The communication between rider and horse can be complicated at times. Learn how to hold the reigns properly to communicate with your horse from a horseback riding instructor in this equestrian video.
Reign through correct fingers
Ride with thumbs up
Straight arm line
Bite hangs loosely
Kathy Kentala has been a horse enthusiast since she was six years old. Kathy owns the Bee Cave Riding Center in Texas and specializes in training youth groups.
The communication to the horse, all of those things that produce the outcome that we're hoping to achieve is complicated at times because we are working with a living, breathing animal that has a mind of its own. That's probably the hardest part that most people encounter when they first begin to ride. Our rider is going to show us how we hold the reins and create that effective position that puts you in the driver's seat and it makes a nice partnership or a harmony between horse and rider. If we start out with the reins held correctly in the rider's hands, we're going to have that rein coming through between the baby finger and the ring finger and up out and through the top. The thumb is pressed down firmly on the rein in the same way that you might have to use your thumb to play a game boy or some other kind of a handheld game because it is what they call the most important digit on your hand when it comes to riding a horse that gives your hand a very strong and effective position. We ride with our thumbs up. We often tell children it's like you're holding two ice cream cones in front of your saddle. We want also a correct and straight line from our elbow through and to the horse's mouth. There's much to be said about how the horse response to that position. The rein end or what they call the "bite" of the rein just hangs loosely off to one side and then the rider sits up tall with that hand position correctly placed so then we can be more effective with what we call "half halts." A half halt is that where we use our fingers rather than full-hand movement to communicate to the horse. So this rider could be riding along getting a lot of good outcome without anyone ever seeing the hands move if our hands are held correctly on the reins and we're effective with our half halts, that position where our fingers do more of the talking than our hands.
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