I have had some friends complain about my decision to move our reiners to Holland.

Can I first explain that I am not in as good financial stead this year as previous years. Our trainer is moving on to new things and life is changing a lot.

To keep a reining horse in training in England costs at a minimum of £7k plus travel and show entry fees. By moving to Holland we are saving at a minimum £1.5k per horse.

Secondly there are many more shows to attend in accross the water with more opportunities to win money (reduce costs) than there are in this Country.

I do feel sorry for the up and coming trainers in the UK, but until organisations such as WES promote reining (they had 50 plus riders trying to run reining patterns on a rubbish surface) and accomadate the reiners in stead of driving them away, then these people will not experience the real thrills of riding a reining pattern on a good surface.

I was at the WES AGM, where there was a clear statement of suplus funds.

USE THESE FUNDS TO BENIFIT ALL MEMBERS. Or take reining off the agenda.

I have been quoted that there is only one stop in a reining pattern. To those that truly believe this, go and watch a proper reining pattern.

Stops separate the winners from the losers. Without them you may as well do a horsemanship class.

BR please take note, 50 plus potential new members. We now need more shows to accomdate them. Both NRHA and BR. The BR Champ show has no NRHA classes? I though that we had to join BR to stay NRHA members.

So now to compete in my next NRHA class, I have to go to Europe.

Vicious circle?

I want to keep my horses in the UK, but I can't. Its dearer, i have less chance to enter shows let alone win money.

WES cant support the reiners when there are so few of them that suppor tthe sclass it would be stupid to base the venue and entire show around one discapline when many people dont rein, there are very few surfaces in this country for hire suitable for reining all down south which adds to the costs of everyone coming from up north, i dont even live that far north and it took me seven hours to get to Morton Morell, it would of taken me two further hours to get to cambridge and even more to get to summerset.

If you are bothered by money problems, why keep your horses under a trainer constantly, its not necessary and is very expensive when you could be doing the job yourself

You have missed the whole point.

There are a large number of reiners and would be reiners within WES.

Either accomdate them or take reining off the agenda.

As regards money troubles, again you have missed the point. Reining is expensive. Showjumpers moved offshore for similar reasons.

A reining horse that has any chance of becoming sucsessful requires vast amounts of training time. It takes a minimum of 18 months to get a horse ready for major competition and even then you only have a chance.

My arguement is in defence of why I have chosen to move my reiners to Holland. as i have been subject to criticism over my decision.

It sounds to me like you have made a business decision about the best place for your competition horses, I don't think you are the only one to come to that conclusion and I'm not sure you should feel you have to justify yourself.

On the plus side there are a number of people investing a lot of their resources (money/time/sanity!) to provide good venues as the sport grows and I hope that as these venues fully open that people will support them by attending shows/clinics etc which in turn will bring good competition horses and riders to the UK scene.

Thank you. That is entirely the point I have been making.

I hope that one day it will be feasible to return them home.

I don't see why anyone should complain, they are your horses after all. When I was in Germany earlier this year, there were lots of UK horses there in training with Ilan for competing in Europe and for coming back to compete here.

I for one, would like my horses closer to home so I could watch their training and feel a part of it. Some of the trainers here also produce world class reiners, but it is always a personal preference on training styles.

Good luck.

As far as the WES reining - everyone has to start somewhere and it is a perfect place to gain confidence learning a new pattern. I remember your first trys at reining!!