Aids for Halt?

[Jes]

Can someone tell me in plain English what the aids for halt are?

We can get fairly good halts in the school, but I don't really know what I do, apart from sort of closing my thighs and giving a feel on the reins.

Out hacking though is  completely different matter.  Basically horse seems to just completely ignore me!  Went out for a hack this morning with friend and we decided to do a schooling hack, asking for square, straight halts and walking on in straight lines.  Well, my horse just decided he didn't understand me when I asked for halt and just kept creeping forward, instead of halting.  He did get a bit better as we went on, but what am I doing wrong?

[Heather]

Hi Jes,

First question! Does your horse work 'on the bit' accepting the bit without evasion?

Heather

[Jes]

Mmmm, eventually!  He takes a lot of warming up in the school before he starts to soften and accept the bit.  He can be difficult to hack out - quite nappy to begin with unless following another horse, but then speeds up as we get to the halfway point as he knows he's on his way home!

He did start softening and working "on the bit" towards the end of our 40 minute hack today, but for the middle part (when he'd stopped napping!) he was more or less ignoring me.

[Heather]

I thought as much! This is why you are having problems with the halt transition. If he is going into it with his head up and back hollow, he will 'dribble' into it, rather than come to an immediate and square halt. You need to address this problem first. Have you any video clips? Also how old, what height, type, etc etc, remind me!


Heather

[issywizz]

How about teaching the 'parelli style halt' ? ( Heather dont shoot me  ) Its very useful imo as it works without the horse being 'on the bit' and is a good start for beginners/novices and also with awkward or unresponsive horses.

[laura D]

How about teaching the 'parelli style halt' ? ( Heather dont shoot me  ) Its very useful imo as it works without the horse being 'on the bit' and is a good start for beginners/novices and also with awkward or unresponsive horses.

  Enlighten me please Issy...

[issywizz]

Ok,very basically,it starts on the buckle.
phase 1= think halt and stop moving with the horse
phase 2=exhale think 'up the body down the weight'
phase 3= lift up the end of the rein in one hand
phase 4= slide the other hand down the reins to the neck
phase 5= split the reins into rein position
phase 6=drop your weight down and bring your elbows to your hips

The phases are useful for the rider as they help to make the aiding clear,most horses will stop at phase 1 or 2 under normal circumstances,certainly be phase 3 which means you have something to fall back on when circumstances are more challenging.
Ive actually altered them a little as I find this works better that the parelli version,but its very similar.
What can also be useful is to teach the reinback-initially you would get the halt and then continue the phases to get the reinback,but tipping the weight slightly forward rather than dropping it down.
The method for halt actually stems from the 'emergency halt' that we were taught for lunge lessons with Suzie years ago,but I think the parreli layout is quite clear and more people are aware of it.
Just dont start riding like her.

[Casey76]

^^Phase 2 is how I do all my downward transitions with Pinto.

But thinking about it biomechanically, it is similar to how Heather also does "halt" (I think anyway!)

First you have to think about your "exhale"

For a pretty direct transition I "huff" as if I was blowing out a candle, but with an open mouth, not with pursed lips as it effects different core muscles.  With an open mouth, the lower abdominal muscles and pelvic floor are activated with a slight tightening of the buttocks, lightening the seat and allowing the horses back to rise (i.e. BHS stylee "and forward to halt") (or at least this is how it feels to me... having sat here in the office huffing away to myself!!!)

For a slower transition, or perhaps for a transition within a pace, or even as part of a half-halt I use a longer exhalation.  A longer exhalation will incrementally tighten the abdominal and thigh muscles giving you greater control over how much "halt" you would like.

Of course I could be the only idiot in the world who cannot separate her breathing from her thigh muscles lol!

[issywizz]

I dont think Heather uses the exhale-I dont normally either as it tends to make them drop their back and result in a rather direct transition if we are talking about classical stressage.However it is useful for training stop on the buckle and getting a good stop in a simple way with a horse that isnt 'on the aids'.

[Casey76]

I didn't mean about the exhale, but all the muscle tightenings etc, rather than the "sit deep and brace" as how I was told in one place 

Sorry, I'm not very good at describing the things I do automatically lol!

[laura D]

Thanks Issy. A bit to complicated for my simple brain - i'm sure I would get the steps mixed up or forget them at the crucial moment!! But its good to learn other ways of doing such things.

What I do personally with my babies is do the Heather bum/thigh squeeze pretty firmly and if that is ignored use the reins together preventing them running through the bit while still doing the squeeze. It hasnt ever taken any of my horses too long to react to the slightest tightening of the seat after that, in fact its just really natural how they just know that it means stop. I don't ever do this in a particularly concious way unless I have a horse that blatantly isn't listening to me.

I'm afraid breathing doesnt really come into it for me - again i'd forget a lot of the time im sure, and apart from doing a really heavy exhale i just cant see how your horse feels a difference!

[issywizz]

Its actually very,very simple Laura,its what I teach to beginners,but I think its a lot easier to have demonstrated than read!

[Heather]

Generally, Sarah, a horse will stop to the tightening of seat/upper thigh but is likely to do so with the head up and hollow. But occasionally, some will slow, then 'dribble' to a halt. I can see that the Parelli halt works , but I just tend to use the same aid from the start, and not change later.

Heather

[issywizz]

I just find that this way gives more room for maneouvre if the horse doesnt listen to the initial request-without people resorting to hauling on the reins-I also like it for beginners as they can use it before they have learnt to have the horse 'on the aids'-it works from a long rein.

[Jes]

This is the thing though...I can get a good halt whilst schooling, with no 'dribbling' to a stop.  I can usually halt by just thinking halt tbh, possibly step 2 in the Parelli type halt.

My problem is out hacking.  I had to really exaggerate the aids yesterday and still didn't get any good halts, although we were almost there near the end.  It's like his brain switches off.  He was even worse the day before, hollow, head up, jogging off, not listening to me!   Aaaarrrrrgh!

He's a 15.1 14 year old Welsh D by the way.  I'm currently riding in a Barefoot Cheyenne, which seems to fit him nicely, he seems very comfortable in it, but it does feel a bit weird to ride in.  I feel like my legs are way too wide and are just waving about in the air, if that makes sense.  I have ordered a hipsaver to see if that helps.  Otherwise I'm going to have to save up for a Fhoenix or Vogue.

Thinking about it, this is possibly partly my fault, as I've had so much trouble getting him hacking out that I've tended to think forward, forward, forward, rather than getting him listening and softening.