Timing of the Half-Halt in Dressage

Of all the elements of a half-halt, which is the most important part? It’s timing. Timing is everything.

What are the elements of a half-halt? The best description I have heard describing a half-halt is:

1. drive in
2. wait, and
3. drive out again.

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It sounds like a simple description, but that means:

the horse is forward to the contact
you ask the horse to pause or wait or come to attention, and
you soften and let the horse follow through with the rest of the stride.

All of this happens in the time of one stride, from the time the horse’s legs leave the ground to the time they return to the ground.

The aid of the half-halt is during the moment of suspension and one way to look at it is to encourage the horse to stay in the air a fraction of a moment longer. It is executed by sitting deep and tall, tightening your core muscles briefly as you squeeze the reins, not pull. The secret is in the letting go after the horse has hit the peak of the movement and starting the follow-through to the final stage of the stride as the legs return back to the ground again. If you still have your half-halt ‘on’ at this point, the horse’s only option is to pull against you. The horse has to have the space to finish the stride, as gravity takes the horse back to the ground before bouncing back up again.

Think of a basketball: when you dribble a basketball, you touch it long enough to engage the momentum so that when it returns to the ground it will bounce back up again. You don’t push the ball down to the ground and hope it bounces back up, nor do you push it down to the ground and pick it back up again. All the energy is recycled, collected and controlled in order for the energy to return again.

The moment of suspension in canter is the easiest to recognize from the saddle, as the mane will ‘fluff’. (Alison Martin photo)

Canter is probably the easiest for people to find the moment of suspension and thus the timing of the active aids of the half-halt. The beats per minute are a little slower and there is an obvious “up” moment in the jump of the canter. And if you are not sure, you can look at the mane. The horse’s mane will fluff up during the moment of suspension.

The timing of the half-halt is to ask the horse to jump up higher and stay in the air a fraction of a moment longer. Then release the half-halt or waiting aid as the horse follows through with the stride and the front legs return to the ground. Then you can pick it up and half-halt/wait again the next moment the horse jumps back up again.

In the trot you have a moment of suspension with each diagonal pair of legs. The easiest way to find a moment of suspension is to post. In the posting trot, the moment you post up is a moment of suspension (the sit is also a moment of suspension on the other diagonal legs). The timing of the half-halt as you post is as long as your backside is in the saddle on the sit phase. When your backside is down, your half-halt aid helps the horse wait and hold the diagonal pair of legs in the air, and as they reach forward and start to bring them to the ground, you let your aid soften.

The half-halt in the walk can be challenging because there is no moment of suspension in this four-beat gait. This is why we don’t see collected walk until Third level. The walk is also the easiest gait to mess up and the hardest gait to fix if you have problems. so don’t worry about being too busy with the walk too soon.

With no moment of suspension, the easiest way to feel the timing of the walk is to follow the front legs. Ask for the half-halt/wait as the front leg leaves the ground; try to imagine holding up the front leg in the air for an extra moment similar to during the trot and canter. Follow through by letting the aid go and allowing the step to finish back to the ground.

The biggest mistake we all make is holding on to the half-halt too long before letting it go. For the half-halt to work properly, the letting go is an essential part. Besides, you can always half-halt right away again in the next stride ‒ you don’t have to limit yourself to just one! In fact, you may need a couple in a row and each one will be more effective than the last as they work together and the horse is able to step through in the moment after.

For example, you may need approximately three (possibly more) half-halts to come back from medium and extended gaits, or to very collected canter for canter pirouettes. But one should be enough to prepare for a canter-trot transition, the moment before a flying change, or to let your horse know you are changing from a straight line to a circle.

Another secret to half-halts is that once you have them and your horse is proficient, you will be able to half-halt just on the outside rein (the most common), the inside rein (less common), and both reins together.

Happy riding!