When riding, it can be beneficial to imagine your hands like a gear box. Ideally, our hands should remain in the centre of the gearbox in a neutral position.
When we want to go forward, we should push our hands forward towards the horses mouth, when we want to slow down we should quietly draw our hands back towards our body, when we want to go left we should move our hands over their left shoulder and when we want to go right we should move our hands over their right shoulder.
Once the horse has moved towards the desired outcome our hands should always return back to the centre of the gearbox in a neutral position.