly it is a scourge for the horse.

I have seen the draw rein attached to every bit conceived but I have rarely heard of the draw rein being taken off the horse and the “bite” of the bit toned down. It would seem then that the training is not doing it’s job. The horse is not improving.

One of the pitt falls of the draw rein is that if it is held tight it just pulls the horse into a frame from whence the horse can’t perform at speed. At first the horse might submit to this assault on it’s mouth but as the level of play rises so do the expectations of the player and as such the horses demise should be noticed and dealt with.

In this case there was no one there for the horse and bad went to worse as training was undertaken on the field of play. As the size of the hardware mounted so did the fear in the horse.

It knew as it stood on the trailer that on that grass was pain. Eventually the fear inherent in the game coupled with the reactions from spurs, sounds, and so on caused this horse to over compensate. At first it would run every time it heard the ball get struck, and especially if the trailer were right ahead, in order to avoid the inevitable grip that meant spur. It would never select the lead that was away from the trailer, indeed it would never let the rider select the lead.

Now it was in the lead on the ladder of who is in charge.

And then it ran away, with a stiff neck and jaw that resisted all attempts from the rider to turn the horse using a draw rein who’s direct effect is to pull from the bit to wherever the rein is fastened on the saddle.
Without leg aids this is not an aid, just an impossible task.

When the horse is young and full of itself the breaker will inevitably have to present it with it’s first experience running in open country. This could be on a polo field or a trail with open country either side. It’s all the same to the youngster. If that horse were to bolt then the rider would use a direct inside rein to turn the horse in the airplane turn that is familiar to the green horse trainer. As the circles gets smaller the horse slows to an eventual stop. The direct inside rein is given so as not to raise the horses level of adrenalin just to place the head. I mention this because it is what the horse knows. Eventually one can teach the horse to come off the leg and that same rider can then use a draw rein as an aid in stopping provided he support and release the horse between maneuvers. Ridden like this the horse will flow and never become stiff.

On the other hand if the rider clamps on with his lower leg (and spur sometimes.) and draws in with a rein that helps him balance on the horses mouth then the flow stops and the horse takes charge in a battle that the rider will eventually have to loose using the tools he or she has chosen.

There has to be someone back in the pony lines that takes charge of your horses. If you can’t be there to re tread the horse between chukkers you will never find enough time on the field of play. Green horses and horses having problems become frustratingly “slow” in their maneuvers making the game seem faster and harder. “There is nothing worse then a slow run away!” as someone once said.