True! And the short answer is “it depends.” It depends on the horse and it depends what you are asking them to do. So on my giant, very on the forehand dinosaur, "touch of the rein meant closing my fingers and stopping any motion in my elbows momentarily. Touch of the leg to go was quick squeeze with the calf and ankle. Tonhalt, the rein touch was prefaced by holding in my core and lightly closing my thoughts - but didn’t go into that because it didn’t address the OPs question about whether the hands are moving or still
As the horse gets better balanced and better trained, he should respond to lighter aids, and as a rider gets more skilled they should be able to give consistent aids more lightly. So a well trained warmed up horse with a skilled familiar rider might do an upward gait transition with the brush of a calf and downward transition just by rider raising sternum, because horse has learned these reliably precede a more definite aid.
If the rider has a floppy leg or unstable hands or torso the horse won’t learn to distinguish the slight movement that precedes the aid from all the white noise and will wait for a bigger blunter more obvious rein or leg aid.
So the intensity and duration of the aid is really dependent on where that horse and rider are on their training path. And aids should almost automatically get lighter and lighter as the two of you develop.
Andrew Macclean was very definite that the seat was not a primary aid for training by negative reinforcement (which is how we ride, by taking away pressure when the horse obeys). Because you can’t reinforce your seat if the horse disobeys. But of course horses learn to do all kinds of things in response to deliberate changes in the rider’s weight. I think his point would be that if you raise your sternum every time just before you use your reins to halt, the horse will start to halt when he feels your sternum lift. Then the horse is indeed responding to your seat. And you can cease using the reins or use them less.
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The original point from McLean is probably just lacking context for you in this discussion. He never says ride withwno contact, he says don’t give a rein aid at the same moment as a leg aid. When people are first learning or horses are very green, this is very clear and the aids are well separated by a stride or two. Once both rider and horse are on the same page, this becomes much more integrated (maybe that’s the right description for it?). Ie you give a tiny subtle rein aid to half halt that could, on a well schooled horse, be generated by tightening of the core, an instant after release you apply leg to go up a pace or lengthen, and an instant later you half halt again to keep the the forehand up and balanced. These aids are so close together that many would consider them a single signal, but never are hand and leg actually simultaneous. Most (good) riders ride like this anyway, they just don’t always realise it can’t always describe it, nor necessarily train others to do the same
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We are used to hearing how to ride described by a rider. While Andrew McLean is most definately a very competent capable rider, he’s also a scientist and tends to present like a scientist in his lectures. Its a different way of talking about horses, aids and riding than most of us are used to. And yes, I recommend you buy his book!
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Answers will differ greatly depending on whether you are talking to someone who follows the German or French schools of thought, whether they are dressage riders or jumpers, and so much more.
My outside hand provides constant contact and accepts the energy generated by the inside leg. It moderates the bend created by the inside leg. It provides structure to what my other aids ask for, mostly by indicating length of frame. My inside hand holds the rein and keeps it from sagging. It moves away from the horse’s shoulder in an opening rein when I want the horse to turn or bend toward it, but it never pulls. My elbows become more or less flexible depending on the gait, and how much movement of the head and neck are required.
I have always used my hands less than most people, but my recently retired horse came to me 12 years ago with serious issues relating to his mouth and lack of trust in the bit, so he encouraged me to do as little as possible with my hands.
I’ve been paying attention to what the outside rein does and absolutely used as an indirect rein it is my primary rein aid to ride a small circle (a volte). It seems to be irresistible even when maresy is being uncooperative. She can just kind of fall into a halt on an inside opening rein but somehow the indirect rein doesn’t let her escape.
When she is being good she will turn off seat/thigh and just enough outside rein to regulate the size of the turn. When she is good she is very very good but when she is bad she is horrible 
but that outside indirect rein fixes her.
This is making me wonder to what extent the outside rein is always functioning more or less as an indirect rein, rather than just neutral contact
Doing a lot of trail riding where there is no inside or outside is different from an arena where you are thinking about corners ahead even on the long side.
I guess I never put enough thought into what my hands were doing. I have one trainer who takes lessons from the Charlotte group and she definitely teaches the Charlotte hands in her lessons, which has helped me a lot. My regular trainer that I ride with, I’m not specifically sure where her teaching comes from for hands specifically. Her mentor was a well respected classical instructor and she clinics with Conrad often. She has taught me a lot about having quieter hands in general and has helped me not throw away the contact but also not pull on the face, and even more so how to not brace in my elbows.
My hands were atrocious a couple years ago. I have video of me riding and my hands and arms are everywhere.
Then this horrible guy came along and stepped in at my old facility. He kind of taught everyone to go on a longer rein with the elbows way back. So basically you’re just always in the position of pulling on the horse’s mouth. That was just bad all around.
I’ve grown so much in the past year with my new trainer and my new horse… I still have ways to improve, but I was watching some video from a show last weekend and was really happy to see how much quieter my hands are.
This morning in my ride, I really paid attention to my hands and what happens when I’m riding. They are in one of two places depending on what I’m looking for- lower and giving, or up higher and in front of me kind of light the Charlotte teaching.
They talk to the horse at times, but mostly they have made a lot of ground in being quiet and staying off the mouth.
Riding is a conversation. Legs, weight and hands form the letters and punctuation.
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