Medicine Lodge Valley, Dillon, Montana

Drawreins

We know what the drawreins do in appearance but do people know what the feeling of draw reins is to a horse.

With drawreins they look like the green or the orange lines in the photo.

• What do the green and orange lines look like?
  ~ A pulley.

• What is the function of a pulley?
  ~ It brings an object away from where it is to a point in which it is in the middle of two points of pulling with greater force.

• The parts in the photo are numbered 1, 2 , and 3.
  ~ 1 is one end that is tied to a solid object - cinch/girth or the saddle ring
  ~ 2 is the pulley block - the bit ring.
  ~ 3 is the end that is equal to one power by itself - the riders hands.

• By attaching 3 and go through 2,
  ~ 1 has twice the power to influence the object attached to 3.
  ~ It changes the direction of the object and the force on the number 3 end.

  Now how the object moves to this is what the stickler is.

• (Use in conjunction with the first photo) If you had a broken log and you attached the pulley(2) on to the front of the log and tied the solid end to a stationary object (1) and used a pulling back force (3) we'll say a tractor that could not pull the log if hooked with a single straight line or had great ease using the pulley system.

• The broken log symbolizes the jaw or the poll.

• 4 is the bit ring

• 5 is the mouth/poll

• 6 is the rest of the body.

• In A there is no forced tension yet.

• In B the pulley pulls on the attached object as the object gets pulled the broken log receives tense where it is broke.
  ~ The broken section cannot follow the front half, because the pulley could not help the back half of the broken log.
  ~ In C the front half of the log (4) is where it needs to be but the broken half (6) is still in the same location as in A as nothing helped it along.
  ~ The space in-between (5) is separated at a great distance.

  

  Try the drawrein action on yourself.

• One person being the horse and the other is the rider.

• Use one long string as the reins and run through your mouth acting as the bit.

• What happens with your head?
  ~ Feel the tension on the jaw and top of the neck.

• What does the rest of the body feel like?
  ~ Tension in the shoulders.
  ~ Nothing is a developed rising. But all a put in to a placed position.

• Now relaxed round yourself.
  ~ There is no tension with the jaw.
  ~ The neck muscles and vertebra are rounding comfortably.
  ~ No tension in the shoulder.
  ~ There is stretching all around

© Donna Hildreth 1998 - 2009
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