One thing that I see happen a lot is that people tip way forward so they're like going along like
this, and they go to short in their reins and they do this and they like looking at their hands
to shorten their reins.... Hello everyone, I'm Amelia and today we are talking about rein length, helping
you figure out what is the correct rein length for your horse. Let me know in the comments if you tend
to have your reins too long or too short or if you feel like your reins are constantly growing. I
had a student one time that said she had growing reins which was kind of funny, but rain length is
a really important part of getting a horse round, getting your horse connected, so I'm excited for
this video. Be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel, also check out in the description box, I
have a free pdf download on the canter and we're also doing a 30 days to round challenge that you
might be interested in checking out. So the first thing that is important with your rain length to
understand is how to shorten and maintain your rain length so if you're here and you
want to shorten your reins what you're going to do is you're going to put both reins in one hand
you're going to slide down with the other hand and then you're going to take the reins back
and then if you need to shorten the opposite rain you're going to put both reins in your right hand
slide down your left rain and there you've got your rain length now how do you maintain this rain
length what you want to do is that you want to be pushing between your thumb and your pointer finger
to keep the rain from sliding out of your hand so i'm not gripping on the reins with my hands i'm
keeping the reins from sliding by putting pressure between my thumb and my pointer finger a lot of
times horses are really clever about getting the reins out of your hands like they'll feel you tip
forward or when things get hard they'll just kind of pull and get a lot of rain out of your hand
and this is bad because then the horse kind of is training you instead of you training the horse
so you always want to be pushing with your thumb onto your pointer finger and this will help you to
have that awareness i really like using rains that have stoppers or i also like thick rubber rains so
that i don't have to grip so much so throughout your ride you're gonna have to make a ton of
adjustments to your reins so for example i usually start my ride on like a completely loose rain and
just let my horse walk for you know a good five or ten minutes and stretch their neck and look around
unless they're unsafe to do this i like to let them go on a loose rain then for my warm up i take
them up and keep them a little bit long and low to start with so like as you move up the levels
and as you warm your horse up in general you're you shorten your reins more throughout the ride
so if i'm going along here and i'm going to shorten up my reins i usually shorten up my inside
rain first so i put both reins in my right hand i slide down my left hand i take light contact
now i shorten up my other rain one thing that's really important like when you shorten your reins
is that you do it gradually and seamlessly so if i'm going along here
and i'm going to shorten up my reins one thing that i see happen a lot
is that people like tip way forward to shorten up their range so they're like going along like this
and they go to short and their reigns and like they really like like they do this and they like
looking at their hands to shorten their reigns up so you can see how terrible that is and also
my horse stopped and he was like amelia like what are we doing here so what you
want to do is you really want to keep riding the rhythm of whatever gate you're in so here
i'm at the walk so it's like one two three four one two three four one two three four
when i shorten the reins i actually bring my hands forward so i kind of shorten up the reins now see
how my left hand is more forward my right hand is more forward then i gradually bend my elbows
close my leg to push my horse into that contact and now i've got him rounder to a shorter rain
so i'm going to go ahead and pick up the trot in general it's since the walk doesn't
have any impulsion you don't want to spend a lot of time like on a really short reign
at the walk especially if your horse is a little bit green or young
so here i'm just going around this is kind of what i would say
a good warm-up frame for him the way that you know that your reins are the correct length
is if you have your horse in the frame that you want
your hand should be just slightly in front of the saddle with contact so contact means that there's
tension on the rain basically like that i have the feel of my horse's mouth in my hand which i do so
i have contact my hands are in front of the saddle and i like the frame that i have with my horse
if my reins are too long here's what's gonna happen so if my reins are too long
now you see how i no longer have contact my horse is no longer in a frame and i also can't
really steer him very well because now that if my reins are too long i see this happen a lot where
people are like going like this and going like this and doing just like all this crazy stuff
to try and steer their horse and when you do this it throws you off balance too
so part of the reason that rain short rains are important is that it helps you find your center
and keep your balance so watch what i'm going to do when i shorten my reins hand right hand forward
left hand forward steady contact wait for him to accept it gradually bend my elbows and now i have
that ring length correct now what happens when you change direction so when i'm going on a circle
or a bending line i want my horse looking slightly to the inside if i change directions
i'm gonna have to shorten a little bit my new inside rain so like here i'm gonna have
to shorten a little bit my left rein so that now he's looking to the left
sometimes it it kind of depends like sometimes you can get away without changing your rain length
when you change direction so like for example if i change direction here to the right i was able to
get away with just kind of bringing my right hand a little bit back and i didn't have to shorten my
reign but also look at my hand position it would be a prettier picture if i shorten my right rein
and was able to keep my hands a little more forward and together so that's part of why
short reigns win gold medals as charlotte dujardin said is because when your reins are a little
shorter and your hands are able to be just like forward thinking here in front of the withers that
really allows you to do invisible rain aids where i can just kind of move my wrist and ring finger
and i don't have to do like a big like see-sawing motion or dis-wrap to my seat
in order to get my horse to be around the other thing that you can do like you've probably seen
me do a few times is if he pops his head up and like comes above the contact sometimes what i'll
do is i'll widen my hands this is exaggerated but see how i have a little more of a wide hand to get
contact on his mouth now i'm driving him on with my leg i'm saying go to the hand and then as he
takes that contact so now he's reaching his neck out now my hands are slowly going back together
so that i can get his neck to reach a little more out and stay round to the bit good boy good boy
good boy and then if i want to do a stretch circle i just gradually let the reins come out of my hand
and i'm no longer pushing between my thumb and my pointer finger because i want to allow those reins
to come out of my hands good boy jack so rain length is really important and it's important
that you get good at adjusting your reins without disrupting the rest of your body
it's also important that you always think about when you shorten your reins hands forward and
kind of push your horse to your hand because a big part of roundness is always getting a horse round
from back to front so it's like hind leg through the back into the hand it's not about pulling your
horse backwards from front to back and that's also true like moving up the levels as you teach your
horse collection and engagement you really want to get them sitting and engaged in their hind in more
lifting in their back and thoracic sling and then coming round and through to the contact
so i really hope this video helped you out and be sure to check out in the description below i
have a 30 days to round challenge coming up which is going to be fantastic so if you're struggling
with getting your horse round definitely check that out and be sure to subscribe to
our channel and yeah thanks for watching let me know in the comments if this video is helpful
bye