But since "free reign" has been about since 1834, there's about a 40/60 split between "reign" and "rein", and both make the same sense, I don't think anyone except daft old prescriptivists would care now, do you?

https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/03/26/rein-or-reign...

I'm not sure I buy that argument - according to the article it's a 20/80 split between "take the reigns"/"take the reins" with about the same number of samples. In that case, "take the reigns" seems egregiously wrong, and I question either the statistics or the sampled population.

> In that case, "take the reigns" seems egregiously wrong

But still understandable with the kind of context - "take the reins" and "take the reigns" would be imply "take control", no? (Sure, it's clunky, but that's English for you.)

It is understandable and doesn't "effect" my comprehension, but that doesn't mean that the net "affect" is equivalent or desirable. :)