Introduction
Many riders struggle with a square halt for years. For those who are not familiar with the term, here is a brief definition: In a square halt, you should only see two legs when looking directly from the front, from behind, or from the side. The weight should be distributed evenly on all four legs at the lower levels. At the upper levels, there should be more weight on the haunches than on the front legs.
The Problem
Like so many things in riding, this is not as easy as it sounds, and I’m sure everyone has had their share of problems and frustrations with it. Either the horse doesn’t stay on the bit in the down transition, or he creeps forward a little with a front leg after the halt. Some horses take a step back with one or both hind legs after the halt. Some come to a halt with one hind leg out behind. Others swing their croup in after the transition. Some horses even seem to halt perfectly at first, and then take a step back or sideways after a split second.
This can be frustrating if you don’t know why this is happening because if you don’t know the underlying reason, you can’t find a remedy for the problem.
The Theory
The theoretical background is that the square halt is the result of:
Straightness,
Balance, and
Suppleness.
A horse that moves straight and in balance and is so supple that all the aids go through, will halt square most of the time. If your horse doesn’t halt square most of the time, these are the areas that you will most likely have to work on.
The Solution
When you practice halt transitions, begin with the easiest one, the walk - halt transition. As always, it is more important HOW you practice something than WHAT you practice. I would like to give you 3 practical tips today that will create a significant improvement in your halt transitions:
Straightness/Alignment
Tempo
Connecting all 4 legs to the ground and the weight
Straightness/Alignment
The first thing you need to pay attention to is that your horse is aligned on your line of travel with his body, i.e. his left legs should be on the left side of the line, his right legs should be on the right side of the line, and his spine should be right on the line.
If your horse is crooked, i.e. if he leaves the line of travel with his shoulders or haunches, he will most likely not halt square. The natural crookedness causes the horse to move his shoulders towards the so-called stiffer side or the haunches towards the so-called hollow side. The majority of his weight tends to be on the front leg of the stiffer side. If you look at a crooked horse from the front or directly from behind, you will see three or even all four legs.
If the shoulders drift towards the stiffer side, the horse may pull himself forward a little with this front leg, so that the hind leg on the same side is left out behind.
If the haunches drift towards the hollow side, the hind leg on the stiffer side may push the body forward so that it is out behind again.
You will observe that it is usually the hind leg on the stiffer side that is left behind because it pushes the body mass forward and away from itself in the transition, instead of flexing underneath it and supporting the weight.
The better aligned you keep your horse with your line of travel, the greater your chances are of obtaining a square halt. Transitions in and out of the halt within lateral movements help to improve the control over the horse’s legs.
Tempo
The second important factor in obtaining a square halt is that you maintain a steady tempo during the final strides. You see very often that riders allow their horses to become slower with each stride leading up to the halt because they are not focussing on maintaining the tempo. As a result, the horse becomes strung out during the transition. The “wheel base” gets longer. The front legs sometimes seem to be walking away from the hind legs that have already come to a halt. Looking from the side, you may see all four legs instead of just two. In this case, the horse has fallen apart and is very much on the forehand. It will be impossible to ride a good up transition into any gait from this position, until you have restored balance and straightness.
If you keep your tempo like in a piece of baroque music, your chances of getting a square halt increase significantly.
We ride down transitions in three strides, which means we apply three aids in three consecutive strides. The first two aids prepare the horse mentally and physically for the transition. They let him know what is coming and give him time to adjust himself to the upcoming halt. The third aid is the actual execution aid.
You can practice this by counting the strides as you are riding, as if you had a metronome in your head. In the walk or the trot you can count: one - and - two - and - three - and - four - and. The numbers coincide with the touchdown of one hind leg. “And” coincides with the touchdown of the other hind leg.
When you ride the halt transition, you can count it as: one - and - two - and - stop (- and). The half halts are applied during the numbers. The horse comes to a halt on “stop”. The final “and” in parenthesis is the other leg touching down next to the leg that touched down on “stop”.
This brings me to the third and final point.
Connecting All Four Legs To The Ground And The Weight
Instead of halting diffusely however the horse chooses to do it, you can pick one specific leg and send your half halts into this particular leg when it has touched down. So, if you decide to stop into the outside hind leg, you would half halt during the split second when it is on the ground. You can use your pelvic floor, your outside stirrup, plus one of the reins to execute these half halts into the outside hind leg. In this example, you would count the touchdown of the outside hind leg as: one - two - stop. The touchdown of the inside hind leg would be counted as “and” every time.
Counting is a useful tool because it sharpens your awareness for the regularity of the gait.
Normally, we ride down transitions into a hind leg in order to flex the haunches and shift the weight back to the hind legs. But in order to develop the horse’s balance, suppleness, and permeability it is useful to practice down transitions from walk to halt, trot to walk, and trot to halt into all four legs in series of four transitions.
I usually ride the first down transition into the outside front leg, the second one into the outside hind leg, the third one into the inside front leg, and the last one into the inside hind leg. That way, the weight ends up on the inside hind leg at the end of the exercise.
If you are not happy with one of these transitions, you can repeat it. Most horses show differences in suppleness of their four legs, which means that the half halt will go through very smoothly in one leg, but not so smoothly in another leg. These differences vary from horse to horse and are interesting to observe, as they point to muscle stiffnesses in and around this leg.
Initially, it is very common to encounter resistances from the horse during the down transition. The more precisely you ride the transition, the more it will bring hidden resistances to the surface. The more sloppily you ride the transition, the more you can sweep resistances under the rug, which creates a smoother picture, but it won’t improve your horse. When you practice the transitions with great precision, you will eliminate the resistances, and your horse’s throughness, straightness, and balance will improve. Almost as a byproduct of this, your horse will halt square more and more often, until it has become a habit.
Summary
Practice down transitions into all four legs from the walk to the halt first. When they succeed smoothly and easily, practice transitions from the trot to the walk, and finally from the trot to the halt. Focus on keeping your horse’s alignment and a steady tempo.
Because a square halt requires some strength, many horses will take a step back as soon as they have come to a halt. Others swing their haunches sideways, while yet others take a step forward, always with the intention of removing the weight from the hind legs. In this case, engage your core muscles more during and after the transition, and close your legs down to your ankles. If the horse takes a step back, ask him to take a step forward and halt again. If the horse gets crooked, straighten him, so that he learns to stay straight and to think forward in the halt. That is very important as well because the horse learns that way how we want him to halt.
