One common struggle I see riders having is keeping their hands quiet and in the correct position. They either carry their hands too low, too high, or too wide and in general move their hands around way too much. When we’re riding, we want to focus on riding back to front and using mostly leg and seat aids, but this can be a challenge when as humans, we’re naturally hands-on and we do everything with our hands. So what can we do to fix this and have quieter hands?
In this week’s video, I wanted to show you a cool hack called “bridging the reins”. This awesome hack will help you become more aware of what your hands are doing when you’re riding. To bridge your reins, you will create a circle with your reins so that you are holding both reins in both hands (don’t worry I will demonstrate in the video!).
Once you have your reins bridged, ride around for a few minutes, and see what happens! Can you feel how the reins provide resistance when your hands move too low or wide? Or when you go to give a rein aid, how they only let you give smaller aids?
I find that riding for a few minutes with the reins bridged really helps make you aware of what your hands unconsciously want to do when you ride, while still giving you enough freedom to make small corrections if needed. Plus, it helps you use your reins correctly so that you can maneuver your horse more easily. I learned this technique in a recent clinic with Ingrid Klimke. It really helped the riders find a steady soft contact.
After your warm-up, try riding around for a few minutes with your reins bridged and let me know how it goes!
Happy Riding!
Amelia
P.S. Need more help with keeping your hands quiet at the trot? Check out my Free Before the Sitting Trot PDF with five tips to help you improve your trot work in preparation for the sitting trot. You can download it here.
