07/28/2026
Logic as to why we, as Centered Riding instructors, pay close attention to the balance of a rider's pelvis
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One of Egon von Neindorff’s favourite sayings that he repeated countless times in every lesson was: “Light hand, friendly hand, the hand is always ready to give.” This sounds great. But how do I do that? How do I keep my hand and forearm muscles so relaxed that there is no residual tension and no backward traction on the reins coming from my hands and arms?
The answer is the seat. The hand is only as good as the seat. If the seat is balanced, stable, and supple, the arm and hand muscles can relax. If the seat is not balanced, the rider will have to seek stability through the hands by balancing on the reins.
When the seat is balanced so that the rider’s pelvis, spine, shoulders, and head are stacked on top of each other like a tower of wooden building blocks for children, the upper arms can hang from the shoulder joints, and the forearms can create a connection with the pelvis and lumbar spine.
This feels as if our forearms and hands were attached to our pelvis, rather than our shoulders. The rein contact that the horse takes is then transmitted from our elbows to our hips, and from our hips to the horse’s hips, bypassing our shoulders. It allows the rein aids to become a part of the seat and weight aids. The forearms feel like extensions of the hip joints going forward to the bit, similar to the femurs that drop down from the hip joints and create a connection to the ground.
If the hands are not part of the pelvis and lumbar spine, the rein contact will travel up the arms to the shoulders, which creates tension in the entire arm.
A good way to check how light our hand really is, is to try and relax all muscles in our forearms and hands completely, so that we are no longer holding onto the reins with our hands, but let them lie in our hands.
Überstreichen, i.e. completely releasing one or both reins for a few strides will also tell us whether we were pulling on the reins or holding them with too much tension. If we were holding the horse together with the reins or pulling on the reins, the horse will invert or speed up when we release the reins. If we release the inside rein and the horse loses his bend, it’s a sign that he isn’t balanced yet, and that the previous bend was achieved by pulling on the reins, rather than balancing and straightening the horse.
