Article by Mirjam Stillo, with Abigail Boatwright
Photos by Abigail Boatwright
Improve your horse’s collection for a smoother, more balanced and eye-appealing lope with these tips from NRHA Professional Mirjam Stillo.
The lope is the most important gait in reining. It is the gait in which we perform most of our maneuvers. The overall picture you present to the judge includes the way your horse performs maneuvers at the lope, and how smoothly and willingly it guide. These are connected to how your horse carries itself.
Our horses needed to carry themselves properly to perform maneuvers correctly and in a manner that is pleasing to watch. This is how they receive credits from the judges in the show pen. Not all horses carry themselves correctly at a lope, and that’s where we as riders can encourage them to be more balanced.
To learn more about how to teach and improve your horse’s collection visit this link or flip to page 48 in the August 2020 Reiner.