Horse Riding Skills: Indirect vs Direct Rein- More than Mechanics

 Rein usage- The Indirect vs Direct Rein Practice

What you'll need:

Chair, desk/table, string ( or something similar such as baling twine, clip-on reins, etc.), strainer/pot with two handles, something slightly heavy- box of rocks, etc.

Attach the "reins" to the handles of the pot or strainer.

Place the box or weighted object in the middle between the pot and where you are sitting- with it resting against the pot.

Sit in the chair with your forearms resting on the table, and hold the reins as you would when you ride with your thumbs up.

The pot is your horse's head. The weighted box is his neck.

Indirect rein:

Starting with your hands parallel to one another, draw the right rein in towards the "middle" (or your left).

Watch the pot's right handle over-rotate to the right and then it will start to move back towards the box.

Imagine if this was the horse; his head would be overturning towards the right and then his neck would be shortening towards his right shoulder. The pressure from his head pushing into his neck would cause a diagonal weight onto his left shoulder, causing him to compensate by moving his right hind leg up under his stomach, and stepping towards his left side to maintain balance.

If you have heard "disengage the hindquarters" that is what you are doing with an indirect rein.

An indirect rein does NOT affect the quality of the steering- which comes from the direction of the horse's head and his shoulders- POWER comes from the hind end.

But nine out of 10 people have been taught to "ride correctly" by limiting the movement of their hands when they steer.

This was fine for when horses were clear in their initial training and were able to respond to minimal rein pressure.

Unfortunately, nowadays most horses are defensive towards pressure, especially that of the reins. So because they are unclear, unsure, or unwilling, most lean on the reins and do not respond to a minimal "direct rein" (explained next) and therefore the human unintentionally resorts to an indirect rein for not wanting to move their hand in an exaggerated gesture to get the horse to turn.

The other "masking the missing piece" is if the horse doesn't respond to the initial rein aid, then folks use their legs to steer the horse.

The root issue or problem is the rein should be able to direct the horse's thought and attention, so if he is avoiding being mentally direct-able, he becomes physically resistant.

By "fixing" this through applying leg pressure and getting the horse to "yield" may achieve moving his body to a specific location, but it never changed his thoughts. This means he will continue to leak, drift or move towards wherever his thoughts are.

This makes the rider feel that they have to keep "containing" the horse to get him to move wherever they would like. If there is a lot of open space, this may not feel that bad. But when it comes to riding somewhere specific, this is when folks start to notice that if they are starting with a lot of "containment" they have to be increasingly attempting to contain the horse with their aids. The more they ask of their horse can quickly become exhausting and usually creates a lot of "critique" in how the rider is using their aid.

Direct Rein: 

Starting with the pot centered, a weighted object in the middle of the pot.

Gently open the fingers on your left hand so that you don't unintentionally limit the degree of "turn" you are asking for to the right. You will see a slight rotation in the pot, but then it moves in an arc towards the right.

Shorten your right "rein" and draw your right hand towards, or the direction you would like the "horse" to move towards.

This would be your horse's head, first turning towards the right, and then his neck, shoulders, etc. moving forward towards the right.

As the horse finishes the turn, you'd let out the length of your right rein.

I suggest using a table to place your forearms on to learn how to use the reins without "contorting" yourself (breaking your wrist inward, curling your wrist inwards, over-rotating your thumb, hand, and wrist as you use the rein.)

Many folks because of a lack of clarity between indirect and direct rein usage and also inappropriate rein length (i.e. they don't adjust the length of their reins to adapt to what they are asking of the horse) wind up compensating with the rest of their body. Most unwanted hand movements lead to riders leaning with their upper body, bracing from their neck through their shoulder, then forearm, and then clenching their fingers on the rein, causing them to sit unevenly in the saddle and "gripping" with their lower leg for balance.

Evolving quality: As you begin to experiment with refining both how you use your rein and how your horse responds, the degree to which you "move" your hand will decrease, so that over time it may be less than a half-inch difference between a direct and indirect rein.

I frequently have to ask folks to "exaggerate" how they are using their reins so that they learn to a.) break old habits with their hands, b.) learn to feel the difference between a direct rein (the horse following the feel of the rein pressure), versus yielding to the rein pressure- or indirect rein.

Can I ever use my legs to steer?

Of course, AFTER you have the basic ability to influence and re-direct the horse's thoughts, influence his energy levels, move his head separate from his neck, shoulder, rib cage, and hindquarters. You'll need to be able to confirm that he is not defensive towards pressure- rein, your leg, or any other aid.

By having these pieces, you will be able to first direct his focus, emotion, and energy and then you can refine the quality of the horse's movement with your leg's aids.

Have fun practicing!