hi it's josie and today i would like to share with you how i taught myself to do a half halt
i was forever being told by my coaches half halt half halt and nobody ever really told me exactly
what to do or what it really was so i had to go off and try and sort it out for myself
and this is how i taught myself to do it and now it has become how i actually teach
a green horse to do it so there are many different half halts we half halt to tell the horse are you
listening are you ready it actually helps the horse to get rebalanced before you
do a movement on him you should half halt before every transition you should half
halt after every transition you should half halt before you turn off of the long side you should
half halt before you turn on to the long side you should half halt if your horse is starting to fall
lose his balance and fall on his face so within a training session i would do hundreds of half halts
but in the beginning i taught myself this way and i made it methodical so that i could do something
that would then become a habit that i didn't have to think about it happened on automatic pilot
so then i could actually do the half halt without thinking about it while i was concentrating on
something else so if you like this video i would really love it if you would give me a thumbs up
please subscribe to the channel that helps me grow as a channel and in the comments i'd love
you to tell me if you understand half halt or if you don't and then i'd love you to let
me know if my video has actually helped you and if you're going to go out and practice it
i'd like to tell you that you don't actually develop as a rider if you
sit there and watch youtube videos yes it's great go and watch them get your information
but go out and try what you're seeing and see what sort of results you get let's get started
so to be able to do a half halt your horse has to understand the go and the stop aids
if he doesn't understand them you're not going to be able to manage to do a half halt on him
and we use those two things to troubleshoot the half halt if it's not happening for you
so if the half halt doesn't come through and when we say that all we really mean is that the horse
didn't actually answer your aids we will go back and find out was it the go aid was it the stop aid
okay so let's start our horse in trot and i'm just going to talk you through it before i actually get
on and do it so this is how i do a half halt so you have to have a contact on your horse's mouth
because he has to feel you telling him with the rein to listen or are you ready or are you there
so basically i'm riding along and we'll do it in trot but i'll talk you through it and i go
oh i can do one in walk actually i'll go are you listening are you listening are you listening good
boy all i did there was go are you listening are you listening are you listening so it's
like squeezing a sponge and i do it three times so once to warn the horse second time to check
that he's listening third time to actually finish the halt so if wayne can zoom in on my left hand
i will go are you listening all right he's pretty switched on so he listened to the first one but if
i was going to troubleshoot that i would suggest that i used too much rein then not enough keeping
him going forward because i really didn't want him to stop on that aid so we'll try that again
are you listening are you listening and halt good boy so when you do are you listening you
need to have just gently enclosed your legs around your horse you're not giving
him a go forward aid but what happened back there was that i had no leg on him so i just
basically closed my finger on the rein and he stopped because the end of the day you want the
hindquarter to come a little bit more under the horse to do a balanced transition be it a down
transition or just a half halt at the same time as asking with my fingers are you listening i
will be growing a little bit taller in my seat and pulling my core putting my core on so setting my
tummy muscles how else can i explain that to you if you pull your belly button to your backbone and
blow out through a straw you will have flexed all of your core muscles there so i'll go one
two three it's looking a little bit unattractive guys but it's very hard to coordinate something
and talk to you at the same time all right so let's go off in trot and see how that looks so
now i have a nice soft contact with spider's mouth every time i rise i'm going to close my outside
rein and i will count one two three for you and then on the third one i will ask for the halt
so it will be like are you listening are you listening sorry not a halt walk are we ready
okay are we listening are we listening walk good boy
and i do the same before an up transition i touch my outside rein are you listening and how do
i know that he's listening to me i don't know go back and watch that bit that left ear flicked back
at me he was thinking out there and i flicked back i feel the horse's body underneath me just sort of
change in shape and form so he's going oh okay because my half halt is are you ready are you
listening we're about to do something so before an up transition are you listening yes he is are
you listening yes he is are you listening now he's going against me so i just aborted mission there
flies are friendly here in australia are you listening are you listening trot good boy
are you listening are you listening walk we're going to build on this for the half halt guys
okay so are you listening are you listening trot it becomes a habit for the horse too to
know that on the third time you're usually doing something are you listening are you listening walk
and that was an anticipatory up transition that spider did then
and i never get cross with my horses when they anticipate it why would i they're trying to
please me when people get cross with their horses because they anticipate
things i get frustrated with the rider my horse is trying to please me by doing what he thinks
i want how amazing is that anyway here we go are you listening are you listening and trot
and this time what i'm going to do is because you'd be doing this until you know that your
horse is really listening and he's anticipating the down transition and then what you do is you
go are you listening are you listening no i want to keep trotting so let's see how we go
with that hey listening a listening no i want to keep going good boy so that i want to keep
going bit was my legs went on a bit firm and said no keep going and my body went forward
let's try that again
are you listening are you listening and trot on good
are you listening are you listening and walk
then you mix it up and are you listening are you listening trot on
are you listening are you listening no go on and trot good
are you listening are you listening corner
are you listening are you listening walk
are you listening are you listening canter good boy
are you listening are you listening trot good boy you don't always need three half halts and i don't
always use them anymore but in the beginning i stuck with it for some consistency to make my body
do something without me having to consciously think about it so i hope that helps you go out
and just work on that do lots of are you listening are you listening walk from trot are you listening
are you listening walk when you know your horse is listening and you can feel he's anticipating it go
no no i don't want to walk now let's keep trotting that is the beginning of teaching your horse a
half halt and that is how you would teach yourself i hope you enjoyed that guys thanks for watching
you