Teaching the Half Halt

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In our previous videos for this series about “Common Mistake’s Beginner Rider’s Make,” I explained where the rider’s leg, foot, seat, body, hands, and reins should be when riding with balance, fluidity, and stability. And we finally made it to the mounting block, got on our horse and went through our riding pre-flight check system.
We’ve covered how and why to use the whip, worked on our “go” button, moving forward and learned about our quiet, yet powerful, aids such as our focus and breathing. And we’ve been working on our stop button with our horse and learned the emergency stop.
Today we are going to discuss and demonstrate the half-halt. So far, all the previous videos have prepared you for this.
First, there is no true halt in a half-halt. It is merely a slowing down of the movement with an emphasis on pushing the horse forward. Almost like a half-go instead of a half-slow.
When the half-halt is correct for our horse, there will be a shift of balance to our horse’s haunches, engaging the hind end, strengthening our horse so they can power up from behind and maintain correct balance.
Half-halts help:
- Develop smoother, more fluid transitions between gaits and within gaits
- Communicate, tell, alert the horse of a change, that something is coming. Basically a great way to keep connected and communicate subtle aids.
- Maintain self-carriage through the engagement of the hind end
What needs to happen first in our body:
- Weight seat
- Tighten core, lock up
- Tighten thigh (not calve)
- Tighten fingers around rein aid if they don’t respond within 3-seconds
Half-halts are universally useful, regardless of riding discipline, although they are used in great abundance in the dressage arena, where perfect control of the horse is required.
The main purpose of the half-halt is to rebalance the horse, asking it to carry its weight slightly more on his hindquarters and less on its forehand. Additionally, it may be used as a warning signal to the horse, calling its attention back to the rider to tell it that it is about to be asked to do something, such as perform a transition between or within a gait, make a turn, perform a difficult movement, or jump an obstacle.
It can also be used to encourage the horse to take a lighter contact with the hand aids (or bit).
The half-halt should not make the horse break into a different gait. However, repeated half-halts are used to help collect a gait.
I like to use the half halt in both my lunging exercises and riding. It is part of our gymnastics and where we continue to develop the horse’s self-carriage, the ability to carry itself through strength and balance exercises like the half halt, shoulder-in, renvers (haunches-out) and travers (haunches-in).
The half-halt may be performed two ways, both of which are commonly used by various skilled equestrians. The first is a split-second application of the driving aids, to create energy, which is then quickly and immediately harnessed with the restraining aids, and then released.
The second is the opposite approach: an application of the restraining aids, asking the horse to "almost halt" and bring its hindquarters under itself in the process, then immediately applying the driving aids to maintain the gait.
In both cases, the driving and restraining aids should never be applied for a prolonged period, as that will only cause the horse to lean against the bit, tighten its back, and finally ignore the aids. The yielding of the aids is just as important as the application of the aids.
The degree of pressure applied by the aids will vary greatly between horses, depending on the animal's training, temperament, balance, and the situation in which the half-halt is given.
The degree of the aid is usually performed by instinct and feel, a result of experience from the rider, and often one half-halt will be slightly different from the one preceding it, depending on the horse's balance and the requirements of the upcoming exercise.
However, the aids should not be so great that they signal the horse to make a transition. Before we even begin the half halt we need to teach our horses about contact.
Stay tuned for our next video in this series where I will explain and demonstrate how to beste steer your horse.
Please click here to learn more about how to develop your horse while you develop your riding skills www.taoacademy-horse-training...

[@rosalindpaterson2043]

This is a tricky technique to demonstrate; Do you press your seat-bones into the saddle (saddle pad) while tightening core and pressing thighs?
The top line of that horse is very supple; I wish I had a more secure yard to use a bitless bridle:)

[@TaoofHorsemanship]

Hi Rosalind and Welcome! Yes and no. If taught properly, it is a simple technique however many building blocks need to be in place for both horse and rider for this to work well. Please keep in mind that this video is a snippet, sneak peak, of the full length - which gets into more detail. To answer your question, no, I do not use, teach or recommend applying weight to the seat bones.

[@rosalindpaterson2043]

@@TaoofHorsemanship thank you kindly for informative reply:) I will look to full-length