What is a half halt?

[ems]

When I was cantering the other day really fast :( :eek: so my instructor told me to do half-halts. Please could someone explain these to me - who you do them and what they do. Thanks a lot. :)

[rainbowphonic]

hi,

The best way to describe a half halt, is to give and take with your outside hand, whilst keeping your inside leg on! This results in slowing the horse down, whilst keeping the impulsion.

I hope this makes sence??? Good luck

[Hevz2001]

A half halt is something I can't do!!!!!! lol :D I bet that didn't help much did it? I started a post on this in the 'General' section, it was titled: Half halt? Impossible?

I got some really good advice from there, also theres a section in Heather's 'kinder way to ride' I hope this helps, I will post a link to the thread later....

Heather:D :D :D

[Hevz2001]

Heres the link!!! Hope it helps...... (http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=6785)

I hope that helps. I still haven't accomplished it yet though! It's something that will hopefully come with lots of practice, if in doubt, ask your instructor.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!:D :D :D

[ems]

thanks everyone for your help and tips. hopefully i'll ge the hang of half halts and i can control the impulsion and speed of my horse!! ;)

ems

[SweetHillsGurly]

;) well, say you're going really fast. you want to half halt. it slows them down a little bit, without changing gaits, and rebalances them. basically, what you do is squeeze(or pull on a hard mouthed horse)on one rein. sometimes, they say to do this if the horse is getting distracted, because it's sorta getting their attention, reminding them that you are still up there, they haven't quite succeeded in getting you off quite yet:D hehe hope that helps.

[SweetHillsGurly]

and i forgot, keep the leg on, you don't want to stop completely! and i didn't know if i could use teh word impulsion w/you knowing or not.... sorry, i just didn't know if you were there or not..... basically, it's rebalancing, going a little slower, getting the hindquarters under him a little bit more on a well trained horse. hindquarters under=impulsion.

[ems]

Yes, I already know what impulsion is, but that's OK. Thanks a lot sweethillsgurly! :D ;)

Ems xx

[Moonlightrider]

I've been having the worst problems with them...

I have a new instructor, and she was trying to teach me to half-halt. Therefore I had to get too fast, but whenever I got too fast, I half-halted on my own. So I never got to a speed where she could teach them to me.

It was quite amusing to watch, because I don't think she realized until the end of the lesson that I already knew about the... and I couldn't help b/c I was working on keeping Dream in a straight line (he wants to drift).

[SweetHillsGurly]

lol moonlightrider... btw i started my torah lessons... yuck. anyway, hebrew high is only on sundays, so i'll finish up on sundays and have the week for the barn... yippee! oky dokes ems, for future, i know i can go on about impulsion, and how wonderful it is.....