How do you ride your Half Passes?

[Heather]

That's exactly why I start with SI...cos I was really bad for going 'erse first'

 

[Candypony]

Yes but thats because CP cant go straight 

CHEEKY!!!  

Twiddly Widdly (aka Candy) says PAH to your straightness... actually (and bizarrely) both my regular instructor and Filipa have me working on MORE flexion recently... done a bit too much on straightness perhaps?!?!

[issywizz]

CHEEKY!!!  

Twiddly Widdly (aka Candy) says PAH to your straightness... actually (and bizarrely) both my regular instructor and Filipa have me working on MORE flexion recently... done a bit too much on straightness perhaps?!?!

Nah its just that the Portugese only go sideways 

[Larri DB]

At Turville we always trained the horses by riding travers short side, hold it round the corner - like riding a quarter pirouette and then take the same feeling in travers across the diagonal - the first couple of steps would be quarters leading but you corrected that by using the outside rein to bring the shoulders across.

Once established we just rode a half pass from any point on any line, inside leg in front of the girth for inside bend and slightly raised inside hand for flexion, outside leg back to ask the quarters to come off the track and guide the shoulder across with the outside rein on the neck (never, EVER taking your outside hand over the withers!!) So it wasn't ridden out of either SI or TVS it was simply a half pass, straight and true (as a numpty like me could make it lol!!)

[Heather]

I think at Luis Valenca's we were just never taught to do HP from anything specific. I think I did ride it from SI before I went to Luis's but when you are riding in a lesson of 6 stallions, in quadrille form, having to change from one movement to another in a split second, or risk b****ring up the rest of the formation, you just get so used to being able to do whatever movement without even having to think about it or even prepare for it.

Even on a strange horse, like the Luso stallion I used for the Pencoed demo, ( I will be able to post video of that shortly when the owner sends me it) I wouldnt even have to think about whatever movement I was performing. It becomes so automised, even to a left and right challenged person like me, when you have done it so many times on so many horses!!

[cirocco]

Ive got such a small area to work in, 45ft x 50ft approx. uphill and on a wonk.

I want to do more at home, save time going over to the school.  usually ive done just in hand work, he learned backwards and sideways 'both ways', in hand there, so saving time.
But I want to get jim doing some half pass quietly at home, [he does trot leg yield on the lesson.]

So if ive read this correctly. I warm up then in walk, and on a bend, 'say were going right'..We come out of the right bend with him looking right,  I put my outside

leg back and right leg on the girth, holding outside rein allowing inside rein and hopefully we have a stride of HP... and build on that. Progressing to two ...
Off to play now, ill report back later....

[Woody]

lippa - maybe you need someone to just build you a temporary wall across your diagonal then with a gap to get though at each end - proble solved

[Heather]

No, just a velcro pad on the horse's side, that is if she remembers to stick the leg on it before starting the half pass  Inside leg off is the biggest cause of the rider's body tilting too- you should see some of our 'Leaning Tower of Pisa's' in my new book!!

[Christine]

My light bulb was to lift my inside hip forward to start the movements (of course it may have been in the wrong place to start with ) and voila the tricky half pass left right came off.

[Candypony]

Funny, I got my best ever canter half pass yesterday - the reason..? we'd been working on walk canter transitions, using just my inside seat bone to ask for the transition (I'm still stunned that this worked  ).  We'd started by using just the inside leg, then removing that too...  The result was that the canter was straighter, balanced and more engaged (Candy has been consistently over reacting to my leg - outside leg back = quarters in and PING into canter!!). 

Somehow this meant too that my inside leg was on better so then when it came to asking for half pass, I could keep the balance and rhythm to the canter because it was there.. not sticking out like a spare part of my anatomy!!!   

Felt great 

[Heather]

Super Sally!!

For those who havent seen it, I put a video of Kay and her ex racehorse Monty learning lateral work, on Society forum, including half pass. It might be of interest. I will put it on the video forum shortly.