Thursday Video: Stick Horse Reining

We’re not sure exactly what we’re looking at, but it looks amazing.

We used to “horseless horse show” a lot when I was a kid — it was the go-to activity for bedraggled 4H leaders who were tired to trying to get a room full of hyped-up horse kids to focus, and when I was a volunteer camp assistant it was a good way to wear all the kids out before sending them home at the end of the day. (It was also a good way to hang a leg over the giant wooden coop jump and eat a faceful of arena dirt.)

Later, as a horsemanship and reining coach, I drew on that golden age of horseless horse showing to help my students remember their pattern: if we all trotted out to the parking lot and walked/jogged/loped horsemanship and reining patterns alike, the students rarely went wrong.

We’re not entirely sure if this is a fun wear-out-the-kids activity that we’re watching, or if the growing sport of competitive hobbyhorse is branching into the western world, but this unmounted reining has got to be on the most impressive patterns we’ve ever seen: not only does this individual lay down some plus-one maneuvers, but he captures the stylistic details of a champion reiner to a T.

I’d mark this one at a 73, 73.5. Go reining! And go riding.