Bridging Your Reins Gives You (and your Horse) Security

When I started eventing, way back in 1983, one of the first things my trainer explained was how to bridge my reins. She had me use the bridge when galloping: it gave me more security, gave my horse a constant, steady contact, and kept the reins from slipping through my fingers (or being pulled through by a strong horse).

Bridged reins offer security.

Since then, I've found that I use the bridge a lot. It's very useful when you're hacking and want to hold the reins in one hand, when you want to keep your hands quiet, when you're riding a strong horse, or when you want to keep yourself from pulling back. I still do this sometimes when I'm approaching a fence. If I bridge my reins and put my leg on, it keeps me from trying to fuss with my horse to find my spot.

Bridging the reins is accomplished by crossing or folding the slack in the reins, then placing that fold across the horse's neck. You then press down on either side of the horse's neck, removing any slack from the reins. The bridge is held approximately where the neck strap of a martingale or breastplate would be located.

While bridging your reins is a fairly simple maneuver, there are also several products available that make it even easier to switch back and forth between bridged and unbridged reins. They are probably something I should have bought years ago: it would have saved my trainers from yelling "shorten your reins" about a million times!

The Bridging Rein provides a permanent bridge between your two reins making it easy for the rider to switch back and forth from bridged and unbridged reins.

Two that I've come across that both get very good reviews from users are:

Mailer Bridging Rein Shown in the image to the right.

4-Star Bridging Reins