Half pass advice

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mighty attom

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Can anyone suggest other ways to introduce half pass? Currently I do shoulder in on the long side and ask for a few steps of half pass the return to shoulder in to keep bend and softness. Really interested in more exercises . Thankyou.
 
In walk I do a large half pirouette and then half pass back to the track. In trot I was taught to do 1/3 of a slong side with inside neck bend, half pass a few steps over, turn a small circle with lots of bend and then continue in half pass, circle again if necessary
 
has your horse learnt travers?
I start training leg yield and shoulder-in very early on, it's useful straightening work and sets the foundations for your other lateral work.
To get the half pass, IMO it's easiest to teach travers first, because the aids and the steps from the horse are basically the same, plus you can ride travers all the way around the arena if you need to, to get the penny to drop - you aren't running out of space.
Think less about neck bend and more about bend throughout the horse's body around your inside leg.

With the latest horse, she found travers difficult, we did a little HP anyway but it only really improved as she accepted the submission and sitting required to do the travers properly.

I started by leg yielding along the wall with really no flexion at all, then gradually added more bend around my inside leg and really cementing the role of the outside rein. Then 'simply' ride travers on a shallow diagonal line. Remember to sit on your inside seatbone and think of encouraging the horse to step along underneath you, rather than trying to push him sideways from the outside.

Now she has the idea, we are improving mine by getting more submission to the bend at the ribs on the corner preceding the HP, this keeps her back supple and swinging.
 
Mine got it better moving towards the track from SI on the centre line I think it was clearer for him where we were going then! He was quite old though by the time we got round to it ;)
 
F always found travers tricky too maybe it's a welsh thing ;) he did have to nail that a bit more before he could hp. I'm trying to remember what we used to get that but it think similar to you along the wall, in hand helped him too he'd just never been expected to bend like that before :D.
 
Kira needed to dig deep and actually TRY it. She spent a long time saying she didn't know what I meant, that I couldn't possibly be right, nope, absolutely that was an unreasonable request...

and then...
took her to a new arena, she was in a different frame of mind and I said to her that she really must try... all of a sudden the penny dropped. hind quarters concertina-ed up and in the blink of an eye we've got a pretty decent travers and, no surprises, the half pass is easy now. She's like that with everything though, when she consents to give it a go, she realises it was quite simple all along! :lol: just has to have a little protest first.

ETA from a personal point of view, I find that reluctant horses find the travers and then half pass aids easier to react to if I give a pulsing aid with the outside leg. It's tempting, when they are struggling, to end up clamping your outside leg on in desperation... I find that giving distinct nudges with the leg taken off or relaxed momentarily in between is more effective. Kira made me remember that one again ;)
 
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ester said:
Then it becomes a fun new trick, after the can't protestations!
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haha! Yes, got that with the changes now, especially after I rode them on the centre line... got a job to stay in charge of the hind legs now :D I think when she learns tempis we will not be able to canter anywhere!!
 
Interesting move into it from SI - my horse really struggles with travers because he wants to lead with his shoulder in all lateral work. Must try that when he is back in work
 
JillA said:
Interesting move into it from SI - my horse really struggles with travers because he wants to lead with his shoulder in all lateral work. Must try that when he is back in work
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but the shoulder is still leading in the half pass , at least in the beginning of training, if you let them lead with the quarters then you are in trouble. I always set mine up with a step or 2 to make sure the shoulder goes first ;)

Mine wanted to lead with her quarters but on HER terms - actually making sure she did travers correctly meant I was then in control of the quarters and she couldn't just decide to go quarters-in to escape correct work ;)

..eta found it - interesting brief discussion on the link between S-in and HP in the last third of this article, why each supports the other and the differences in the mechanics.
http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2012/12/07/classical-training-half-pass
 
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OP what is your biggest problem with the half pass? Are you losing bend or stepping more with the shoulders or stepping more with the hindquarters?

I use travers and renvers on a circle to improve the half pass - particularly renvers but I like doing figure 8s with renvers on one half and travers on the other - you can change the rein without changing bend.

After a couple of fig 8s I then go back to doing HP on the straight lines to see what improvements I've made and if it's not enough I go back and do more

Sometimes I will continue into half pass from travers on a circle but I don't really like going from shoulder in to half pass on a horse who is only learning as the change in direction can make them off balance, I prefer going in from pirouette or travers on a circle (which is essentially the same thing I suppose, travers just on a larger circle)
 
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Yes I do travers , Obviously the more fluent you and your horse get doing that the easier Half pass will be. I prob don`t do enough travers ! I`d also forgotten how I did a canter half pass a few years ago by starting a leg yield getting confused on which way I was meant to bend the horse- switched half way through and got the easiest canter half pass. ( Realised what I`d done when I was at home!)
 
Thankyou for the Tips , I do renvers and travers on a circle too , I have experienced all 3 problems ! If I get the quarters leading I change to shoulder in to regain balance and control then try again. If I get shoulders too advanced I slow them down to let the hind end " catch up". Have you got an alternative to get the shoulders under control again? I`ve never thought about doing a figure 8 ! Will have a play and see what happens.
 
I did do halfpass from the ground with a friends horse but not with my own which now I`ve remembered this will have a try from the ground with mine too !
 
mighty attom said:
Thankyou for the Tips , I do renvers and travers on a circle too , I have experienced all 3 problems ! If I get the quarters leading I change to shoulder in to regain balance and control then try again. If I get shoulders too advanced I slow them down to let the hind end " catch up". Have you got an alternative to get the shoulders under control again?
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Yes, generally I either keep travelling in the same direction i.e. continue on the half pass line and do a neck rein to move the shoulders over more or I circle away and begin the movement again
 
I started to do it while hacking, in walk.

instructor/trainer (what ever you prefer! :p) taught us to do it in arena by doing shoulder in on diagonal and then asking to move across :)
 
Many would do it the other way having cued the hind to come towards you I never mastered that but have done it that way and on short long reins so rein asking for the bend while you ask body to move away. I might not be describing it right I was taught but been a while!
I just found it helped because it meant I could see stuff more and take it a bit more step by step and if I messed my weight up I didn't confuse the situation.
 
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