How to stop horse from taking the reins out your hands while troting/cantering?

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A good horse trainer would know the answer;also consult other horse owners

Without knowing why the horse is taking your reins, it's hard to know for sure.

Best thing to do is be prepared, and be constantly on the alert for the start of the behavior. Reacting once he's done it is not a good plan.

When you're trotting along nicely, release the pressure of your hands slightly while maintaining contact. You can usually feel when he's thinking about snatching the reins, either by a stiffening in his jaw or neck, or tension through his back, and so on. As soon as you feel he's going to do it, get his attention back on you. Use your legs. Use a light pull and release, pull and release on the bit. Usually this is enough to get his attention back on you and off the idea of pulling the reins. As soon as he does, you release your pressure (stop twiddling the bit, relax your legs, etc.) to let him know he's done the correct thing and to reward him for it.

Keep him distracted. Don't just slop around in a circle; make yourself ride as correctly as you can while you do changes of direction and leg yields or whatever else you know how to do so he doesn't have time to plan misbehavior. Trot in serpentines. Canter in small circles. Change it up so he doesn't know what he's doing next.

As soon as he responds correctly, then go back to your relaxed contact and keep him distracted from his own pulling and attending to you as above.

If he pulls the reins anyway, then you have a number of options. If he's leaning on the bit, then dropping contact all together will take the support away. He'll have nothing to lean on, and he'll have to pick his head up, at which point you gather him back up and continue as above.

If he's going for grass, then don't let go. Pull his head back up, apply your heels sharply, and make him move forward, then continue as above.

Checking the bit, his teeth, and the saddle, and making sure you always ride as correctly as possible, with light, steady contact (no floppy reins), good balance in the saddle, and a secure seat, are also good ideas.

None of these are instantaneous fixes. You do them over and over, correctly, until he gradually stops.

Happy Schooling!

Depends why the horse is doing it. Common reasons include

1. Horse wants to graze

2. Horse wants control to go do something else (be with buddies or back to barn)

3. Horse has uncomfortable mouth from bad teeth or bad fitting bit/wrong one

4. Horse has uncomfortable mouth from rider with bad hands

Try to work in a round pen with no grass around. Put horse in a very soft bit like a snaffle with a lozenge/link. French link is a good choice. Or plain snaffle if you have. pick up reins so there is a loop of slack in them. Get horse walking on "rail". Gently ooze into trot after a couple laps. Assess. If the head flipping happens on a loose rein with a gentle bit, get your dentist out.

Next pick up the rein like you normally ride. Does the head flipping/pulling of reins happen? If it does, the horse is saying, your hands are too rough. Get some lessons on hand position. They should be very steady and low, thumbs up, hands together, your pinkies brushing the mane of the horse. It takes five or ten years to develop "okay" hands. It all starts with the security of your leg, then your upper body, and finally the hands have a base of steadiness to offer to the horse. If you don't have steady hands yet, because you haven't ridden in a several hundred lessons, give a little slack in the rein.

If all that checks out, go back to riding with grass distraction. To fix a horse who is doing this to eat grass, tighten the rein a fraction while adding leg and pressing the horse forward. this blocks their move. Hope this helps.

The "fix" depends on the why.

See if you can get an instructor to watch you ride the horse and then Try riding your horse to see if the problems with the horse or you.

The problem usually has to do usually with the rider or the bit they are using, rarely it’s the horse that likes to grab the bit or continually root at the reigns wile your riding. I had a mare that hated extended trot and cantering snd she would put her head down low almost as though she were going to buck, the. When you pulled her head up correctly she continually rooted st the reigns and if she didn’t get control that easy she simply grabbed the bit and headed off at whatever speed and direction she wished to show her displeasure.

I had several instructors that insisted it was what I was doing however she managed to slam 2 of them into the arena wall to make them stop correcting her. She finally settled down when we went back to a simpler rubber bit, tightened the bridle only 1 inch and lunged her several times without side reigns and she finally stopped rooting, we think it was from old habit from her hack days years before I bought her but reminding her of basics and working with an instructor cured the problem.

A stronger hold on them would help.

See if you can get lessons where you ride on the longe, no irons, no reins. You'll need someone who is good at working the longe. You will use seat and leg alone to put the horse through all transitions, WTC and halt. Upon having perfected your ability in that way you will find that your hands are greatly improved.

Learn to ride more competently. If the horse is yanking the reins from your hands, you're likely balancing yourself on the horse's mouth at the trot and canter, causing discomfort. Stop yanking on the horse's mouth, and they'll stop pulling the reins out of your hands to relieve that discomfort.