An easy to make horse
training device in Congress,
Arizona horse trainer
Twister Heller's bag of
tricks is the "Cowboy
Draw Rein." This
device is especially useful
on horses that want to whirl
and run, such as "barn
sour" horses, those who
shy excessively, want to
come off the ground with
their front feet, or any
other spoiled behavior where
the horse is normally able
to take its head (and control) away from
the rider.  These draw reins help the
trainer or horse owner to
ride their horse correctly. They are used to
get a horse to push its body
forward, become collected,
develop the correct head
set, and stay soft in its
mouth. If you lope a horse
with draw reins, it is easier
to set its head, put its
body forward, and keep its
neck down to turn around.
The draw reins Twister
uses are made from a set of
7' split reins riveted
together in the middle and
with snaps attached to the
free ends. They can be made
from 9' split reins,
unattached in the middle,
but since their use with
another set of reins takes
some getting used to, the
rider who is not used to a two rein bridle will
probably get along better
with them attached in the
center. Twister uses a
bridle with a ring snaffle
bit and an attached set of
split reins. The draw rein
is snapped to the front
cinch ring on one side, run
through that side's snaffle
ring on the bit, back around
the saddle horn, through the
ring on the other side of
the snaffle bit, and back to
snap on the other front
cinch ring.
Twister says that if you
have too much trouble with
all four reins, you can use
just the draw reins. You may
apply downward pressure
using the draw reins to make
the horse bend at the poll
and maintain collection, or
you may use them to snatch
the horse if it tries to
turn or flee
inappropriately. Last winter
Twister used the draw reins
with amazing effectiveness
on two separate horses who
liked to whirl and flee, one
when scared, the other,
because he was barn sour.
Problem horses usually
learn after a number of
rides using this device that
they cannot resort to their
favorite bad behavior and
then a rider can graduate to
the "Cowboy
Martingale" and
hopefully eventually won't
need any aids. If the horse
reverts to its bad habits, reride the horse for another
period of time with the draw reins.
One caution, however, even
though a horse may overcome
a bad problem in most
circumstances, if something
really scary happens it may
temporarily revert to the
behavior out of primitive
reaction.
The draw reins are not
used to overpower the horse,
but to achieve correct head
control with less effort
from the rider.
Twister encourages a
common sense approach to
horse training. The aids
mentioned here are neither
elaborate or expensive. They
do augment the rider's
ability to control and to read
the horse. As with any
training advice, use them
with care, and if you are not confident with them consult your horse
trainer.
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