How are your hands supposed to be?

[winterbalto]

Ok, I was always told that when you are holding the reins your hands are supposed to be with your thumbs up. Well I have a friend that holds them more sideways, with their thumbs more on the side. I've also seen a few pictures on this site where people hold their reins like that. Is one way wrong or is it just a matter of style?

~Nicole

[wildponies]

Ideally they should be on top. I feel more comfortable with them more 'sideways' :) I don't really think about it, that's just the position my hands naturally fall into when i'm riding.. probably just a bad habit! :)

[Keket]

Proper position for the hands is as thought you're "holding two glasses of wine and don't want them to spill" as my instructor tells me. I find this near impossible to do while holding a crop though...

[Eli_Jay]

thumbs on top is ideal. however, i personally have problems with that because i ride with a dressage whip (which rests over my inside thigh) and therefore my inside hand is tilted to accomodate the whip.
you should hold your reins like two cones of ice cream.

[Just.Jump]

in general riding I hold my reins like I'm driving a shopping cart and resting my thumbs horizontally on the bar. When I'm asking for a stop from a lope or a rein back I usually turn it into... uhh... as if I'm holding onto two verticle poles. But not always. Whatever works and doesn't get a finger ripped off will do :p

[jUmPingIsLifE]

thumbs on top. if you hold your hands parallel to the ground your elbows will lock.

[Funky MeerKAT]

Thumbs should aways be on top, will soft wrists and soft heavy elbows, there should be a straight line from the elbow, through the wrist, along the riens and to the bit.

[colouredcrazy]

Ideally thumbs on top. My hands have forgotten this though because I ride with bridge reins alot, and it's impossible to have thumbs on top with bridge reins!

Ellie

[chev]

Riding with your hands as if you're pushing a pram will mean that you don't have as much give there, and you won't have as soft a contact. I guess if you're riding Western it won't matter so much (different degree of contact anyway) but certainly in English riding holding your hands with knuckles on top rather than thumbs usually results in a more inflexible, stiffer contact.

[Wally]

If you get into the habit of "pram pushing" hands when you come to use two reins you'll snooker yourself as it is impossible to get the correct action through double reins if your thumbs are not uppermost.

[Just.Jump]

I've never actually seen someone in real life ride with the proper hand position :eek:

[chev]

Erm... I do. Always have. And both my girls do (they're 6 and 7 years old). The last pic I posted (riding Willow, on the thread about draw reins) shows my hands fairly clearly. :)

[Wally]

If you ride my horse with pram pushing hands he will not thank you for it one little bit.

[chewitmonster]

I'm pretty sure I ride correctly as well! :rolleyes: My instructor would certainly have told me if I didn't...he looks my hands a lot - forever telling me to close my fingers around the reins! :o I'm improving...slowly, but I definately have my hands in the right position.

[Wally]

Now I ride with an open hand, so I can squeeze the reins and have a better "feel" through the reins. If you hold your reins in your fist you will have a very unforgiving feel-less hand.

[Bay Mare]

I've never actually seen someone in real life ride with the proper hand position :eek:

Erm... I do. Always have. And both my girls do (they're 6 and 7 years old).

Erm, yes, me too! I may have other faults but that isn't one of them.

[chewitmonster]

Now I ride with an open hand, so I can squeeze the reins and have a better "feel" through the reins. If you hold your reins in your fist you will have a very unforgiving feel-less hand.

See thats what I say! :rolleyes: I guess I'm not really holding the reins at all...or so it looks. I think my instructor is saying that I should take up at least SOME contact because I can't seem to tell my fingers to wrap round the reins! :rolleyes: But still feel the same as you! xxx

[maren]

erm, i always tell my students to hold their hands parallel to their horse's withers...i tell them not to have "ice cream cone holding" hands, but i don't like horizontal hands either....i guess like thumbs up, but hands still slightly turned in. i feel that completely vertical hands looks rather ungainly. i did read somewhere that following the angle of the horse's withers was correct, but i can't think what book...maybe george morris' book? :o

[ANN H]

I've got into the bad habit of holding them sideways, but was told by my instructor on Sat. that the thumbs should be on top with the fingers closed around the reins, and what a difference it makes!

[ajhainey]

Maybe I'm just a freak but I seem to have a lot more 'give' with 45 degree hands than vertical hands. If I put my hands vertical as they are supposed to be my elbows lock out - even if I'm not holding anything (like just sat at my desk now). They also *cough* run into my chest if I need to pull back...Unless I put them out to my sides like a scary weightlifter, which puts them about 18" apart...

So I've given up and pram push with pride :) If I have them horizontal or at at halfway angle they seem to be fine so I figure go with what works...I wonder if it's something to do with using a keyboard so much - you are always 'giving' to get the the keyboard keys with hands held horizontal..

aj xx

[Just.Jump]

I've learnt to have very light hands and aids anyway, so maybe that makes up for it? =P What I meant by I've never seen it in real life is that I don't go to my barn and see people riding like that. To me it feels and looks like riders can really crank back hard if they've got vertical hands, which is dangerous in case you get rough by accident, but for all i know I'm talking garbage about what I don't know :rolleyes:

No horse I've been on is bothered, so perhaps my lightness compensates. I too follow the horses shape, because when I ride bareback my hands naturally go alot lower and rest on (at a walk) or just above the shoulder area. My english coach hasn't changed my hand position either, and niether have the ladies who's horses I used to ride- one specialized in english and the other in ednurance. So Either way is acceptable around here. It's more hands placement and movement than wether their vertical, horizontal, or in between.