Help halting!

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monica987

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Right. I know Sparky isn't great with halts, so thought I would work on them today.

Now my question is, how do you ride a halt well and properly ( or how do you teach your horse to obey your aids and go forwards into it, be square and stay soft!?) ?

He is very soft when walk/trot/cantering, but when I ask for halt, the head comes up, he grinds his teeth and is very rarely square. Today, I tried many different approaches and different ways of riding it, but it was hit and miss really. I tried squeezing him into it and keeping my hands soft, but firm and using my seat - which I beleive to be the correct way. After a few attempts and we only had it one, I tried a more relaxed just sqeeze on the reins. Again, only a couple of times we got it out of numerous attempts.

So, any suggestions on how to keep him soft, and square!?

Thankyou
grin.gif
 
i had this problem with my old pony, i found just to leave his head well alone and just ask with my seat (and keep loads of leg on to keep him standing square) it worked for me, might be worth a try.
 
dont ride down into a halt, ride up into one, grow tall, breathe in, and put your leg on (sounds wierd) but works! if all else fails... take a steady aproach using half halts and the like, eventualy riding into a halt.

Stephen.
 
dont forget to lean back too, my instructer made me have really loose reins, and made me stop him with my seat leaning back, and heels down.
 
Practise slowing your horse with your seat in all paces - see if you can do a downward transition from canter to trot with ONLY your seat, and then try and slow your horse into a halt with your seat only from walk, saying "whoa" softly.

My horse is very fussy with her mouth so if i ask her to stop with my reins she will stick her head up & open her gob wide so I practised doing this & now she's a superstar.

I'm quite heavy though so my bum really can slow her! Might not work for your horsey but maybe worth a stab? Takes regular work on it though.
 
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