Photo by Jennifer Rautine
The Horse recently published an interesting article about a study done in the UK with riders and their perception of rein tension. Results from the study revealed that most riders are not very accurate in their awareness of how much contact is between their hands and the horse’s mouth.
“There is a significant different between actual and perceived rein tension,” said Hayley Randle, PhD, researcher in the equitation science department at Duchy College in Cornwall, U.K. “And this is the most important message: If you’re the rider and someone’s telling you to do something, how do you know what you’re actually doing? And more importantly, as the trainer on the ground, how do you know that the riders actually comprehend what you’re telling them?
“This could give some insight into why there may be some difficulties in training,” she said during her presentation at the 9th International Society for Equitation Science Conference, held July 17-19 at the University of Delaware in Newark.
In their study, Randle and colleagues fitted a dummy horse head with a bit, bridle, reins, and a rein tension gauge at two different national equestrian events in the U.K. There, they asked 261 volunteers (all riders of various levels of experience) to estimate their usual rein tension level on a scale of one to eight (with one being the least amount of tension), for each hand, three times. They then took up the reins to create their “usual contact” with the bit, and the researchers measured the actual rein tension on the same one-to-eight scale.
Most of the participants were amateur riders, and about an equal number of dressage riders and show jumpers. When judging their “normal” rein tension, riders often greatly overestimated their pull — in reality, they had a light contact (perhaps a “1” on the scale) whereas they told researchers it felt heavier (perhaps a “3”). On average, the dressage riders guessed their contact more correctly than the jumping or pleasure riders.
The study also noted that most riders had a heavier contact on their right rein, than their left… not terribly surprising, as most of us are right-handed. However, it is something to note when you think your contact is even — is it, really?
The article continues with more thoughts on the elusive concept of contact:
An Internet search or a look through equitation books will yield a wide variety of definitions for “contact.” In a nutshell, it’s hard to describe, hard to teach, and hard to agree about what it is, exactly, Randle said. And this might be the source of problems related to contact—a lack of shared understanding about this somewhat fundamental part of equitation. “The big question is,” she said, “do riders really understand what we’re going on about?”
The study results suggest they might not.
“The way forward will not only include better training and communication between trainers and riders about what rein tension and contact should mean (perhaps using a rein tension gauge), but also an acceptance that we are not always right,” Randle said.
“Sometimes we like to hold on to our perceptions” she said. “If we do want to improve our riding, sometimes we have to learn to let go in terms of changing our behavior.”
The best riders in the world have an intuitive understanding of contact — it’s just a “feel” that they don’t even have to think about. I’m not even sure it’s possible to scientifically quantify their awareness of this feel … it becomes a reflex reaction, muscle memory, whatever you want to call it. But it is interesting to think about. Read the full article here.
