Sandy Collier is a Western reining world champion and ‘Reining Essentials’ is a straightforward, sympathetic guide to her techniques and methodology. Sandy helpfully begins by explaining that reining can be described as ‘cowboy dressage’ because horse and rider need to perform a series of circles, turns and stops in a fluid and effortless manor. This guide teaches these manoeuvres.

Reining Essentials is very easy to read with appropriate colour photographs and diagrams throughout. It is progressively written and is divided into four distinct parts. Part one discusses how horses learn, choosing the right horse and selecting the correct equipment. Part two moves onto rider position and the ‘seven essentials’ that the horse should know including walking a perfect circle, backing up, moving off you leg and ‘Whoa’. Part three and four then deals specifically with reining manoeuvres and competition. Sandy Collier believes that when training you should always set the horse up to succeed and to train through cooperation not force. This philosophy is evident throughout the book. She gives detailed descriptions of each manoeuvre, how to set the horse up to perform it and finally troubleshoots any problems you may encounter.

If you are new to western riding or using this book to enhance another discipline then the western phraseology and different tack will take some getting used to.

Anyone interested in western riding and reining will probably be buying this book but I would recommend the book to anyone interested in ‘natural horsemanship’ or those who want to consider another approach to the basic training of their horse.

Samantha Wakes

FdSc Sports Horse Management & Training, Nottingham Trent University