The Art of Riding
A SERIES OF ARTICLES BY BERT HARTOG

Part 7: Rein Contact

When we create impulsion with our legs we need to guide the horse with our reins.

One cannot let the horse run away at will, to go where-ever he wishes. We need to tell the horse how fast to move forward and the direction in which we want him to go.

The ideal way to have the most sensitive rein contact is to put our fingers in the horse's mouth. This, of course, is impossible, therefore we have a bit with reins.

Some people avoid having rein contact because they say: "The mouth is soft and therefore rein contact is cruel."

Is it not just as cruel to put the saddle on a horse with a 'tight' girth around his ribcage and to bounce up and down on his back...? When we want to 'ride' (control), we need some tools with which we can control the horse. The tools we have available are our legs, hands and seat.

With our legs we control the quarters, with our hands the forehand, and with our seat the top. How we use our seat (upper body) has already been discussed.

Rein contact can be compared with 'holding hands' with the mouth. When in love, one holds hands firmly to have more contact. When we hold the hand of a child in a busy shopping centre, we have to hold on firmly or they slip out of our hands and go to the toy shop when we want to go to the supermarket. You can hold those hands quite firmly without causing any pain.

Similarly the rider can have quite a firm contact with the mouth of the horse without causing him any pain, if we follow the movement of the mouth with our hands.

Let us now have a look at the horse in motion:

WALK

With every stride of the front legs, the head of the horse moves forwards and backwards. Forward when the shoulder moves forward and back at the end of the stride before it is taken forward again with the next step. We need to follow this movement with our hands, arms and elbows.

The rider must keep a straight line between the elbow and the corner of the mouth: this means that he must take his elbow backwards and forwards. Imagine the reins finish at the elbow, not at the hand. When the head goes back and the reins go slack we take our elbows back. When the head goes fotward and the horse tugs at our hand we allow our elbows to be taken forwards. whetever the horse is moving his head, the contact with the mouth remains the same. This is not easy.

To get a good feeling for rein contact ask a friend to help you. Ask your friend to stand in front of you (without a horse) and unhook the reins from the bridle. Let your friend hold one end of the reins and you hold the other end. close your eyes and rely on the feeling in your hands only. Find a firm contact with your friend's hands through the reins (too much is better than too little) and follow him/her 'passively' as he or she moves his hands backwards and forwards. When you are able to keep an even contact, without taking initiative, try it on the horse.

TROT

The head of the horse is standing still in the trot but we are moving. In the rising trot we move our seat up and forwards and down and backwards. Generally our hands move with our seat, however we must keep our hands standing still in relation to the horse. If the seat goes up our hands must go down - we straighten the elbows a little. When the seat goes forwards, the elbows go back, and the body seems to go a little past the elbows. (Remember: the reins end at the elbows) The arms of the rider must become independent of the body.

In sitting trot this is even more difficult. The rider can help himself initially by holding on to the saddlecloth until it is a habit to keep his hands still.

CANTER

The canter is a series of small jumps. When the horse starts the stride (jump) the neck gets shorter and the head comes in. When the horse finishes his stride the neck gets longer and the head goes forward. It is a movement similar to the walk. Again our hands must be independent from our body movement - our elbows are the ends of the reins.

Do not rock in the saddle as this makes it more difficult to have independent hands.

Faults that most riders commonly make when learning to maintain rein contact are:

a) Not following the mouth far enough back. The horses head moves back more than our hands (elbows) - this causes flapping reins and the inevitable bump in the mouth when the horse takes his head forwards again. This may cause the horse to throw his head about.

b) Holding the reins with the fingertips. The reins must be enclosed by a closed standing fist. The reins must be on the first knuckle of the ring finger. The rider must learn to feel the contact with a different part of the finger and develop sensitive arms.

The first time the rider takes up the reins and finds contact with the mouth, he will find that the horse will slow down. He needs to push the horse more forward from the leg in such a way that the horse, as it were, starts to tug at the reins. The saying is 'Push your horse into your hands.' When the rider pushes too hard, the horse will start to pull. When the rider does not push hard enough, the horse will not step into the bit.

Personally I think that rein contact is the most difficult concept to learn.

It is difficult to do it just right, and it needs a lot of practice before it is mastered.

The rider must be in contact with the mouth at all times.

First one must learn to follow the mouth passively before starting to use the rein contact effectively. But when we use it, it must be in harmony with the movement. It must be appreciated that there is a direct relation between the rein and the shoulder on that side.

A rider with sensitive hands will feel the front legs moving forward because the increased pressure in his hands, left and right.

On the other hand, when the rider applies more pressure in one hand, the front leg on that side will take a shorter stride, and the horse will appear to be lame. The lameness is caused by our action, not by pain: the horse is what is called 'bridle- lame'.

Many riders take uneven contact, because they are right or left handed. Although we may have a firm contact (let's say the weight of half a kilo) the contact must be positive and allowing. If the rider is negative in the contact, the horse will make shorter strides, it will start to jam his shoulders.

The horse must not be pulling and wanting to run on. The horse can only pull, of course, if we are pulling back. He must go slowly so we can push him forward into our hands. (This is a subject of another of my articles, 'The seat and its influence').

Our hands must be allowing, we may often say 'Stay there', and slow down the horse, but then we must allow the horse to go forward at a speed and rhythm designed by us.

To the novice rider there is often little difference between pulling and rein contact. The answer is in the rider's shoulders.

If we use the wrong muscles in our shoulders, the muscles in our shoulder blades jam up. To be able to use the right muscles the rider must carry his hands correctly. The hands must be upright with the thumb on top. The elbows near the body with the upper arm hanging down. There is a slight bend in the wrist. With the hands and arms in this correct position, the rider will now be using his biceps. These muscles are much stronger than those in the shoulder.

Just try!

Sit on your horse and ride with flat hands (as if you were playing the piano), you will find that the elbows go out and you start to use the muscles of the back of your arms and shoulder blades.

Now turn your hands upright, let the elbows fall next to the body and let your shoulders fall down and back.

Now see which muscles you are using. The muscles of the biceps are stronger, therefore they can exert more strength without tensing. They are also more subtle and can give and take more easily. The horse likes firm leadership. In the wild they follow the order of the herd happily. If we provide the horse with benign guidance he will happily submit.

If the rider's hand is always calm, steady and firm, the horse will get confidence in our hand. When the contact gets lost the horse will look for the rider's hand. This is needed when we want to ride the horse on a long rein in our warming up period. This is certainly necessary for the lengthening of the stride.

In the lengthening we push our hands a little forward, the horse reaches for our hand and lengthens his frame. This enables him to free the shoulders.

There is a direct relation between the bit and the shoulder in the negative as well as the positive sense. So on the other hand, when we have to get tougher from time to time, the horse with confidence in our hand, will accept this stronger contact, without throwing the head about, jamming up and becoming stiff gaited.

There are times when the contact is quite heavy. Tfie horse needs us for support, particularly in the early stages of submitting the jaw (going on the bit) or with lengthening. However when the horse starts to carry himself with newly developed muscles the contact will become lighter again.

To conclude this difficult article, I would like to say that in my opinion, the horse finds mental and physical support in the contact. He will be looking as much for us as we are looking for him when the contact gets lost. Some mouths are harder than others, so don't be afraid of contact, as long as the hand of the rider is allowing.

"A good hand is the one that can resist and yield when necessary and receive with precision the action created by the legs." said Solomon de la Broue

Have a nice ride!

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"Hi, I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Let me tell you; they are just a point of view. I did not invent horse riding or dressage. I wrote them to share my experiences in training horses with other riders. Tell me what you think!"

My email address is bhartog@horseridingcoach.com