This exercise teaches the horse
that you are going to give him consistent preparation each time you ask for
halt, and a clear reward – the release of rein pressure – when he does halt.
Being consistent with the preparation teaches the horse to give a consistent
response. Being clear with the release
of pressure teaches the horse to give quicker, lighter responses and you will
soon find that you are getting better, quicker, lighter responses from smaller aids.
Step one. Have someone stand
in front of your horse and try to pull you out of the saddle by the reins. You will instinctively engage your core
muscles, deepen your seat and lock your shoulders and elbows. Then, lean back a tiny bit, enough to bring
your nose back behind the line of your belly button. I call this “sit strong”
and it will become your preparatory aid for halts and downwards
transitions. The horse should never
learn that they can move (pull) the rider and this is an especially bad habit
for children’s ponies to learn!
It takes three steps of any pace
for a horse to make a balanced transition to halt. Think of a horse in a paddock cantering to
the gate at dinner time and halting smoothly, they can all do it!
Step two: Tune in to the steps of the forelegs at walk and count
backwards from three, halting on one. So,
sit strong, then count: Three, Two, One - on One, the horse must be
stopped. You will have to use your judgement
as to how much pressure it takes but be prepared to pull quite hard, at first
if you need to. I pretend I’m riding up
to the edge of a cliff, to give myself a sense of urgency! If the horse has learned to lean or pull against
the bridle, this might feel counter-intuitive, to pull harder to get lighter, but
ultimately we need to retrain the basic response, that two reins means stop. I
also count out loud and insist my students do so. Saying it out loud makes you commit to the
timing and makes it harder to cheat!
The important part of the
exercise is that the MOMENT the front legs stop, you release the pressure. Push your hands forward up the neck and then
rub the withers and make a fuss of the horse.
Positive reinforcement will help him learn even faster. It’s helpful to gauge the degree of pressure
it took to achieve the transition at this point. I use a 0-10 scale, with 10 equalling “pulling
as hard as you can” and 0 equalling a loop in the rein. Most horses need a fairly strong pressure
initially, up to an 8 or a 9 in some cases.
The timing is the important part.
Step three: Walk on again and repeat the exercise: sit strong,
Three, Two, One-release, with the release coming as close as possible to the
horse stopping his forelegs. After a few
repetitions you will probably notice a few things happening. If your horse has some incorrect rein
associations, i.e., has learned to pull against the rider or balance himself on
the hand, he might start to throw his head around and get upset that you are ‘changing
the rules’. Keep going! These horses, often ex-racehorses or horses
that have had training aids used on them, sometimes have many years of conflict
and confusion to unlearn before relearning this new, correct response. The other thing you might feel happening is a
dropping of the horse’s hindquarters as you prepare or begin to apply the aid.
This is great progress! The horse is
beginning to shift his weight back quickly in order to make the transition in
three steps. Watching from the ground,
we often see an exaggerated drop or ‘fold’ of the hind legs as the horse learns
that he’d better get his hocks under him because you are insisting on his
meeting your timing for the transition. This
is the development of a really important building-block for further training,
connecting the hind legs with the mouth.
We want the horse to lower his hindquarters when we touch his mouth and
3-2-1 develops into a highly effective half-halt. But that’s for later. For now, only do full transitions and keep
those releases clear and quick.
Be careful that you are not
grinding your seat down into the saddle through the exercise. Tuning in to the walk steps sometimes invites
a sort of swaying action of the hips in time with the three, two, one
count. Sitting strong means sitting
still - too much activity in the saddle will make it hard for the horse to lift
and engage his back under you.
Keep throwing the reins away and
giving big, exaggerated releases for each correct response. Be really insistent that the horse stops on
One, trust the exercise! The responses will
get quicker and lighter and then you will be able to use lighter aids but be
prepared to insist – don’t be squeamish about using strong pressure if you need
to.
Keep monitoring how much pressure
the response is taking to achieve, using the 0-10 scale. Once the transitions
are consistently meeting your timing and you are getting quick responses from
lighter signals (1 or 2 out of 10), you can begin practicing the exercise out
of trot. Correctly executed trot-halt
transitions are incredibly beneficial to the horse’s training and
strength. When starting to ride the
exercise in trot, it will feel very quick, almost radical! But trust the exercise and be consistent.
Step four: From a slow trot, tune in to the rhythm of the forelegs
(you might need to look at the horse’s shoulders) then sit strong, Three, Two,
One-release, using as much pressure as you need to achieve a halt on One. DO
NOT RELEASE WHEN THE HORSE WALKS! You
are looking for a direct trot-halt transition so keep the pressure on. As the
front legs stop, throw your hands forward to let the horse know he’s made the right
decision. Even if the horse has been
giving light responses out of walk, be prepared to use stronger pressure in the
first few tries from the trot. It
requires lots more coordination and balance to achieve the trot-halt transition
but keep insisting the horse follows your timing; you don’t want to
accidentally train him to ‘dribble’ down into halt.
Step five: As the transitions get better, you can start to test and
further lighten the response to the rein by adding a backwards step after the
halt. Ride the exercise as normal: sit
strong, Three, Two, One-release, then immediately pick up the contact again and
use enough pressure to achieve a backwards step, then release. This is not quite the same as rein back;
there are no leg aids involved, we are just deepening the downwards transition
response and once a horse is already in halt, a downwards transition has to be
a backwards step. With clear releases,
this backwards step will also get quicker and lighter. Again, if horses have ‘baggage’ around poorly-understood
rein responses, you might get conflict behaviour here, head shaking, pulling, and
tilting the poll or tail swishing. Be
consistent and release the pressure the second the horse steps back, even the
tiniest bit.
Step six: practice! Some horses seem to learn this exercise really
quickly and show a really remarkable improvement in the first session. Others need longer to make the improvements
but almost all of them do, this exercise is really valuable for nearly every
horse! I have seen one or two who really
resist and need patience and persistence for the lesson to sink in, sometimes
this is because of a physical limitation.
Horses who are croup-high or built downhill will have to do a big
physical shift of weight to achieve the transition in three steps. One horse I
worked with started displaying conflict behaviours during the trot-halts and
was found to have arthritic changes in his hocks – the timing of the exercise imposes
engagement so he struggled when he had to ‘sit’ in the three steps. If we let him halt more progressively, he
could keep his hind legs straighter and avoid the pain in his hocks, so look
out for signs of discomfort and consult your vet if necessary.
With practice, you will soon see
improvement in the trot-halt transitions, and probably start to get improved
lowering of the hindquarters and folding of the hind legs. Over several days or weeks, a light, soft,
immediate, engaged trot-halt transition from a feather-light touch on the reins
is very achievable! Canter-halt is a
little harder to achieve because of the amount of activity and resulting
inertia during the downwards transition, but the same technique can be used for
these more challenging transitions over time.
Remember that it takes a fair amount of muscular strength to achieve and
be alert for signs of muscle soreness and don’t drill the exercise too
insistently on an unfit or weak horse.
No comments:
Post a Comment