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The half-halt is PREPARATION. If the horse is rushing,
imbalanced, inattentive,
he is not PREPARED to meet the next request of the rider.
So the right application of a half-halt should help the
horse, not correct him.
It should give the horse some preliminary information about
what is coming next, chiefly by asking
the horse to listen, collect himself or "stay under the
rider"
and use the hindquarters to accomplish the next request.
The rider also needs to be able to feel when and how much
help
the horse will need to accomplish the next request and be
AHEAD
of the horse in this respect in order for the half-halt to
BE a help and not a correction.
So, to actually help the horse, and not correct him, the
H-H should be thought of as first: asking the
horse to listen/be attentive to the rider, second:
letting the horse know that he needs to be prepared for a
change or request,
third: that the easiest way to perform the request is to use
the hindquarters.
J-A tctt
+++++++
The biggest problem with the half-halt is that it isn't
taught
as coming into play until the horse moves out of the walk
into trot and canter.
So if you accept the first part of my explanation – that the
half halt establishes
that the horse is listening/attentive, then it's clear that
to accomplish the second and third parts of the reason for
half-halt
(prepare the horse for a change by use of the hindquarters)
you really need to teach the half halt at a walk.
But this is somewhat contrary to the school of riding that
relies on the idea of H-H.
But learning to use this idea at the walk is the only
guarantee
that it will be asked correctly by the rider, and
accomplished correctly
(as a preparation and not as a correction) by the horse.
So first, just as in clicker training, you control the
context, or "environment".
If your H-H at a walk is not creating a more attentive, more
prepared horse
there's no point in trying to apply it at a faster more
forward gait.
It won't accomplish what it's supposed to accomplish.
If you can't get a full halt, a turn, and even "go" using
small changes
in your posture and weight, you are really stuck with the
idea
that a H-H is `slowing the horse down to re-balance'.
How did the horse get out of balance in the first place? :)
THAT is what you address.
Did the horse not understand the request?
Did I teach the horse what this request means?
Is he physically able to do it?
Did the rider contradict his own request?
That's all clicker training from my vantage point.
Keep your horse successful, and build on success.
And I don't see this as any different than what Alex is
teaching.
Get the qualities (Attentiveness, Preparation, Using the
Hindquarters) in place -
to a very subtle degree. Then the idea of H-H changes into
the idea
that the rider/ trainer must be extremely precise about his
"cues".
You cannot expect the horse to discriminate between aids
that can mean
MANY things until he is able to generalize that he needs to
listen,
get ready, and use the hindquarters.
At some point though, you are going to have to connect the
horse up to
your position and weight aids, because they do have an
effect on
the horse's posture (self carriage) and balance.
One would usually, as it's commonly taught, need to apply a
half-halt AFTER the horse has speeded
up, fallen on the forehand, etc. Too late I say.
If you want to learn H-H as a preparation, you concentrate
on your own position and try to feel what
change it makes in the horse AT THE WALK. If you can use
your posture/position to get the
hindquarters to "lift" the forehand, make a supple, fluid
turn, or even to lift the horse up into a trot,
you're on the right track.
This is pure clicker training. Notice what the horse
responds to. If you can feel, for instance, a
change in your horse by opening your chest, you are building
a half-halt. If you can feel a change in
your horse – first that he NOTICES a difference, second that
he RESPONDS to it, and third that it
HELPS him (Click-click-click!!!!) -
I'll take another stab at this idea of half-halt.
My teacher calls it "concentrating the energy".
If you think that the idea of H-H is slowing the horse down
to re-balance,
you are essentially working from the idea that you must
first DILUTE the energy,
and then re-direct it. It's much more effective to keep the
idea of where you want the energy in the
first place, and then CONCENTRATE it.
We want to draw the hindquarters to the rider/forehand, not
force them there.
If we can't do that, we can't help the horse to lift the
forehand into prepartion for what comes next,
and you will have to use the rein to try to slow down/dilute
the energy. Instead the action is more of the French
conception of H-H,
that tells the horse "here, right here" with his energy.
J-A tctt
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