Reining: In Search of Good Dirt
By Lisa Broadwater

Also Featured: Reining Explained, Tips for the Newcomer By Jim Duncan

Reining. Even if you know little about this challenging sport, you're probably familiar with its famous sliding stops and whirling-dervish spins. You may also know that while reining has been around for a good while (the National Reining Horse Association was founded in 1966), it has really caught on in the past few years. In fact, it's one of the fastest growing equine sports —NRHA membership grew from 3,850 in 1990 to 11,500 in 2002.
Maybe you know that there are 10 NRHA-approved patterns of required maneuvers (all include small, slow circles; large, fast circles; flying lead changes; rollbacks; 360-degree spins and a sliding stop) and that a judge (or judges) scores each horse, with 70 denoting the average (each horse automatically begins each competitive run with a 70; the judge can either add or deduct up to 1 and 1/2 points on each maneuver based on the quality of the maneuver; penalties are also allocated for minor deviations from the pattern, while major deviations result in a zero score).
Maybe you know that reining was the first Western discipline to gain acceptance by the United States Equestrian Team (last year, the U.S. brought home the gold team medal at the inaugural Reining World Championships at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain). Or maybe you're all too familiar with the other reason reining has gained so much attention of late: the increasingly impressive paychecks that professional reiners are taking home (leading all-time NRHA money earner Tim McQuay has more than $1.5 million in winnings; this year's NRHA Futurity winner will receive $175,000).
But to understand reining, what you really need to know is this: It's all about the dirt. Really. In fact, next time you're lucky enough to see somebody really good perform a sliding stop or spin, check out the dirt underneath that horse's hooves. If the reiner has succeeded in executing a perfect move, the dirt will provide the proof.
With the spin (usually done in sets of four facing one direction, then four in the opposite direction), the goal is a hole — right where the horse's pivot foot is planted.
What you're looking for after a sliding stop is a set of 11’s — "Two skid marks that are parallel with each other over a distance," says Jim Duncan, reining trainer, NRHA judge and president of the Arkansas Reining Horse Association (an NRHA affiliate). "You can tell by looking at the slide marks whether the horse is leaning to the right or left. And if it picks up one leg more than the other, that leg will tend to go out, whether they’re leaning on the inside of their hooves or the outside.
"For an average stop, without too much of a run, those marks will probably be eight to 12 feet, depending on the size of your horse. Pros want at least 20 to 25."
Granted, to get a good spin or stop, you've got to have more than just great skill (and, yes, first-rate reining requires some first-rate horsemanship). What you need is good dirt.
Good dirt, Duncan says, has about two or three inches of fluff on top of a hard pan — "So the horse doesn’t stub his toes once he gets through the fluff; the fluff also is like a lubricant. And there’s no leaves or pits in the dirt; it’s nice and smooth, nice and flat."
Bad dirt, on the other hand, is too deep or too hard. Bad dirt can decimate a horse's performance.
"In bad dirt, the horses will stub their toes or trot out," Duncan says; "They won't hold in to the ground and go for it; they’ll just walk out of it or hop and maybe get hurt.
"When they're running circles, it tires them out, so they don’t want to run. And they’ll dig into the spins and just quit on you because they get stuck, or it’s not what they want.
"You don’t want it too deep, because if it’s too deep, the horse tires out quickly when they're spinning; and if it’s too hard it becomes too easy for them, and they get overconfident.
Dirt that's too soft is just as bad, he adds: "Because if you get too much soft, the toes will start to go in like a shovel rather than glide over the top of it. In the ideal position, a horse will touch his heels down just a hair before his toes, which makes him slide better. But that’s not always the case."
In fact, bad dirt is a whole lot easier to come by than good dirt.

A Roller-Coaster of a Ride
So, dirt aside, just what is the appeal of reining?
"If you do it right, it’s a rush, the way a roller-coaster is a rush," Duncan says. "When you’re running to a stop, you say 'Whoa!' and the horse's rear end just falls out from under you. And you look over the shoulders of the horse, and you see the front end moving. It’s like, 'Wow!'
"Or you go to spin and you get thrown forward from centrifugal force. So you start bracing yourself a little bit better. You learn to balance yourself — to get deep in the seat."
But that rush isn't the only appealing aspect of reining — at least as far as Duncan is concerned.
"The appeal of reining — other than that it’s fast, slow, with quick stops and neat spins?" he ponders. "It’s much more down-to-earth than a lot of other show classes. Everybody’s willing to give you advice, and they’re happy for you when you make a good run and sad for you when you make a bad run. You don’t have to have a fancy saddle or a fancy bit or a fancy head stall; your boots don’t have to cost $3,000. You can show in a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, a straw hat, a Cordura saddle and nylon head stall. And if you go in there and score a 72, you get a 72; it doesn’t matter what you're wearing.
"Another thing that’s real appealing is that you don’t have to have a big-name breed of horse. At one time, there were 33 different registered breeds that had a competition license in the country."
A lifelong "closet cowboy," Duncan eased into reining in 1990, after setting his sights on team roping.
"I knew [roper] Bobby Hurley from school," he recalls, "But I was in the Navy, so I couldn’t team rope because it took cows. I also knew a cutter, so I thought I’d get into cutting. Well, guess what? It takes cows.
"So I was going to horse shows, and thought reining was really neat. It didn’t take cows, and you did all these different things. You got to run fast, you got to run slow, you got to slide, you got to spin. All the maneuvers are basically the same as cutting and roping. It was just a good way to get into horses and not have to mess with the added expense of cows. With reining, you can just go out in the backyard and stop and spin and run circles.
"Also, cutting is too expensive for me. To get a cutting horse that’s going to win for you, you need to spend between $25,000 and $30,000. You can get a 4- or 5-year-old reining horse that’s going to take you to the Saturday night shows, so you’ll enjoy them, from between $3,500 and $7,500. That's a big, big difference."
When Duncan returned to Arkansas in 1993, area reining was still in its infancy.
"In these local Saturday night shows, there were one or two people who had some decent horses, and they were trainers," he recalls. "And they'd place five horses, and you could show up on any given night and show up in the top five, regardless of what you brought.
"There were no real stops and hardly any spins. And you might actually get a zero when you scored, but you'd still place because you were somewhat better than the other person."
The times, however, are a-changin'.
"It's grown; there are a lot more people," Duncan says. "Also, when I first got back here, you'd pay $1,500 for a horse, maybe. Now, it can be $7,000.
"Last year, we would ride from 12 to 14 people every Saturday night [there are 12 shows in the State Association show season, which goes from April to the finals in August], and you had to fight for fifth place. Now you go to the finals at the State Show, and you'll see 150 entries in the arena. It's the same number of entries, but the quality has gone up — it's gotten very competitive."
Unlike the state association competitions, which are strictly for points, the Arkansas Reining Horse Association shows are for prize money. The ARHA produces two shows in April and a backyard show in September. There’s also an Oklahoma NRHA-affiliate club, a Southwest club and a Mississippi club. The affiliate finals take place in Springfield, Ill., in October.
Duncan says what draws folks to ARHA shows is the love of the sport — and the camaraderie of the club.
"There are people who’ll show up at our shows who can’t afford more than $800 for a horse, but they’re there and they’re having fun," he says. "As the president, I try to keep our entry fees low so they can come and have fun and watch a good ride."
The reason Duncan loves reining: "I like competition," he says. "I like to do well. It’s an ego trip, to a certain extent — if you do it right. It’s difficult. It’s fun.
"And it's become a way of life. As trainers and judges of the NRHA, we sell a way of life."
And what's that?
"Good horses, good judges and good dirt."

Reining Explained
Tips for the Newcomer
By Jim Duncan

Learning About Reining
Reining is becoming one of the hottest equine sports in the world. It combines speed, agility and a lot of control of your horse. Does it get you excited, or make you a little too uncomfortable even to try it? It does look really neat when a horse slams on his brakes and does a sliding stop that covers 10 to 15 feet. To sit on a horse with it spinning in place looks like fun.
For the first-timer, it’s both exciting and scary. You want to do it now, but where do you start? The first place most people start is with a book. There are a bunch out there (mostly how-tos), but the one that most people buy is the Al Dunning book from Western Horseman (Western Horseman also has his videos that follow the book). Each maneuver is described to get you the best results. The videos give you a visual of what these maneuvers are supposed to look like.
OK, so you have a horse you’ve just bought because it was inexpensive and you liked the way it smiled at you. The person who sold him to you said it neck-reined real good. You start doing the things in the book and trying to follow them to the letter, but the results are not quite the same.
Time goes by and you’re starting to get something that looks like a spin and a stop. There’s a local Saturday show, and you’re ready. Nervous but with all the confidence in the world, you go in and start your pattern. The horse won’t spin. You start kicking and pulling and everything else you can think of trying to do to make it happen.
Finally, you get through the spins and start the circles. He picks up the wrong lead, all the circles are the same speed, and you’re pulling on him to slow him down. Somewhere in there he gets in the correct lead, but now you have to change leads. No can do. You stick with him, knowing that the pattern is almost over with and that you’re a good rider.
Now you have the stops and rollbacks. You’ve practiced this; this you can do. Oops, he takes off, and you pull with all your might before you get him to stop, but now you’ve hurt parts of your anatomy you’re not going to discuss with anyone. Oh no, you have two more stops!

Tips for the Newcomer
Your ride may never be this bad, but you can avoid a lot of the pitfalls of riding your first pattern by getting help from someone who’s objective. If there’s a trainer in your area you can go to, go. Buy the books and videos first, because that gives you a reference. Not all trainers follow the same teaching methods, so what it says in the book may not be what the trainer does; however, it does give you a reference or gauge.
Your horse is of prime importance. Almost every reining horse has a hole in its skills, with few exceptions. By that I mean there will be one part of the pattern he will not do as well as the rest. If you and your trainer can deal with it, that shouldn’t be a major problem.
In any horse-related activity, the horse is the cheapest part. Don’t skimp when you buy your mount. Buy the best you can afford at the time. Take someone with you who knows horses, and ride the horse — have the trainer ride the horse. Go home and think it over. If you’re a beginner, stay away from young horses that are good prospects. Even though they may be a good buy and you think you can learn together, it doesn’t happen that way. If you don’t know what you’re doing, how are you going to teach your horse?
The other side of the coin is that you want to show sometime this year. So you send you to a trainer who knows reining. It normally takes eight to 10 months of training to get a horse ready to be shown successfully on Saturday nights. (If you have ambitions of the big time, you’re looking at 18 months.)
Trainers charge an average of $500 a month, plus shoes and vet bills, and you aren’t getting to ride or show this horse. You do the math. If you can look down the road, you like challenges and don’t mind the setbacks, a young horse may be what you want.
In most cases, people who purchase trained horses don’t start winning regularly until they work with a trainer. I know very good riders who’ve taken average horses and enjoyed the Saturday night shows, but even they benefited from a horse that was well trained before they purchased it.
Can anyone show? Yes. Do you have to win every class every time to enjoy reining? No. Just running to a sliding stop is addicting. How do you get better if you can’t afford a trained horse and trainer? Ride what you have; you may just luck out and have a good one. And there are a lot of reiners out there who will answer your questions. Even the non-professionals at the Saturday night shows are getting well-educated. Ask questions. It couldn’t hurt, and it might just help.

Jim Duncan, the president of the Arkansas Reining Horse Association, is also a reining trainer and a NRHA-certified reining judge. If you’d like to know more about reining, you can reach him at (479 )641-2444.