Brigaboys Lemac - 6 hours old
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Brigaboys Lemac - 6 hours old |
The Texas Reining Horse Association (TRHA) was founded in 1985 as a non-profit association affiliated with the National Reining Horse Association. Its charter is to promote Reining throughout the southeast and north central region of Texas by sponsoring reining chows, clinics, demonstrations, and judging seminars.
What is Reining? It is typically called "Western Dressage" because the rider pilots the horse through a prescribed pattern while being judged on the smoothness, finesse, attitude, quickness and authority of performing various maneuvers. What makes it "Western" is the hard driving, sliding stops and fast spins dictated by the rider, but willfully performed by the horse without any resistance.
The main attraction is fun, and that has driven Reining to be the fastest growing sport in the horse industry over the last decade.
Today's reining horse has evolved from the cowboy's everyday ranch work of efficiently maneuvering cattle on the open range, moving, holding, and sorting cattle, a cowboy needs an agile saddle horse that's quick on his feet, can be controlled by a light rein and has an explosive start and stop.
In past times, cowboys and vaqueros prided themselves on riding these hard-working horses, and enjoyed challenging one another to see whose mount could stop harder, slide farther and turn around faster. It was the beginning of the reining horse competition as we know it today.
Although the national reining horse association is 23 years old, membership continues to grow. In the last seven years, membership has doubled and everything about the sport has changed in the last five years, from the horses to the riders to the execution of the patterns.
According to the rules, to rein a horse is not only to guide him, but also to control his every movement. The intent of the rider should be to willfully guide and control the horse with little or no apparent resistance. The horse essentially should be dictated to completely. Any movement on the part of the horse should be considered a lack of control. All deviations from an exact written pattern must be considered a lack of or a temporary loss of control, and a fault must be assessed by the judge according to severity.
The NRHA uses nine possible patterns, and the American Quarter Horse Association has seven of its own. Each pattern is a different arrangement of the same maneuvers. All are made more difficult because during the competition only one hand may be used on the reins.
The newest class at a reining might include the freestyle. Such an event could be performed to a musical score . . . costumes permissible . . . . and the event would allow the rider the use of both hands unlike rules governing other maneuvers.
For more information about the Texas Reining Horse Association contact any of the following Texas Reining Horse Association Officers:
President, Kathy Barker 281-346-2115
Secretary/Treasurer, Kim Morris.314 Rabbit Trail, Lake Jackson,
TX 77566, 409-297-5017, (to join mail attached
membership form)
Reporter/Editor, Vicki LaBlanc, 281-398-2668,vicki_leblanc@bmc.com
Member/Webmaster, Martha Moore, mhmoore@flash.net
Official NRHA (National Reining Horse Association) Home Page
Brigadoon Farm Reining and Cutting Horses
