Interesting article:
http://www.eurodressage.com/2018/10/17/classical-training-how-much-weight-should-we-have-reins?fbclid=IwAR1e_69cTmoRnA0bFZqxo_IAailV8t75Nc5TtmktZTrKRWKdAwMvqS_EQiA
Especially interesting is the suggestion for elastic reins.
That is super interesting. My horse thinks itās a lot of fun to lean on the bit, specifically at the walk, so I have learned how to ride him butt down, shoulders up and that has made a huge difference. I donāt really focus on how much weight I have in my hands, but moreso activating his hind legs and getting his shoulders up. That lightens him without me having to do anything different with the reins.
I think solely focusing on how much weight we have in our hands can be detrimental. At times, when my horse has learned new things that have impacted his balance, he has gotten fairly heavy because he is overpowering his balance. As he gets used to said new things, he learns how to do them in self-carriage. But if I demanded he be light in the bridle and in self carriage 24/7, he would be exhausted and I think itās a bit unfair to have the highest expectation when learning something new. Lightness is achieved through hind leg activity and self-carriage so really we should be focusing on the hind legs when horses get heavy in the hand.
I also find it incredibly interesting that Hilary Clayton noted the issue with riding with too little contact - you have to take up contact before you can give an aid and that makes you slower, yet the author of the article indicated short reins are an issue because the contact gets heavy. I keep my reins pretty short and I will still end up with a loop in the inside rein as my horse steps under more and carries himself. At the highest level of collection at the canter, he needs only directional help from my reins- not any rebalancing from the reins. Just interesting.
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I just wanted to point out how helpful this paragraph was for me! Iāve always questioned weight in the reins and the purpose and the reasoning behind what the horse is doing. For some reason, your post just made everything āclickā and put it all together for me. Thanks!
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Elastic reins? Anyone care to elaborate on that point agreeing or disagreeing? I have no opinion, but am super curiousā¦
I am not a fan only because they are illegal. I donāt want to school with something that I canāt use in the show ring that would make that much of a differenceā¦
@mydogs Iām glad my description was helpful!! 
Contact is something I struggle with (and one of the things that I think sets apart āgiftedā from āaverageā riders), so I was very interested to read this. In particular the result that at the trot, with side reins, the weight ranged from 0.5 kg at the baseline to a potential max of 4 kg. So the contact is not at all consistent, and even varies quite substantially, but never reaches zero (or whatever the actual weight of the length of rein is).
I also found the comment about the timing of the rein aids and the delay caused by having to take up the contact creating issues helpful, as someone who errs on the side of loopy reins. That definitely fits with some of my experiences.
Hopefully these thoughts will help me!
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Hillary Claytonās study does not show what she concluded it shows based on the summary within that link! Not at all.
A horse āprefersā to be able to move its neck, and telescoping the neck is part of the canter stride. I suspect a horse āprefersā no contact, but prefers steady to changing - which is why we must follow the movement of the horseās head.
This is where I also object to the idea of elastic reins - they can muddle things, and not help the rider understand. Iāve wondered if they do help a rider get contact most of the time, and given the opportunity would try them just to better understand how they feel.
My trainer is one of those people gifted with naturally excellent hands. Heās aware that at times in instruction he sounds like he wants us bracing and pulling, because he simply does not do that, and so he works to try to understand how it feels for us. He has also done things like moved alongside me while holding my elbows so I can feel the change in contact with my horse, and attacked lead ropes to my elbows and ground driven me. Not the safest method because horses are still horses, but SUPER helpful for me to let him control the contact through my arms so I can feel what true elastic contact is. As soon as he takes over, I can feel the instant change in my horseās mouth.
That elasticity feels like there is an elastic band of sorts, which is why Iād be curious to feel elastic reins and see how they compare. When contact is great, you have constant communication, and you feel the power, the softeness, the elasticity available. For those of us who are less gifted, those moments are more fleeting than they are for those who are very talented - but I agree with the poster above that it really comes from behind.
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I think itās part of learning to ride each horse as an individual. I had a Holstiener mare that needed an entirely different contact than the PRE gentleman I now ride. Heās super light and easy but it took me a long time to respond correctly
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I thought on another thread it was determined that if the elastic inserts that were an integral portion of the reins was legal. It was not legal for a separate piece to be attached between the reins and the bit. It needed to be a continuous piece. I donāt remember if that was only allowed up to a certain level. Anyone with better search skills able to find that thread?
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WHy dont you go directly to the rulebook at USEF rather than answers on a forum? DR 121 .7 ,"A rein is a continuous, uninterrupted strap or line from the bridle bit to the hand. Rein additions or attachments are not permitted. Each bit must be attached to a separate rein and reins may only be attached to bits. ā¦ https://www.usef.org/forms-pubs/F3p8pgrWgAo/dr-dressage-division
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When an instructor starts off teaching a student," You need X pounds of weigh in your hands". I personally find it a complete turn off. The whole idea is to from the beginning teach the horse to carry himself.
An educated rider needs to focus on what his body is telling the horse, and listen to the horseās response. Sure, on young green horse we start out with a soft leading opening rein, but that should moderate as the horse learns to listen to the bodyās aids that have simultaneously occurring.
Elastic reins teach the rider nothing. On the longe they are useful in order to keep a horse from feeling ātrappedā.
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Because I donāt use elastic reins so donāt really care. The link to USEF showing it was legal was in the thread that I couldnāt find because the search feature in COTH sucks. I just wanted to point out that while the poster thought it was illegal it isnāt. If they are interested they can go to the rulebook.
I stand corrected!
I also donāt like using elastic reins for the reason merrygoround mentioned - they donāt help the rider learn feel at all and if you do have a good feel, these are unnecessary.
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Thank you for finding that.
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This topic of weight in the hands really fascinates me. Can we go back to before I accidentally derailed this thing? 
Iād love to know other peopleās POVs on this.
One day at the tack store I ran into one of those elastic āhand aidsā. I was interested because I am for anything that may protect the horseās mouth when my MS gets bad.
It took ALL MY STRENGTH to get the elastic to give a little bit. I am very weak, when my hands have to āhold hardā my tremors increase and my hands start moving around erratically. I put the āhand aidsā back in the rack.
I ride Forward Seat on the flat (my MS precludes riding dressage.) At a walk the weight of my contact may vary from several grams to an ounce or two. Going faster the horse takes more contact, but it NEVER gets up to pounds.
Back in the dark ages (40 some years ago) I was sort of interested in learning dressage because of the promise that such training would make my hands LIGHTER, more sensitive, and better for the horse. Boy, was I disillusioned when a decade ago I got on-line and started reading dressage riders advocating for POUNDS of contact.
In many of the āolderā dressage books (1950ās, 1960ās, 1970ās) I read about the horses moving the bits with their tongues as a favorable sign. At POUNDS of pressure I doubt that even the strongest horse in the history of the earth could move bits with its tongue at all, much less āclinkā double bridle bits together.
I no longer own horses, but if I did I would NEVER let a dressage competition rider up on that horse, because unless they PROVED to me that they could control a horse with a few ounces of contact, I would fear deeply that they would ruin my horseās mouth so much that I could never ride that horse again with light, responsive contact (without a lot of re-schooling, been there, done that). You see I like riding a horse in contact and being able to give the horse a hand aid of twitching my little finger, and being confident that the horse will obey me promptly, just like the three horses I ride right now do when I give a hand aid. These horses did not start off that way, I had to train them that my twitching little finger and/or movement of my hands were hand aids, but now they are not afraid of my hands (though they will tell me if my hands do not meet with their approval.) I developed lightness in my hands because the horses asked me to, and when my hands became lighter the horses became SO MUCH MORE RESPONSIVE TO MY AIDS, be they hand, leg or seat aids.
I know I am not a dressage rider but you did ask for other points of view about weight in the reins.
Oh, when I ride with sagging reins I have absolutely no difficulty giving a light hand aid at the correct moment in the horseās stride. I just start picking up on the rein a little earlier, I keep my fingers relaxed, and the horses do not seem to mind when I reestablish contact to give the hand aid (all of these horses have proven to be perfectly willing to toss their heads, gape and invert if my hands are too harsh or abrupt.)
Like @netg said about Dr. Claytonās study and so, I donāt like this article at all.
Nuno was a genius (ā¦) Most riders today, I would say 99.9% of them, would not be able to establish this sort of brilliance
This statement is ridiculous. There are plenty of riders who can demonstrate brillant lightness and riding in that classical way and so, it is not that out of reach.
Will everyone have Nunoās influence? Of course not, we donāt get to revolutionize riding and training practices everyday.
There is also a lot of Nuno students who like to brag about itā¦ That doesnāt mean they possess his skills and knowledgeā¦ or are as good teacher as he was.
Regarding weight on reins one should have, it really depends on the horse, the training and the bit!
If your horse is not muscled enough and his training is not yet to collection/constant carriage, it is normal to have more weight in your reins. Itās when the horse is Ā« through Ā» that the weight in your hands will decrease.
Heavier weight in reins, even if itās on the higher end like 5 pounds, doesnāt mean its harsher. If itās constant and elastic, there really is no problem and will NOT harm the horse.
The weight can/should vary from exercice to exercice, and from rein to rein. When you half halt, when you turn, when you do a SI or do tempis.
Riding with a snaffle or a curb or a gag bit will also determine the weight youāll need or want in the reins.
When the horse is ready for the double bridle, you donāt have the same weight on the bradoon or the weymouth.
There are a lot of people who seem to donāt understand what a good contact is and so, what weight regarding rein tension is.
They also confuse light contact with no contact : behind the bit (not btv) or above the bit.
If you get the chance to put weights at the end of reins that go through eyelets on a wall, you could experience different weights from a constant contact. Iāve done this on a regular basis to understand what contact and weight should/could be. Quite enlightening.
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I bought a pair of Carl Hesterās āfantastic elasticā reins about six years ago. I was going through my āgadgetā phase and also bought Mary Wanlessās Riderās Belt. Harder on the bank balance, I also bought an Anky FreeRider riding exercise machine!
Hester was a advocate of elastic reins for young horses a few years ago, but may have shifted in his approach since. I wanted to learn about contact, but my schoolmaster quickly figured out that elastic is, well, exactly that. [he likes to lean]. So, five years and 10,000 hours of lessons afterwards, I rely on my own hands and now much more on my legs - and the reins have been converted to fancy dog leads now! Ps: they were the same as in the photo jvk8 posted. x
While weight seems objective, I think many people (myself absolutely included) have no clue how much literal weight they have in the reins. Iāve never stopped mid ride, gotten off, and used a machine hooked up to reins that measured the weight of resistance I was providing. I sincerely believe that some people who swear they ride with grams of weight may have a pretty similar amount of contact compared to people talking in pounds. A pound of pressure in the reins wouldnāt feel the same as holding a free-hanging one pound dead weight.
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