The rein aid as part of the downwards transition should be the final part of the puzzle, but so often it is the starting point for many riders. As children we are taught, "to stop you must pull back on the reins" but this isn't actually correct and leave the rider very reliant on quite high pressure on the horses mouth or face.
If you apply a downward transition aid correctly the majority of your aid should come from the seat, when the seat is tightened it restricts the horses ability to continue to move forwards and therefore acts as a hand break, initially the horse that has been used to having the bridle as the stopping force may not fully stop or slow to the required pace, but they will start to make a change in the way they are moving. You may then need to finish off the aid by applying pressure to the reins, but because the seat aid has done some of the work for you this pressure should be less than what would have been required if no seat had been applied.
So the sequence of aids are:
Deep exhale
Tighten the seat, a nice way to do this is spread the toes in the boot and draw the thighs inwards
Apply gentle pressure to the reins by squeezing the reins in your hands
Increase pressure if needed
If this is consistently repeated your horse will start to understand that the tigtening of the seat means to slow or stop, and therefore will not require pressure on the reins.
Extras:
Remember you also have the voice as an aid, if you do correct work on the ground your horse should have a voice aid that asks them to slow or stop, adding this to the start of the sequence may mean you don't have to apply any other pressure, the voice aid is a good aid to use, just because the rules of dressage say you may not use it in competition doesn't mean its a bad aid, this rule is unethical as a horse that can do everything from the voice is a much more well trained and happier horse than any horse that needs high pressure.
Why this may not work:
Poor biomechanics means more force is needed
If you have a tight seat already the horse will not be able to feel the change between what is already there, there needs to be a clear difference between a moving seat that allows the horse to move forwards and a slowing seat.
If you tighten you seat and at the same time your legs end up gripping up, this means you'll be applying the go aid too, thus leading to confusion and ultimately the need for stronger force.
Your horse may not find the release of pressure as enough of a reward to understand what they are required to do, so the contrast between pressure and reward needs to be greater, equalling more pressure needed to show a bigger release...you can only release so much so in order to create a bigger contrast the pressure needs to increase. This is not ideal so something to think about is how to mark your horses correct response and encourage them to do it more, Apple is a typical version of this, the release doesn't motivate her enough to want to learn from it or repeat it, here I then use a positive reward as an extra "well done that's what I was asking" for Apple it is food, she is highly motivated by food but stays calm when using it in the form of training, for another horse it may be a scratch on the withers or even a positive vocal aid, its here where its up to you to work out what motivates your horse the most whilst allowing them to stay focused and calm.
Once you have solved the issues above then go back to working on what I've suggested using your new found knowledge, you will be amazed at how light or non existent the pressure is.
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