ANSWER:
In order to establish a good rein contact, you have to have a deep, supple, balanced, straight seat. Otherwise, you interfere with the horse which will then cause the horse to brace and resist against you. Your pelvis has to be vertical. Your thighs have to be rotated inward in your hip joints, so that the inside of your thigh is flat against the saddle, and your thigh doesn't roll around on the adductor muscles. Your hips have to be very supple in order to allow the horse's back and hips to move freely.
Your midsection (abdominals, obliques, and back muscles) have to be well toned, while your glutes have to be relaxed. You control the motion of the horse with your midsection. A strong, well toned midsection connects the rider's pelvis and legs to his shoulders. It also connects the rider's aids to the horse, and it connects the horse from back to front, because both the impulsion of the hindquarters and the rider's aids have to travel through his own midsection in order to arrive at their destination. If the midsection is too weak, it becomes like a black hole that swallows everything. Neither the energy impulses from the hind leg can go through to the bit, nor the seat and rein aids can reach the horse's hind legs in that case.
If your hips are stiff and locked, they can literally stop the horse. This would create what we call a "leg mover", a horse whose back and hips are locked and stiff, who only uses his lower legs. When the horse's back is locked, it will not allow the rider's aids or the energy impulses of the hind legs travel through, either.
Your upper arms have to be connected to your torso, and your elbows have to be connected to your hips, so that your hands become a link in a chain. The rein contact should not be limited to your hands and the horse's mouth, in other words, it should not end in your hands. Instead, you should feel the horse's hind leg in your hand, and you should be able to feel the horse's mouth - however lightly - in your abdominal and back muscles. Then you and your horse are connected. Your wrists have to be soft and supple. Your fingers should feel the horse's body through the reins, so that there is a live connection, as if the rein were made of flesh and blood. Dead, stiff hands, wrists and fingers will always result in a dead, stiff, and bracing rein contact, no matter how "light" the contact may be.
If your elbows and upper arms are not connected to your torso, the rein contact will enter your body at the shoulder level, which allows the horse to use the leverage of your torso against you, e.g. by rooting against the bit and pushing his croup up, which renders your seat and rein aids completely ineffective.
If your elbows are connected to your hips, the rein contact will enter your body at the hip level, which allows you to use the leverage of your torso and head in your favor, which makes it impossible for the horse to root against you. This way, your seat and rein aids will be quite powerful.
The correct rein contact requires a certain tempo on the horse's part. If he is going either too fast or too slow, he can't "find himself", as we say. He will then be stiff and on the forehand. When you have found the optimal tempo, in which the horse can use his body best, you can feel that he is finding his balance, he relaxes, and your aids come through better.
The well toned midsection, in combination with supple hips, connected elbows and supple wrists also ensures a steady, yet live rein contact. An intermittent contact, on the other hand, that can so often be observed, is caused by stiffness in the rider's hips and wrists, which is usually accompanied by a weak midsection.
The correct rein contact furthermore requires that both hind legs step underneath and flex equally under the combined weight of the horse and rider. As long as the horse is strung out behind, or as long as one hind leg steps sideways of the center of gravity, a good rein contact is not possible. Some horses are especially intolerant for crookedness. They need to be aligned very precisely on the track you are riding with their hips and shoulders. If their shoulder drifts just one inch or less to the side, they invert. As soon as you straighten them again, they come on the bit.
You can sometimes use a leg yield on a circle at the walk to bring the inside hind leg more underneath and to improve the bend. Turns on the forehand in motion will also help. Afterwards, the horse should be lighter and more on the bit than before.
The more you advance in your riding, the more you realize that any stiffness in the poll, the neck, the shoulders, the back, the belly muscles, or the hind legs will have negative repercussions for the rein contact. That's why you could say that the rein contact is an indicator for the quality of the horse's overall training, and in order to achieve the best rein contact, you have to balance and straighten your horse, and you have to remove all stiffnesses from his body.
- Thomas Ritter
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Last Update: January 13, 2007