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tool to communicate with our horse. Here is how the half-halt is most commonly described: "A momentary enclosing of the horse with all the aids, followed by a release". The reason I like this definition so much is that it is so precise and descriptive, and it emphasizes the most important aspect, the release, by adding the word momentary. What should your horse’s response to such a half-halt be? Your horse should answer in one, two, three, or all of four ways. First, if he had lost his focus, he should become attentive to you. Second, he should engage more. Third, in case you are in the trot, he should slow down in the trot, or if that is what you wanted, come down to the walk. Finally, he should stay tuned to you, ready to execute a new demand. I promise I wanted to make this easier to understand, but the more I get into it, the more I realize how many different situations we encounter when riding that it is impossible to deal with all of them in theory. The experts say, after all, that you learn riding only by riding, but they also say that theory makes practice meaningful. Arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can, then hop into the saddle and practice sitting, feeling, and thinking on your seat. (I did not hear a whistle, so it must not have been a foul.) Please read this paragraph to its end and then think about the problem I will present to you. I would like for you to visualize yourself riding a horse in the described situation, making a decision how to deal with it, and then turning that decision into action. Next you will need to “feelalize” the horse’s response and evaluate it for correctness. Please do not run to Webster’s for help. You will not find the term “feelalize” in it since I just made it up. What I mean by it is “the imagined feeling“, like “the imagined seeing” in “visualizing”. I am sorely tempted here to commit my third foul, but it is too early in the game. Here is the promised situation that I would like for you to examine and deal with. You are in a working trot, on the left hand, moving from H to F where you are supposed to bring him down to a walk. Just past E you feel your horse loosing power and putting more weight into your hand. What would you do? Just stop reading. – Think. Act. Feel. Then formulate your solution to this problem, and return to the article. Here is what I would do, and why. The loss of impulsion and the shift of the horse’s weight towards the forehand are the immediate problems that need to be dealt with right away. A half-halt is the answer since it will engage the hindquarters and ask the horse to lighten the front. So I will brace my back, squeeze with both calves, and firm my hands. As I release (softening, not giving) the reins, I expect my horse to be active in the hind and soft in the hand. If there is no or not sufficient improvement in those areas, I repeat the half-halt but stronger. If necessary, I must repeat stronger and stronger until I get the desired result. The guiding principle here is that you should do as little as possible but as much as necessary. We wanted to keep it simple and had agreed to expect a willing partner, however, at times even such a horse loses focus and temporarily ignores its rider. That is the very reason we must be listening to our horse at all times and ride half-halts to keep him focused on us. The aids should have accomplished the refocusing, the improved engagement and renewed lightness of the horse.
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