Downward transition help!

[dunrobin_topper]

Hi guys, im boring poor topper to death at the moment in the school but ive been keen to get my transitions more fluid and less choppy. We are fine going from walk to trot as he responds instantaneously now and i really feel he is in front of the leg :) Im still trying to perfect our canter transition by doing lots of walk to trot then walk to canter to try and get a nice uphill feel and it seems to be working!

However...our main problem area seems to be coming back from walk to halt! I find myself trying to be subtle and nothing happens! He just tenses up and continues on his merry way! I try not to pull back, so i shortened my reins and closed my legs but still he tries his darndest to ignore me. The only way i can now get a halt (not a very square one!) is not roll my shoulders back and say WOOOOOOAAAAAHHHH really loud! I feel like im having to shout my aids at him and i just dont get what im doing wrong!. He is also like this on the lunge but im trying to sort this by doing a smaller circle and again saying WOOOOOAAAAH. I do make sure when he stops i 'give' and relax my contact but still he has none of it!

any suggestions? :confused:

[jenb]

Whoa can sound a little bit like Walk to horses, so I try to use Stand instead.

I teach halts this way - firstly make sure you're sitting upright and not tipping forwards. Tip your head back and look up at the sky, then moving only your head and not your body, look forwards again. This should get you sitting upright.

Then sigh a big, deep breath out. Close your thighs (NOT calves!), and then if nothing has happened, begin to close your fingers around the rein. Without pulling back on the rein, you can rotate your hands so that your fingernails are facing the sky. This makes the rein aid really quite strong, but without pulling back with your hands and getting into a pulling contest. If your horse has still not stopped, begin to raise your hands upwards, still without pulling. I bet you won't need to raise them high before he stops!

The minute he stops, release the aids and praise him. Repeat, and if you're consistent, he will eventually stop from just a sigh and the closing of your thighs.

Just an aside, horses don't deliberately ignore you (well, sometimes they have selective hearing, I'll admit!). But it sounds to me like he is not understanding your aiding and isn't sure how he should respond. A great book on clarification of the aids is "The Handbook of Riding Essentials" by Francois Lemaire de Ruffieu, an ex Cadre Noir instructor.