How Not To Hold The Reins?

[Joy70]

picked up a copy of a horsey mag at the weekend, "horse & Rider" they didn't have "your hrose" there was an article in there with this woman giving someone a lesson and i couldn't believe what i was reading:-

she said that the girl in question had a tendancy to let her fingers I.E. little & ring fingers uncurl from the reins giving an inconsistent contact - am i wrong but it thought the idea was you held the reins over the top of the index fingers and your thumbs firmly on top to keep a contact giving the ring & lil fingers the freedom to curl & uncurl gently exerting pressure when needed  

[cptrayes]

Well there you are Joy! Shall we turn this strand into a list of other daft things that have been written in horse magazines? I vote for a British Dressage team member saying categorically "you cannot free a horse's neck if they have locked it by swinging the head from side to side". Oh yes you can! (is this a panto ) - I have to do it with one of mine often when he locks his very powerful neck against me, some showjumpers (particularly the continentals) do it every time they jump, and I've seen German dressage trainers do it on telly too!

I think you're right about the contact, but that's EE for you. Some other trainers think that you should have two fistfuls of rein held like iron and drive the horse up to the contact. That trainer must be one, I saw the article and thought the same.

C.  

[Millie]

Hmmmmm, yes this is a typical way that you will be taught to hang onto the reins, to give an unyielding contact. The way I describe in my book and which Joy has mentioned, by varying the tension on the reins with the fingers, is what Desi Lorent taught me, and it made a huge difference to my riding. It is very much the French/Portuguese way, and suits the Iberian horse, who I think would in general sit down, if you took the sort of contact that many dressage riders do on warmbloods etc!!!

In truth, the French/Portuguese way it suits all horses, but so many of them have been ridden on a very strong contact, that much of the sensation in their mouths has been destroyed.

Heather