As a teacher it is really the last thing you teach, because you can’t educate a rider’s hand until the base is correct. Until all aspects of the rider – the body, the seat, and the legs – are in the correct position, and until they are riding horses that are well-schooled enough to understand and react to the correct aids, you really can’t begin to teach the subtleties of an educated hand. An educated hand is sophisticated and belongs to a rider who knows how to properly give rein aids and how to deal appropriately when the horse is resisting for any number of reasons.

You start teaching educated hands at the beginner level by instilling good basics. Teach riders from the start to keep the elbow bent and the hands the same width apart as the horse’s mouth. At the lower levels especially, it is essential to teach the “feel” of following the head and neck with elastic arms, which incorporates an element of bend in the elbow. Riders then gradually learn to go from leg to hand, because it isn’t an educated hand as much as it is an educated leg. (Remember that the horse should always be in front of the leg.)

Other than the functional positioning of the hand itself, getting good hands comes from experience. I believe there are very few young people who put in the time to get this experience. You start by making sure the riders keep their hands out in front and then you teach them to move the horse from the leg up into the hand. Hopefully, you can mount riders on horses that are schooled to the aids and gradually they become a well-educated rider, but the hands are the last piece that falls into place.

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