Could Your Attempt At Squaring The Halt Being Destroying The Halt Altogether?
“Will my horse ever halt squarely!?! I try to tap each hind leg under at the halt to teach my horse that’s what I want, but my halts seem to be getting worse rather than better and I can feel my horse getting more and more frustrated!!”
For a long time this was also the technique that I was taught to use to get my horse to halt square. At the halt tap the hind leg through that has been left behind.
A true square halt is the result of balance and engagement, not tricks.
But this only resulted in my halts getting worse as my horse fidgeted in anticipation for getting the hind leg tapped through!
Whenever we worked on getting our halt more square, those halts would quickly go from nice, soft transitions where the horse was relaxed and standing still, to swinging the hindquarters, fidgeting off the centreline and pulling through the bit.
In essence, this method of attempting to get the halt square actually destroyed the halt altogether!
To understand how to improve the halt, we must first understand why a square halt is important in our training.
The halt being square means that the horse has started to distribute weight onto the haunches (engagement) and evenly (straightness); which are important steps on our training scale.
The hind leg that is left behind in the halt is the hind leg that isn’t bearing weight and coming through in your other exercises. It also will more than likely be affecting the softness in that rein, the throughness of that shoulder, the evenness of the stride, quality of bend and canter transitions. It will also be what is stopping your horse from progressing in their work if you are stuck at a particular level.
So when I’m working with my horses and my students for improving the halt, I’m not looking for the halts they give in the arena. I want to know how the horse is standing in the paddock. How the horse is standing in the barn to be tacked up. How the horse is standing on the lead.
Because all these scenarios are an indication of how well the horse is working, how evenly they are training and where they are distributing their weight, which all has the flow on affect to whether or not they halt square.
Before your halt can be square, you must train and develop your horse correctly through the process of self carriage.
