In 2016, Andrea Fappani shook up the reigning world by winning the NRHA Futurity in romal reins; not a common occurrence in the reining pen today. But perhaps we are starting to see a shift? Here in Arizona at the Cactus Reining Classic, I noticed more and more people showing and schooling in romal reins. Traditionally, most reiners will school and show in a pair of nice leather split reins. With the ranch riding classes taking off across the industry, romal reins have become more of a hot topic, to romal or not romal is the new question. For the west coast horsemen, romal reins are a little more common than perhaps on the east coast. In an article released in the NRHA Reiner magazine of February of this year, Fappani explains why you might consider using romal reins instead of traditional leather reins. “the main difference between showing in roman reins and split reins, one-handed, is that the horse feels the reins on his neck a little more than he would the split rein because of the hand placement”. If you’re thinking about showing your horse in romal reins here are a few things to consider.
-Emily Bomgardner
Want to learn more about using romal reins? Check out these great resources:
http://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/index.php?i=380893&m=&l=&p=76&pre=&ver=html5#{"page":78,"issue_id":380893}
https://www.dmtack.com/what-everybody-should-know-about-romal-reins/
http://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/?i=117399&article_id=1107676&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{"issue_id":117399,"view":"articleBrowser","article_id":"1107676"}
Pictures Courtesy of: https://www.quarterhorsenews.com/qhn-insider?start=20