Perfecting the halt

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Cassy

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I am having problems getting my horse to halt without leaning on my hands or on the right rein leaning and swinging her bum in. We spent ages this morning in the school doing walk to halt and trot to halt but in the end I had to admit defeat, if I shorten my reins she hangs on the bit if I give her a looser rein and try the voice aid we do amble to a halt everntually! I have read all the books and looked on u-tube for inspiration and tried various combinations of aids, but still she leans. She is quite a heavy horse which doesn't help. Any ideas please?
 
My horse is a real leaner but we have somehow managed to perfect the halt. When I was taught how to do it I was told to keep the leg squeezed, then squeeze reins, shoulders back and then take squeeze off when hes stopped. If that makes sense? Also, if he didn't stop I would circle around and ask for halt again until he did it. He got the message eventually and now I only have to adjust my shoulders nd put my heels right down and he stops!! This only works in the school though, unfortunately he won't do it when we are out on a hack!!!
 
Have you tried using your voice as a command? Horses get very good at understanding vocal commands, such as WOW. Say it quite firmly and loud enough for the horse to hear it well enough. I like to teach horses to halt on a loose rein, and when i pick up a contact and say WOW, they should stop.
Start by walking on a loose rein, but short enough so that all you have to do to put pressure on her mouth is pick up the reins slightly. To ask for a halt, use your voice and rein aid at the same time, so the horse starts to understand what the word means. Eventually you should be able to stop the horse from voice aids only.

If she leans on you, its important not to pull back on her. She is stronger than you, so its important for her to back off the rein, instead of lean into it. I always teach halt with backup. Basically, if you dont have a good halt, you wont have a good backup. And vise versa. and it moves the horses weight to its hindquarters.

So when you halt, ask straight away for a backup for a few strides. Then release. Maybe get a good backup from the ground first, getting her light and responsive.
Once its good on the ground ask it from the saddle. So when your walking round on a slightly loose rein, ask for a wow, then straight away ask for a backup. As soon as she backs up a stride, release the rein. The release lets her know shes done it right. Do this a lot, so that soon she starts to respond to the aids better. The trick is to get her to understand what the pressure on her mouth means. If she leans, she doesnt know.

Another thing i use to stop a horse is seat and leg aids. To halt, my seat becomes lighter, and i squeeze with my upper thigh. So this combined with pressure and release, should teach her to stop better and lighter. Just make sure she doesnt lean. if she does, keep asking for the backups after the halts, eventually when she stops, she should anticipate the backup and shift her weight to her hind end and lighten her forehand.

It takes repitition, but you horse should get the idea. Hope this helps somewhat.
 
If they are leaning like that it would indicate they are on the forehand and, as JennyHarvey said, practising rein back in hand and in the saddle helps to get them to put their weight more on their hindquarters. This will then help them to halt. When you areriding make sure they are not rushing,encourage a steady walk (use half halts to help) and do not allow you horse to lean on your hand. Mine used to do this, it is all about their balance so that is what you have to work on. i find practising a lot of transitions (walk to canter etc) helps and doing lots of changes of direction ( do a fair few serpentines) and thinsg like turn on the forehand just helps them to lighten up in front as it stops them getting into the 'wooden' way of going. Also, when you are preparing to halt - think about where you want to help and start to change down your transition a fair way beforehand - fix your eyes on a pont straight ahead and prepare to halt, we were always taught to suck in our diapraghms (spl?) and this sort of makes you squeeze with your thighs (it's hard to explain in writing!) and just think HALT! It does take a while but it does work and your horse will soon recognise the change in your body and what it means.
 
Do you have a good instructor? Didn't think it would be possible but you can get a horse to halt just by clenching your '6-pack' (no, that isn't what mine looks like!). We did it first with plenty of half-halting in preparation and at the end of a more 'exciting' session when we were already in-tune. Worked more-or-less from then on (assuming there weren't galloping-through-field-opportunities to be missed!).
 
Tickles said:
Do you have a good instructor? Didn't think it would be possible but you can get a horse to halt just by clenching your '6-pack' (no, that isn't what mine looks like!). We did it first with plenty of half-halting in preparation and at the end of a more 'exciting' session when we were already in-tune. Worked more-or-less from then on (assuming there weren't galloping-through-field-opportunities to be missed!).
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what we were taughtto do - it is interesting how it works.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Certainly a few things to try. I have just started having lessons again and my instructor rode the other night and she managed to get a much better halt. All I need to do is find out how she does it. I think she has been leaning on me for so long that I have got into the habit of carrying her. When out hacking (we walk mostly as not much hacking near me) I like her to chill so she enjoys her hacks. But she does carry her head low and this makes my shoulders ache. Should I be kicking her on more? If she sees something she doesn't like her head comes up and she can be quite light in the hand.
 
I also can halt horse via my abdo muscles but also I need to either tilt my pelvis either slightly back with most horses but with the Todmiester I tilt my pelvis slightly forward.

It takes a bit of practice to be able to get the breathing, abdo tightening and pelvis right but it does work. This is all done without any contact with the horses mouth.
 
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