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  Discussion on two half halt questions, bending and posting
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 16, 2001 - 6:19 pm:

I recently had a lesson with a great instructor who was passing through my area, and we were working on using half halts to encourage my horse to bend to the right. When tracking to the right, my horse bulges her rib cage to the inside, tilts her head to the left and hangs on the right rein. The instructor said that I should half halt her stronger on the outside, while her outside hind is in the air -- the idea being that she will get the message to coil her hindquarters and settle onto that leg while it is still in the air and therefore can be influenced.

Somehow, this worked great during the lesson, but when I tried it without the instructor, a strong outside half halt just made my horse's nose tilt further to the outside. :-( I know this probably means I used too much hand . . . so my first question is, could someone help me figure out the correct sequence of half halt aids for helping my horse to balance to the right? (I should add that the instructor observed that the stronger my inside leg, the more my horse seems to think "great! a spot to rest my rib cage!")

Also, my second question: if I follow these instructions at the posting trot, I will have to half halt while I am out of the saddle (if I am on the correct diagonal). If the seat is an integral part of the half halt, how do you half halt while out of the saddle?

Thanks a bunch.

Lisa

Posted on Friday, Aug 17, 2001 - 8:30 am:

I think Chris will need to respond to this one - trust what she says - (over what I say!)

With that warning... A few things -

By my armchair riding, you should be sitting when the outside hind is in the air. Think about it - outside hind in air = outside front on ground = seat in saddle. (You rise as the outside front/inside hind come off the ground.)

Are you throwing away your inside rein in your half halt?

Where is your outside leg and what is it doing? Tilting usually occurs because the hand is too strong in the hand/leg combination - so yes, this could be a sign of too much hand - but could also mean not enough leg. I also wonder what is happening with the horse's 1/4s. Are you using your outside leg to prevent them from swinging out? (think about it - the rib cage can only park on your inside leg if the 1/4's are out)

Posted on Friday, Aug 17, 2001 - 11:57 am:

Oh gosh, this is what dressage careers are made of - how to make the horse straight and get a half-halt through. I've been riding since I was ten and am pretty long in the tooth and there are days were nothing goes right. Forward, calm and straight is my mantra. It is always back to basics.

There is no one way to ride a half halt - I would bet there could be hundreds!

Several things to keep in mind as you ride:

- You may be doing everything right, but not get a response - it may take some time for the horse to figure it out! They don't read the books, GRIN. In any case, the trick here is to make a request and wait for a response. Have the courage of your convictions that you are asking right and the horse now has to figure out a response.

- The balance to this is "how do you know when you've done enough?" - When you get a response! So, after waiting a bit for the horse to understand, repeat the request, perhaps a little more exaggerated ... you can see where this is going. The trained horses that are light, responsive, a pleasure to ride don't usually start out that way! So, if you need to exaggerate to get an idea through, that is okay. Just do it with purpose and reward by "going quiet" when you get even an iota of a proper response.

- Don't ride yesterday's horse - if your horse did something new yesterday, she could be stiff or sore from it today (think of how your muscles respond). The trick is looking at your horse every ride in this moment of time - what needs to be done now? And now? And now? - Each now is a step.

- Finally, progress is in very small steps. You are asking your horse to take a bite of the rein on her hollow side and go straight. That is very hard for the horse to do and usually very hard for a rider to ask. So you may only get a step or two at a time before you repeat the request. It is slow and tedious at times. Persist, again.

All that said, how to get a horse to go straight? First, the side your horse doesn't take a bite of rein on is the hollow side. The side you feel the bulge against your leg is often the stiff side. So, you can monitor how you are doing by feeling for equality - equal rein contact, equal feel through the legs and seat.

Now, how to get there. Well, I can't see you ride here. But the goal is "inside leg to outside rein." Your inside leg creates a bend and energizes the horse's inside hind to step through and the outside rein catches the energy and directs it. Sounds beautiful, doesn't it? I'm convinced that when you feel it, you know it and it is like drugs - you never get enough.

Look for resistance habits in your horse. Does she flex at the poll in response to a gentle closing of a ring finger in either hand? Does she bend laterally at the poll from a gentle rein aid? Will she bend at the withers in either direction.

I often do a few flexions as I am warming up to ask, "how does this feel to you today?"

Then I check for tension. Will the horse stand quietly and chew. Do I have her attention? How is she at the walk? Forward, listening? How about the working trot, etc.

Finally, I check for "forward" - does the horse willing go forward in reponse to a light aid/request. This could be the topic of an entire ride (and post).

Each answer makes a suggestion to me as to what I may need to work on ...

My own horse can be stiff to the right and hollow to the left. I concentrate on asking her to break up the stiffness with flexions and ask for forward with my right leg. I test the waters by giving with my right ring finger, looking to see if the bend is maintained. I need to position the horse (think shoulders/front end) with my entire inside leg to get a bite on the left rein. I augment this work with figures, lots of transitions between gaits, lateral work and halts/reinbacks/forward. Sometimes we sort it out quickly. Sometimes we don't.

One other thought. A horse is trapezoidal - narrower in the front than the back. People have a strong tendancy to ride "straight" where the horses outside body perimeter is straight/parallel to the wall. This isn't straight. The front end, being narrower, has to give you the sense that it is a half step more off the wall than the hind.

Gosh, I could go on and on and I haven't even discussed half-halts! And, of course there is rider position, tack suitability, etc.

Before I babble too much, is any of this of value?

Or does it create more questions ... I have several favorite books that tend to be the ones I go back to time and again when I get stuck. Walter Zettl's "Dressage in Harmony", Harry Boldt's translation chaper (4?), etc. Many of these classics are a bit like a parable in the Bible - it hits you a different way each time you read it depending on your current situation.

Also, keep a diary of what you work on, when you rode, how the horse did, if you change any environmental things, how your warm up went, clinic notes, etc. This will help you identify progress and be helpful if any problems turn up.

Posted on Friday, Aug 17, 2001 - 2:04 pm:

Yay . . . I was hoping I would hear from Chris! :-) First, how's this for interesting: a chiro just looked at my horse and said that she appears to be "locked" in her first few ribs (and in her jaw) on the right, and he said "that may be because you tend to lock your right hip and push too hard with your thigh when you ask her to come under herself on that side." The instructor who saw us last week told me that I do that very thing (and the chiro has never seen me ride). The instructor suggested that I ask my horse to shift her rib cage with the lower part of my leg, leaving my hips soft and my pelvis level. She said that would free her up to come "through," and help her balance. Chris, you mention using your "entire inside leg." What's your view on this?

Cheryl, in answer to your questions, I try to vibrate the inside rein gently, to encourage my horse to soften. But I don't always manage to stay soft in my shoulder, I know. I have to resist the tendency to lock against her locked jaw . . . which makes her lock more, etc. My regular instructor suggested that I should "DrOp" my inside rein periodically, so that she knows that she can't lean on it. What do you think of that? Re: my outside leg, good idea. I'll pay more attention to that. I may be forgetting it when I concentrate too hard on connecting inside leg and outside hand.

Chris, I love your suggestions for the daily exploration of "which horse am I riding today?" What a lovely way to get in tune with her. Everything that you said IS very helpful, AND also raises more questions . . . which is what good teaching is supposed to do, in my view! Especially with horses, who will teach us all for the rest of our lives. You are more than welcome to go "on and on" if you have the time and the inclination. I suspect that you have some similarly lucid thoughts on half-halts. I am going to print your post and try to let it settle into my brain.

And one other question: my regular instructor puts us on a 20-meter circle and has us alternate between counter-bending and over-bending as a suppling exercise -- the idea being that "straight" will be light and easy to the horse after all that extra work. Comments?

Thanks so much to both of you!

Lisa

Posted on Friday, Aug 17, 2001 - 4:03 pm:

Hi Lisa,

I know from personal experience that tension in the rider can cause more problems then we ever get it credit for. The coach I have now has taught me that (she was a student of Walter Zetl). So now when I run into difficulties I ride around with my eyes closed and focus of what I feel rather then what I think I know - does that make sense? usually I find that I'm too tense somewhere. Chris is dead on that it's inside leg to outside rein (I love reading her posts on riding I usually glean something) but the rein needs to be giving one. I think of it in terms of a bungee cord- moving with the horse, keeping the tension constant not like a stick that's rigid. So when you ride the inside leg -and it is mainly from the calf (although you can use your thigh as long as you don't clench your pelvis muscles) given in time with the motion and the outside rein is in soft contact. You can take little "feelies" on the inside to indicate but don't hold.

You want to start this at the walk and then build up to trot and canter. As your walking down the long side on the right rein you use your inside leg as the belly is swinging away from it and then after a very brief pause and only if necessary, briefly increase contact on the outside and release. Any giving at all on her part and you praise. Then ask again. If your horse can do, ride out of a 10m circle down the long side so that you are already setup the correct way.

Myself, I've started doing a little mantra right before my ride where I close my eyes, breath deep and say "I will not be stiff, I will not be stiff". If your horse stiffens under you look to yourself first for tension, release it and then go back to asking again.

Also, be careful that you don't hold your breath while riding as that increases the tension immeasurably.

I hope some of this makes sense and helps.


Teresa

Posted on Friday, Aug 17, 2001 - 6:21 pm:

Besides the "which horse am I riding today question," I ask "what body am I inhabiting today?" I think this becomes more pertinent as your body, uh, matures and is a little less, er, consistent for you. :D

For a while, I was a back rider for a handicapped riding program. I learned from working with them that the gentle, steady walk of a horse helps our resistance muscles to relax. So, if I feel stiff and tense, I will have the horse walk with long reins and I will do some stretches as well as kick out of the stirrups. Gravity and the horse's movement help with loosening/relaxation, and my gentle stretches help release, too. At the same time, this is where I try to unlock the pelvis, such that it is following the horse's motion.

I like Teresa's comment about shutting your eyes and "feeling." I approach riding very analytically, but it isn't until I've learned to feel something and respond that it actually works. If you play a musical instrument or touch type, you have to train your fingers to work independent of your mind. I think riding is similar, it is a right brained activity that is so complicated that we have to use our left brain to learn it first. So, if we have to think about it, we are often too late to influence the horse :D

The inside muscles of the legs in the thigh area can be too tight - in fact this is commonplace. But if they aren't, the whole leg can be a helpful aid. If the "gripper muscles" (adductors?) stay tight/contracted, then you don't want to use a "whole leg" aid and may want to limit your leg aid to the lower half.

I guess I wrote about using the "whole" leg because, in my mind, I was thinking of positioning the front legs where I wanted them when I am working on straightening my horse. This helps me rather than trying to put the hind end somewhere to straighten. I tend to "guard" the hind with my outside leg to prevent an "escape." So, a "whole leg" aid can be useful if you are careful about softening it after the aid and have a nice draped leg to start. Maybe that suggestion doesn't work for everyone at first, depending on their level.

We all have a tendancy to use our hands and eyes first. With riding, we want to use our peripheral vision (soft eyes) and have as a goal to have imperceptible hand aids - the conversation between a horse's mouth and your ring finger is private. Very hard to reach that point. But the overall lesson with the hands is to do less, but remain conversational. If things are not going well, take a break on long reins and then try again, with quieter but living hands.

Seatbones can be unequally weighted, so try to sit evenly. Open your frontline - think "proud" but be sure to have a following seat. For a half halt, you basically stop following for a moment, taking care to maintain an open front line on your body without "swaning" your back. Typically, this is accomplished with your back momentarily stopping its flexing with the horse. You can think pause, hold your breath for a very brief moment then release. Ask again if there is not a response.

A stronger half halt may include a little down motion with your seat bone(s). Or a momentary brace of the leg. Or even a close/release of the ring finger(s). What usually works well for me is to request and release and request again if the response isn't there.

Some folks request and hold for a response. I think this can be rather dramatic and confrontational, especially for sensitive horses and mares.

You can combine an assortment of aids to make a more specific half halt - say the aids on the stiff side to discourage that bulge. This is were the experimenting can start - what makes your point and gets a good result? Then move to "classical." Of course we want text book classical, but we may have to do some incremental suggestions/approximations along the way.

You can do lots of transitions, too. Frequent transitions between gaits can help get a half halt through. It is as if you go to halt but change your mind! You can get a horse listening nicely if you keep varying the work.

When things are going well, I stop with the requests for a few strides. As they deteriorate, I will begin again, but I try to catch the deterioration before things have really gone to, er, heck.

I think we all are trapped into thinking there are magic buttons that if we only knew how to push them, the horse would obey. I fell for this for some time. What works for me now is to think of "this is the perimeter of what I want to channel the horse to do" and then, gasp, experiment with strength and combinations of aids to help the horse understand, while keeping the classical blueprint in mind. This is the feeling part.

As far as mantras, I try to put them in the "positive" light. I don't know about you, but if you tell me, "Don't do XXX," the only thing I'll think about is XXX! Instead, I try to tell my mind to "think of YYY" to suppress XXX thoughts, :D

Teresa, you are so lucky to have such a connection to Herr Zettl. Aren't you in NC? You must be a student of Cyndy's or "horseperson's" - lucky in either case.

As far as "when will I get it?" which was a burning question I had for years - I've decided it will take a lifetime to begin to understand what the horses have to teach me. Recently, I've even been able to delude myself into feeling like "I'm getting it."

But then my teacher tries to push me up the slope to the next plateau ... and I don't got THAT!

Cheers.

Posted on Saturday, Aug 18, 2001 - 2:35 pm:

Hi Chris,

excellent comments, as always. No I'm not is SC, but actually in Nova Scotia, Canada (just above Maine). My coach moved here from Ontario to retire, fortunately for all of us. My horse andI have come so far under her tutelage I can't believe it. In one lesson I did with her, my horse and I finally got the idea of 'connection', I was so proud. However, she just said, "ok, now we're going to..." Chagrigned I said, "what can't I bask for a bit?" and she said, "Ok, for two minutes, then we build on it." So well I'm never pushed past our limit, I'm not allowed to stay anywhere too long. Keeps me from getting arrogant. :0

I too don't like the holding half-halt, I find that it just teaches the horse to brace himself/herself against pressure, but the repeated asking works wonders.

Just to add to input on the looking, remember to look between your horses ears not at his/her neck, it closes your posture too much.

Boy I hope Lisa wanted all this advice.... :0

Teresa

PS wish me luck, Woody and I are off to 2nd ever dressage show tomorrow (non-cef).......

T.

Posted on Saturday, Aug 18, 2001 - 4:06 pm:

Don't know about Lisa, but I sure enjoyed it. Thanks for another great read. :]
D.

Posted on Monday, Aug 20, 2001 - 9:11 am:

Heavens, all this advice is exactly what I was hoping for! Thanks to all of you for sharing your knowledge and experience in such a thought-provoking way.

Lisa
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