Just pondering this today.
Why single reins are held between the pinky and ring fingers and by the index and thumb.
Is it because double reins? Or are their other reasons we don’t use “driving reins” as a matter of course when riding (or for that matter just hold the whole rein going through one’s fist without the pinky bit?
Thanks for any thoughts and wisdom!
Reins held in traditional ways provide a finer motor control.
Similar to why we don’t hold a pencil/pen with a fist, but using a play of fingers on the instrument, when writing a pen, riding reins.
The retired cavalry officer that was my instructor was a stickler for being utterly respectful of a horse’s mouth.
He would become very serious if anyone was to ever jerk on a rein.
They had to dismount and prove him that they could use reins in as soft a manner as necessary, before letting them back on their horse
If a horse at some time became strong and the rider had to be less than polite in it’s use of reins, jumping that happens, you better be profusely apologizing to your horse.
Holding reins that one certain way when using a snaffle is most efficient way to communicate thru them in the standard way everyone learns today.
Tradition?
As Bluey said, finer motor control. Also, if you look at the skeletal anatomy of the arm and hand, the end of the ulna is pointing between the ring finger and pinky, not towards the far outside of the hand. This allows for that classic “straight line from the bit to the elbow” in a precise, functional sense.
https://doctorstock.photoshelter.com/image/I0000VR9jE3kl6sc
Having ridden western (not that I was particularly good at it) before English, I’ve done the rein outside the hand plenty, and its fine for holding a steady but loose contact. However, the “traditional” English way of holding the reins is much better for having an elastic feel when riding on a more direct contact.
Adding on about Driving horse reins, not all types of Driving use reins run thru the fist from front to back. For starters, if horse gets strong, he can pull the reins straight thru your hand, leaving driver with possible blisters, cut palms and no control. That rein hold may work in the practice arena, be fashionable in the breed ring, on the track, but is not seen much in Pleasure driving activities or driving competitions like CDE and their newer arena events.
There are several recognized rein holds, which allow great finesse as driver “talks to horse/s” during activities. Drivers may change rein holds during a drive to rest their hands, or one method works better for this or that kind of driving. With multiple horses you are STILL driving individuals, they do not have a “hive” mind, thinking the same thought at the same instant, in reactions! Their reins are complicated, need instant adjustment, to keep 4 horses working as you want, at speed. Traditional rein holds came from hours of driving, Coach drivers, who shared what worked best. Modern drivers have used their ideas, then tweaked them to be suitable for the newer kinds of driving we do. Traditional rein holds still work well, great place to start, getting comfortable as a beginning driver.
I hold my dogs leash like a rein. Maybe it’s because I rode/ride, but I definitely do it that way because I feel I have better control.
Fashion and evolution (of riding, not Darwinian).
I learned to ride in the 60s. I was taught that the snaffle rein went outside the pinky. Most everyone around me rode that way, as well. If you look at Jane Marshall Dillon’s book , “School for Young Riders,” first published in 1958, she teaches that the snaffle rein goes outside the pinky. (That was my childhood bible.)
I was also taught to hold the snaffle rein of a pelham outside the pinky and the curb rein between the pinky and ring finger.
By the time I was in college in the 70s, my new instructors taught that the snaffle rein should be held between the pinky and ring finger. Nobody rode in a pelham anymore because those were the days of the “every horse can be ridden in a snaffle” fad. It might be a double twisted wire snaffle, but by God, it was a snaffle. (But I digress. 
)
Interestingly, if you track down really old videos on youtube, e.g. the Captain Vladimir Littauer videos made back in the 40s, people didn’t seem so wedded to one particular manner of holding the reins. In this one, for example, there are several scenes in which the rider seems to be using “driving reins” (reins in by the index finger, out by the pinky) but in other scenes, the reins are held differently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivwmwB8PFvk).
In another Self book, she shows a photo of a rider jumping using driving reins and comments that that particular rider had a problem with clutching the reins in her fists and hardening her hands, and by switching to driving reins, she was much better able to keep her hands soft.
I am not convinced that there truly is any one “correct” way to hold the reins. I also believe that you can probably make a logical argument to support any one of a variety of ways. At any given time, I think “correct” is just whatever the rule book says or whatever your instructor tells you to do or whatever works best for you and that particular horse. Or, I suppose, in some cases, whatever is winning in the show ring.
There is no, one, correct method.
Beginning from the beginning:
https://www.comitatus.net/greekcavalry.html
http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/fairmanrogers/pdfs/trainingofcavalr00nola.pdf
[URL=“http://www.drillnet.net/Cooke.htm#Reins”]http://www.drillnet.net/Cooke.htm#Reins
http://www.drillnet.net/Cooke.htm#Reins Scroll down to page 11 and read the Horse’s Prayer.
http://www.nationallancers.org/mounted_drill.html
This why we hold the reins the way we do. 
G.
OK, the following series of posts explain why we hold the reins as we do. I put all the links in one post and it was “unapproved.” I don’t know why. We’ll try again, two by two, oldest to most recent refereance.
https://www.comitatus.net/greekcavalry.html
http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/fairmanrogers/pdfs/trainingofcavalr00nola.pdf
http://www.drillnet.net/Cooke.htm#Reins
https://pmc.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/PMC-Cadet-Handbook-18-19-p.47-88.pdf
Scroll down to page 11 on the PMC item and read the “Horse’s Prayer.”
The program doesn’t like my link to Cookes Cavalry Tactics. Google it instead.
Scroll down to page 11 on the following and read “The Horse’s Prayer”.
https://pmc.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/PMC-Cadet-Handbook-18-19-p.47-88.pdf
I used to hold the double reins in the “crossed” fashion - snaffle under the pinky, curb between ring and pinky. Trainer suggested an “uncrossed” hold, curb under pinky and snaffle between ring and pinky. I now hold them that way except the snaffle comes between ring and MIDDLE finger. Gives more separation of the rein aids, and I can use my pinky to "“give” or “take” the curb as necessary, (of course not really taking, just using the rein… you know what I mean… ) I find that my control of the curb is more refined, and my control of the snaffle is more steady.
@Guilherme , rather than read through all those facinating historic documents, perhaps a quick description of each rein hold??
There are probably many reasons that others are better equipped to touch on.
Anatomically, though, the fourth finger does have the most secure hold when bent and pulled on.
Sorry for the late reply.
No, you should go and read them all. Try to understand and appreciate the effects of each. That way when you have a task to perform you can select the most effective method that will get you what you want with minimal negative effect on the horse’s mouth.
Yeah, I know, more work for you.
G.
Not a matter of not wanting work, thank you very much. The first one I clicked on was a LONG treatise about someone doing riding as did the Greeks, and frankly history is not my thing. I never found anything about holding the reins in my scan of it. Thanks anyway.
I scanned all of them. What I found was three lines of how to hold the reins describing the standard way of holding it, between the fourth and pinky. Did you even read them before posting?
This.
A “driving” rein/hold is often used as a tool for riders to practice a better following hand. But as another poster mentioned, if a horse pulls hard the reins are likely to slide through the hands.
A fist hold usually isn’t recommended because not only does it not create a straight line, but most people don’t have as much strength an dexterity in their pinky fingers, which results in exaggerated wrist movements.
Also, try doing a fist hold and have someone pull on you. For most people, the pinky is weakest and will come unhinged, and the wrist bends to compensate. This wouldn’t be helpful with a strong horse.
With our common English hold with reins between ring finger and pinky, we have a straight line from bit to elbow, we have dexterity and softness, and we have strength.
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