a respectable full halt at or near X. If there is a real belligerence in my horse, the first priority is to come to a halt at X; to accomplish that goal gracefully is desired, but in this case secondary. I will still try to change his mind with strong half-halts, but in case he ignores them, there will follow a very sharp full halt to insure that he halts, preferably at X. Remember back to one of the principles which states that you must do what is necessary to achieve obedience from your horse.
     This now causes the unpleasant subject of punishment to rear its ugly head. It has a place in a dialog with our horse since horses at times will refuse to cooperate and must be made to understand that you, the rider, are the chief in your partnership. Like in human affairs the punishment must fit the crime, and it must be educational to the horse at the same time. In order to fit both criteria, the punishment must be defined as, “a correction strong enough to cause pain“. It must be immediate in order to allow the horse to connect it to its misdeed. It must be administered without anger, and it must be short to give the horse a chance to prove to you that he has seen the error of his ways. The next time you observe a rider beating up on her horse please realize this serves no purpose. It may make her feel better because she has satisfied her need for revenge. She may also fool herself into believing that those people watching now know for sure that it was all the horse’s fault, but she has not improved her horse. We only punish to correct.
     There is one more aspect of the aids we must address, and that is timing. If you can apply an aid at the optimum time, it allows it to be much lighter and it will enable the horse to be faster and smoother in its response. Timing is, however, feeling, and feeling is impossible without a relaxed and secure seat. We use the driving aids to either increase the energy for more forwardness or more collection. For the sake of this explanation let us assume that the horse is moving at its best rhythm for this gait, so in order to increase the forwardness the horse must lengthen its stride. The best time to accomplish this is that moment when the hind leg is off the ground and swinging forward. If, on the other hand, we want to improve our horse’s collection, we want him to sit just a fraction of time longer on the weight bearing leg so the joints will bend a bit more and as a result push off a little harder and in a more upward direction, thus shortening and elevating the stride. The most effective aid would be a short firming of the reins at the moment the inside hind leg is on the ground. As another for instance, consider the haunches in. In order to ask the outside hind leg to cross over and in front of the inside hind leg, it is much easier to explain to the horse while the outside hind leg is beginning to swing forward. Just so that you do not go and sell your horse now because you cannot feel the moment your horse’s leg is on the ground let me tell you that your willing partner will respond correctly to your aids in spite of your timing being off. This generosity is in my opinion one of the great attributes of our partners in this sport. They are so forgiving and trying to make up for our mistakes because they desire harmony with their riders. Please take every opportunity to give them harmony so that will not become frustrated and unwilling to work
.      Dear reader, you may have noticed by now how hard it is for me not to slip into talking about the seat, and I must confess that it is just as hard