Your Horse review
Your Horse rating
YH Editor, Julie Brown, says:
Carl Hester gave me these reins at Your Horse Live last year, as he thought they might be useful for my horse Boris – I was struggling to keep him in a consistent, soft outline. I sold Boris shortly after but recently I’ve been using them with my young mare Vespa. Being a baby, she sometimes tries to use my hands as a prop, particularly if she’s a little tired. To stop this and to make sure I wasn’t making it worse by pulling back, I thought I’d give these a go. The reins have an elastic insert that gives slightly, allowing for a soft feel. It’s impossible for the horse to take a hold which, in turn, makes sure the rider isn’t being too heavy either.
The results weren’t instantaneous but after a few sessions I definitely saw the benefit. Even if Vespa did try to lean, she
wasn’t able to, and a nice soft contact ensued. They aren’t dressage legal, so Vespa needs to learn to take a nice soft contact no matter what reins I’m using, but I find that if I have a schooling session full of leaning and pulling and everything else fails, then using the reins really works. I can highly recommend them as a training aid to be used when needed.