Like the door story, Jezza...;0)
Aniela, welcome! I can understand the 'sprint' problem only too well, and eventually found that a smaller tiller, like mentioned above, was the best alternative, and definitely more controllable as it is so much lighter!
A Mantis or similar, will get down to around 10" properly, which is enough to do the hard work on the topsoil, but the stuff below doesn't get much of a look-in, so if you are into digging, you'll need to fork over the subsoil occasionally! You may even want to consider 'no dig', which is sometimes 'touched on lightly', on other posts here, and that is definitely an easy - and interesting, option!
Nowadays, I just till the soil, hoik out the nasty weeds which have been churned up, and hoe during the summer, and it suits us just fine!