Riding with reins in one hand

[Naiad]

After reading that post with the article by Thomas Ritter about Losgelassenheit, I ended up looking at his instructional videos...

His web site had an entire video about the advantages of riding the horse with the reins in one hand. I found this particularly fascinating, as in my last riding lesson my RI had made me do this (mainly in walk, but a bit of trot) to stop my "cheating" with the reins to get around circles and patterns.   It was tough work at first, but Amigo and I quickly sorted things out. I find it really neat to see a video about this on Ritter's website just a few days after I had to do this! My RI does not sell herself as a "classical dressage" person (she teaches more jumping students than dressage, but works on their flatwork from a dressage viewpoint), but it does seem that most/many of her methods do fall under this category of classical training.

Just wondering if anyone else on here has been made to do the reins-in-one-hand thing with their RI???    

Ritter's video on riding with reins in one hand:

Riding with the Reins in One Hand 1-13-09

[catkin]

yes - I've had to do the reins in one hand with various RIs. I agree, it's jolly hard work until you get used to it! and scary how much you have been relying on your hands!

[Naiad]

So you had to do this too. 

It is also interesting how much less I rely on the reins to guide/aid after a warmup doing this kind of exercise. I might consider a 5 to 10 minute warmup with one hand riding for a few rides, to see if it makes a difference. 

[catkin]

Warm-up sounds a great idea, guess it should get you both in the right frame of mind...

now I just need to pluck up the courage to try it with a young Welshie

[Cloud_cirrus]

Yep, people do it a lot with PMG, CandyPony once had an entire weekend clinic one handed when she broke a finger!!

[ukica]

Don't forget Bent Banderup, also rides with one rein.

[Naiad]

So do you guys find one-hand reins a useful thing to sort out various issues? Does anyone know if Heather ever uses it in her rider training?

[Naiad]

Yep, people do it a lot with PMG, CandyPony once had an entire weekend clinic one handed when she broke a finger!!

What does PMG stand for?

[Roo]

What does PMG stand for?

Peter Maddison Greenwell

[Wendy]

Interesting. I like it. 

[Naiad]

Interesting. I like it. 

I found it particularly interesting that Ritter said it was his test for telling if someone is on the proper aids and ready for a double bridle.

[Cloud_cirrus]

What I like about it is that with the reins only in your outside hand you remove any temptation or weird out of body compulsion to take with your inside hand, particularly in lateral work.  I have to confess when it's not gone well to try and communicate with my horse via the power of thought, usually along the lines of 'will you just help me out here you b&gger' although to be fair to Max, once my body was in the correct position, he had no problem understanding what I wanted at all. 

[Naiad]

Last night I warmed up with walk spirals with one-handed reins.  We did amazingly well. Great contact and circles. The ride following the warmup was really great too - my hands were much quieter in terms of not relying on them to steer - I wonder if the warmup helped or just a coincidence?

[ukica]

Last night I warmed up with walk spirals with one-handed reins.  We did amazingly well. Great contact and circles. The ride following the warmup was really great too - my hands were much quieter in terms of not relying on them to steer - I wonder if the warmup helped or just a coincidence?

I bet it did help and had you more aware of your body.

[Naiad]

I bet it did help and had you more aware of your body.

Exactly!    

It almost felt like having a ridden lunge lesson. With my hands unable to do much (and Amigo took up a perfect contact, just as good as with two reins), I was walking this spirals very carefully and able to try adding a weight aid here or there, adding or not the inside or outside leg. It was this really interesting time to *experiment*. And I found that I was sitting so deeply in the saddle with good posture.

I *highly* recommend this if others have not yet tried it. It really seems to be working for me in terms of getting my weight/leg aids working - it gives me time to really focus on those aids and just ignore the hands.