“Stop pulling on the inside rein! Let go of the inside rein!” How many times have you heard that from your instructor? I have heard it over and over again early on in my riding. But I never really understood what all the fuss was about. I felt like I NEEDED to pull it!
But now I understand that pulling on the inside rein really throws your horse out of whack. And the need to pull on it is actually a symptom of a greater problem. Keep reading to finally understand what this dilemma is all about!
#1 Pulling On The Inside Rein Jackknifes Your Horse!
A horse is supposed to move along sort of like a train on tracks. Unless you are doing certain lateral work, the horse’s legs should stay on the track and the body should follow. Just the way a train graciously goes around a curve. The butt end of the train follows in the same track as the front end. The horse should also flow in this same manner, but when you are unnecessarily pulling on the inside rein, you are derailing the train!
Think about the mechanics: When you pull on the inside rein, you end up pulling the horse’s nose (and head and neck) to the inside. And this causes the outside shoulder to pop out. So now the horse is not straight in the body and this will affect his line of travel.
See the picture below: The horse’s shoulder is extremely popped out!
The photo above is an extreme example. But even more subtle pulling can cause similar effects. The horse basically becomes jackknifed, like a semi truck trying to make a turn! Then the horse’s weight is pushed out to that outside shoulder and your end result will usually be the opposite of what you were hoping for!
Common Examples Of Jackknifing
On A Circle
Imaging you are riding on a 20 meter circle. For some reason your circle becomes an oval because it feels like your horse is being sucked outward on one half of the circle, or near a particular corner. When you feel your horse edging outward, your natural reaction might be to pull him inward. That seems to make sense, so you pull on the inside rein to guide him more inward. But that doesn’t work! He keeps drifting out! But why?
Because you are pulling on that darned inside rein! You see, the reason the horse was drifting out in the first place was because he had too much weight on his outside leg and shoulder to begin with. So when you pull on the inside rein to ‘fix’ this, it actually pushes even more weight onto the outside and makes him pop out his outside shoulder even more. So your problem snowballs and gets worse! Your horse will lean wherever his weight is being displaced.
To fix your circle, you need to get his weight off of the outside so he’ll quit drifting that way. So instead of pulling on the inside rein, you need to use your outside rein instead! Counter-flex the horse with the outside rein to move the shoulders over toward the inside, then he’ll stop drifting out.
In A Leg Yield
Another example happens when riders are doing leg yields. When the front end of the horse isn’t staying parallel with the wall and is getting out ahead of the back end, rider’s tend to pull on the inside rein to correct this. So when the horse’s front legs are reaching the wall faster than the back legs, your gut instinct might be to pull on the inside rein in order to pull the horse back into alignment.
Imaging if you are leg yielding to the right, and the front end is diving to the right, leaving the hind legs trailing back left. So you go with you instinct and pull on your inside(left) rein to pull the horse’s head back to the left to be inline with the hind legs. What happens? The horse’s head does in fact go back to the left, because you pulled it there, but the front end of the body keeps diving to the right. But why?
Because you are pulling on the inside rein! By pulling on the left (inside) rein, you are actually popping his shoulder out to the right. This puts his weight more onto the right, and off he goes, drifting even more to the right!
Instead of pulling on the inside rein to pull the horse over, you just need to half halt on the outside rein to slow the horse’s front end in order to let the hind end catch up. Learn how to ride a perfect leg yield here!
#2 Pulling On The Inside Rein Blocks The Horse’s Inside Hind Leg!
Reasons #2 and #3 both go along well with this statement: When you are pulling on the inside rein, the horse cannot “hear” your inside leg!
The inside rein is always working in conjunction with the inside hind leg. So when you are pulling on it too much or too hard, the horse’s inside hind leg will stop reaching far underneath his body. No matter how hard you are kicking him with your leg!
Again: When you are pulling on the inside rein, the horse cannot “hear” your inside leg!
This problem may manifest itself as a horse not ‘coming through’ or just not moving forward enough. Many of the movements we perform require an active inside hind leg that reaches far under the body. So when you are hanging on the inside rein, the horse will shut down his inside hind leg. This often makes your efforts seem useless and your movement flat.
Yes, we do need to use the inside rein at times, but we cannot hang on it. Use it, then lose it! When you learn to release your inner rein at the appropriate times, your horse’s inside hind leg will flow through freely and you will get the results you are looking for.
#3 The Need To Pull On The Inside Rein Is A SYMPTOM Of Your Your Own Inside Leg Not Being Effective
#3 also goes along with this: When you are pulling on the inside rein, the horse cannot “hear” your inside leg!
In this situation, the horse is not hearing your inside leg when you are asking for bend. First of all, we must acknowledge that bend is not created by pulling on the inside rein. Bend is created with your inside leg.
So if you are asking the horse to bend around your inside leg by applying the appropriate pressure with it, and you are too busy hanging on the inside rein, it will not work! You will be creating a false bend, but not a true, through-the-body bend. The bend in the horse is mostly created through the ribcage, not the head and neck.
This problem usually occurs like this:
Imagine you are riding on a 20 meter circle and something just doesn’t seem quite right. The horse is not really arching around the circle and you feel like his head is not staying flexed to the inside. So your natural instinct is to try to flex him to the inside using your inside rein. That seems like the logical answer because you can clearly see that his nose is a little poked out and you can’t see his inside eyeball. And you know that for a horse to be properly flexed, you need to just be able to see his inside eye.
So you fiddle with the inner rein to try to flex his jaw/nose/head to the inside. It’s works for one split second…and then his jaw/nose/head flings back out! So you keep doing it and his head keeps boinging back and won’t stay put! The feeling that you get is that you NEED to pull on the inside rein or else you won’t be able to stay on the circle and you may even crash into the wall! Your instructor yells at you to let go of the inside rein BUT YOU JUST CAN’T!!!! But why?
That ‘feeling’ of needing to pull on the inside rein is really a symptom of something else. The real problem is that your horse is not really bending. And how do we create bend? Through the inside leg. So your ‘need’ to pull on the inside rein is really a false sense, and what you really need to be doing is using your inside leg instead!
When the horse is in proper bend, his head will automatically stay in the right place. You need to apply your inside leg and get some bend! But if you are still pulling on the inside rein, it won’t work! So get off of your inside rein and apply your inside leg. You may need to make a point about this at first. If you don’t get the result you are looking for, try a firmer bop with your inside leg or a gentle tap of the whip in that area. And make sure to catch the horse in the outside rein. Once you get it, the horse will snap into position!
So whenever you feel the need to pull on the inner rein, use your inside leg instead!
Test Yourself!
At almost anytime during your ride, you can test yourself to see if you are abusing the inside rein. How? At any given moment, just give your inside hand forward completely and see what happens. Does your horse’s body move as soon as you give the inside rein? Or does he stay exactly the same?
If you are riding well, in good bend, good contact and forward movement, YOUR HORSE SHOULD NOT CHANGE AT ALL WHEN YOU RELEASE THE INSIDE REIN!!!
If he gets all out of whack as soon as you give the inside rein, it means you were relying on that rein to hold him where in place. So try to get him back together without relying on the inside rein. Most likely, you need to establish a correct bend from your inside leg into your outside hand.
If the horse speeds up, or starts coming through when you give the inside rein, it means that you were probably blocking him. So stay off that inside rein to keep him going!
And if he suddenly straightens when you release the inner rein, it means you were probably making him crooked with your inside rein by popping out his shoulder.
Use Your Inside Rein Carefully and Responsibly!
The are indeed many fine-tune adjusts that we as riders can utilize by means of the infamous inner rein. But the inside rein can ultimately ruin your ride if you abuse it! Check out the last week’s article about all the common ways riders misuse their hands when riding and how you can use your hands correctly: https://therefinedrider.com/4-things-you-are-doing-with-your-hands-that-you-shouldnt-be-doing/
Keep Riding, Keep Refining
The Refined Rider
Watch jumper riders when their horse runs out. They almost always pull on the inside rein. Never helps bu they do it anyway.