Horse Illustrated Magazine

The sport of Reining will return to the U.S.A. in Lexington, Kentucky this fall with the Alltech® FEI World Equestrian Games. It is the largest single sporting event in the United States since the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. It is the homecoming for the western sport of Reining, the only western discipline featured at the Games September 25 – 30. The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA), proud sponsor of the Games, is excited to give equestrians the opportunity of a lifetime with the first-ever “Ride a Reiner.” “Ride a Reiner” will be held throughout the duration of the Games September 25-October 10 in the John Deere Reining Arena.

In an area just inside the main entry, NRHA will offer “Ride a Reiner” test rides to WEG spectators in the John Deere Reining Arena. For those who have some riding experience, “Ride a Reiner,” will give them the opportunity to enjoy a dizzying spin or even a sliding stop on a well-trained reining horse. NRHA alliance partner and WEG reining breed sponsor, the American Quarter Horse Association, will offer breed test rides, as well.

Thanks to NRHA Corporate Partners, MD Barns, Kiser Arena Specialists and John Deere; the rides will be conducted inside an MD Barns open-sided arena. The arena will be constructed on what is now a parking lot at the Kentucky Horse Park. The arena base and special reining surface will be brought in by Kiser Arena Specialists and maintained by John Deere.

The arena will also play host to demonstrations from NRHA and AQHA professionals on world-caliber Reining horses – as well as American Quarter Horse riders from other disciplines.

For information on “Ride a Reiner,” e-mail cmorris@nrha.com. More details will be available on nrha.com in the coming weeks.

Reining at the World Equestrian Games

Freestyle Exhibition
The Reining Freestyle Exhibition will take place on September 30, 2010, after the final round of the Games’ world championship reining competition is complete. This freestyle competition will not be part of the world championship competition, but will be a separate ticketed event. With its sponsorship, NRHA makes possible, for the first time in Games history, the addition of an exhibition Reining Freestyle event to the overall event schedule.

Television Coverage
The Reining Horse Sports Foundation is proud to partner with AQHA to enhance television coverage of Reining during the Games. In addition to the 600,000 spectators expected on-site at the World Equestrian Games, millions more will have the opportunity to watch on NBC Sports as the network provides an unprecedented six and a half hours of coverage over three Sundays. It’s the “largest major network broadcast of equestrian sport in U.S. television history,” NBC said in a press release. Watch NBC September 26 at 12 p.m. Eastern, October 3 at 1 p.m. Eastern (immediately following live coverage of the Ryder Cup golf tournament) and October 10 at 4 p.m. Eastern.