THE PROPER WAY TO HOLD YOUR REINS

[Music] all right here with another tip of the week for you this time I want to talk about how you hold your reins I've gotten a lot of videos in with folks with different issues and stuff wanting to show me how their horse is doing or things that they'd like to work on and and I've noticed a lot of weird different ways of holding the reins what I want to talk about today is with split reins in particular for any western discipline the legal way to hold them and is in one hand unless you're in a obviously a snaffle bit class where you can hold two but you have to have that first finger right in between the reins and then the rest of your fingers all the way around so about like this and that way you can adjust with your thumb so I do it with my thumb my first finger can adjust that outside rein or I can slide down the same way or if I need to shorten the outside rein I take these two the first and second finger here and I can slide like so it's kind of one of those things that it's gonna feel real funny at first to you practice it a ton you know when I was a kid I'd sit with those reins in front of the TV and practice adjusting those reins because it makes a huge difference when you're working with your horse and you need something to happen right here right now you don't want to be part of that problem of why you know you didn't get the reaction you were looking for now taking it a step further you know a lot of times when we're riding especially at home we need to switch from one hand into what you'll see most professionals do is they'll both let's say I want to switch to two hands right now I will take my outside hand or my left hand like my free hand grab that left rein and then I'll just kind of reach down slide this hand down these tail of the reins grab down on that right rein so now I am set to where I can go two hands easily and then if I want to go back to one I simply drop the other hand off and now I'm back into one hand I'll maybe have to make a small adjustment with my fingers to get the length I want but it makes it real quick and easy so your trainer says hey go to two hands what most folks are doing now is they're crossing them like this and it takes forever for them to get all set and by the time they're set that issue that you know if it was a timing thing guess what you've already missed your time so practice it like this if you're gonna ride you know right one hand right one finger in between those reins when you want to switched it to slide that right hand down it's going to hold the tail of the reins and the actual direct rain I write right-handed so my right hand grabs right rein obviously left hand slides down grabs left rein where I'm even now I'm ready to go now if you're writing a cold and you're not worried about showing it off it's all styled and there's no right way unless when you're showing there specific rules if you like to hold your reins crossed up like so that's totally fine sometimes I like to ride like this kind of gives me just a little different feel I typically am doing that on two-year-olds and then this way it makes it obviously very fast to go to two hands I just simply just put my other hand on slide as much slack as I want till it feels comfortable and then I'm ready to go then if I want to go back to one I just simply drop that other hand off get them even ready to go so that's another way of holding the reins but the main one is what I showed you first when you're riding around one hand split reins sliding that hand down very fast and easy just switched it to practice it practice it practice that I just made that look really easy like you know I take it for granted I do this for a living done it all you know every day since I was a kid you got to practice that but it's a huge deal you know help your trainer out you know help yourself out help your horse out that you are efficient with your rein management you know you guys saw another tip we talked about rein length this is about you know training on your horse being able to seamlessly and efficiently switch from one-handed to very very easy thing I think though if you practice it you'll be surprised at how much that will help you are you looking to step your game up perfect all you have to do is go to Matt mills rainy calm it's only 24 ninety-five a month sign up today because the key to success

Channel: Matt Mills

Views: 49,014

Keywords: how to hold your reins when riding a horse, reining horses, horses, Matt Mills reining horses, horse training, riding horses, how to ride a horse, horseback

Id: n2ZlmKCLSZw

Length: 4min 58sec (298 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020