Hot Take for English Riders
direct rein and contact is overrated as hell. Do you know how gd pleasant it is to ride a horse trained to ride off the seat and indirect rein pressure? Why are we training dressage horses and show jumpers to lay into the bit and depend on us to hold their heads up? It's tiring and not good for them since tension in the bridle leads to stunted action in the hind limbs. If you actually trained them off clasical principles in the flat work and with the right jump exercises they will develop enough to learn how and when to supoort themselves.
Having a gd tug o war battle with your horse is bad horsemanship and will inevitably make them stronger in the bridle. Normalize treating the reins like side reins, picking one length that the horse can easily recieve slack in when the balance is good and only picking them up as a final touch to back your other aids up. The order of aids should be seat -> weight -> suporting leg -> driving leg -> supporting rein -> direct rein.
If you as the rider are working extra hard physically and mentally to get the horse obedient to your aids how do you think the horse feels?
Here's Venus demonstrating a moderately collected canter during a jumping exercise (withers are positioned above the apex of the hip with her haunches taking more than half the load of her weight through the movement)
Her poll is at the highest point but notice how the reins are slightly looped and her nose isnt pointed down. A horse being "on the bit" and collected or even correctly engaged is not the same thing. Because I'm not restricting her head and neck, her top line is freed up and she can step freely under herself and lift her back creating that straight line of the croup behind the saddle
