Tall and Skinny Bitches

Okay, so the title may be a trifle harsh...but who cares. No matter how great of a rider I become, I will never look as good on a horse as those tall and skinny bitches. I hate them for it. I'm a hell of a long ways away from being skinny. But at one time in my life I was. Other times I have been "shapely", occasionally I was "pleasantly plump" but for the most part I have been a "larger woman". The point is not so much about weight, which is after all in my control. It is all about the leg. Long, skinny legs that seem to wrap around a horses body and pick them up from underneath, the short torso that seems to flow and blend right into a horse. More often than not, I feel like humpty dumpty with two trunky legs poking out either side of an egg shaped body. How many top dressage riders have you seen with long bodies and short stocky legs? Zip, Zero, Nada.

Thank God for reining. If Tim McQuay can get it done, anyone can. This man cant be over five foot and is half as wide as he is tall. Reining horses are notoriously small, more like ponies but his legs don't reach half way down their sides. His saddle has to be about an 18" western. I wouldn't dare make fun of this man. He holds the number two spot for most money and titles won in reining. His daughter is not nearly as wide across the middle but she is the most winning Non-Pro rider in history. I actually feel like I stand a chance in this sport.

I use to dream of jumping and then later, of barrel racing. I wanted to ride in an equine sport that was OBJECTIVE not SUBJECTIVE. I hated the idea of judges that were subject to all sorts of biases. In jumping, if you run the course in the shortest time and knock down the least amount of fences, you win! Barrel racing, same deal, the fastest time wins. You could be three hundred pounds in an Aussie saddle riding a $500 off the track Thoroughbred but if you got the job done, you could win. I loved that. It gave us little people hope. I tried jumping. I loved it. I soon figured out that while it is possible, as slim as that possibility may be (pardon the pun), to win while riding in and on the fore mentioned horse and saddle, it is next to impossible to maintain your self respect while doing so.

On to barrel racing I went. While at upper levels there is every level of snobbery found in any other sport, for the most part, anything goes. What didn't go, was me. By the time I found my way to barrel racing, it turns out I wasn't such a speed junky as I had thought. You can not be thinking, "Holy shit!!! Slow down!!! Oh my god, don't fall!!! Easy, whoa!!" and win at barrels. It aint gonna happen! Here in Canada, the barrel crowd is for the most part of mixed social economic backgrounds. In the States it was a bit of a different story. I didn't fit in at all with all the Bubbas' and girls with Lee in their names. I had to many teeth to qualify. Now who is the snob?

I had this book at home by Western Horseman on Reining (written by Al Dunning.) I had read it but had never actually seen a reining pattern run or ridden a reiner. I was still thinking of giving barrel racing a go. I figured I could always loose a few teeth along the way. I went to see a horse for sale that was a huge grey gelding, built and bred for speed. My legs didn't reach half way down his sides. He was pluggy, dopey eyed and sweet. A far cry from the wild eyed, adrenaline filled barrel horse I was looking for. I thanked her for her time and went to leave when she said she had another horse for sale at a barn down the road. It was a reining horse. Had I any interest? I thought of the book I had read, cringed at the idea of judges and politics, the snob factor and all of that, but couldn't resist seeing in real life what I had read about.

The first thing I noticed was that all the horses were small. Bonus! Most had cute, short faces, compact and powerfully built bodies and huge asses. Now these horses I could relate to! The mare she had for sale was named Roxy. She was a plain bay three year old Peppy San x Doc O'Lena bred mare. She seemed so quiet and soft eyed, it made me feel quiet and peaceful to be around her- so much different than the feel of barrel horses and jumpers.

I explained to the trainer about my lack of experience and was surprised at how friendly, helpful and easy going he was. He gave me my first reining lesson on this mare and helped point out the finer points of what we were doing and why. I had only a limited amount of lessons in the past and had never worked on equitation. I started to grasp that there was a lot more to this reining thing that big fancy stops and spins. I was instructed to put my hand down and keep it there. To ride with my leg and seat. I had never ridden a finished (or nearly finished) western bridle horse before. I simply had to think about where I wanted to go, and she would carry me there. When he set me up for my first spin, and this horse let loose underneath me, I was hooked.

I never looked back. Reining has little do with brawn and everything to do with suttle and supple guidance. It is about touch and feel and explosive but controlled energy. Since that day I have watched and learned as much as I could about the sport and am pretty well versed in both the positive and negative aspects of it. I cant say that it is always balanced. I own a reining horse and have her with a trainer that I trust is fair, loves horses and hates a cram and jam method of training. She is young and still wants to have fun. She still asks a lot of a horse but never more than what they are willing and ready to give. She saves their bodies as much as possible and takes them down the road or out on the trail once or twice a week. They are turned out every day. She was not easy to find. We often talk about the horrors we see at shows, the horses with the blown minds and bodies. As much as I will admit whole heartedly that it exists in reining, anyone that argues that it is not as prevelent in jumping, barrel racing or any other equine sport is fooling themselves. People, money, and the glory of a win never, ever, bode well for the horse.