ANSWER:
Most horses respond to the driving aid with speeding up, because that enables them to maintain the same level of engagement, or even to reduce the level of engagement. Any loss of rhythm is a loss of balance, leading to a loss of self carriage, lightness, impulsion, and collection. I have often observed that the faster the rhythm becomes, the more the horse seems to ignore my aids. If I slow him down, he automatically listens much better. If you can slow the horse down and keep activating the hind legs, the next evasion the horse will try is to get crooked, either by pushing the shoulder on the stiff side out, or by fishtailing with his croup, first to the hollow side, and if that does not work, to the stiff side.
In order to maintain the same rhythm in spite of increased driving aids, you have to crunch your abdominal muscles at the same moment when you apply your driving aid. That way you leg asks the hind leg on the same side to lift off more energetically, while your seat asks the opposite hind leg to sit down more. The impulsion or momentum you generate with your driving aid helps in bending the grounded hind leg, because the more powerful forward-upward swing of the raised hind leg forces the horse to flex his hip and stifle joints more. In order to transmit the seat aid more effectively, you may have to close your thighs and knees more for a split second, then release them again.
You can use different visualizations to help yourself. You can picture the horse's energy being directed up towards the sky, instead of straight forward. You can also picture yourself moving with fewer mph than the horse. That way, the horse will advance a little faster than you, and you get to sit more and more on the hind legs, instead of the back. You can picture your body weight dropping into the grounded hind leg, when you let yourself "fall" backward and down into the hind leg.
These are associations I have myself when I ride. From a more technical perspective, you use the increased momentum of the swinging hind leg and your own body weight to bend the joints of the grounded hind leg. The timing of the aids is absolutely crucial here.
The hand is also involved, but it is the least important aid. It has to be attached to your hip through your elbow. That way, there is a direct connection from the horse's hind leg to your hip and onward to your hand. If the horse were to extend his hind leg against you in an effort to push his croup up and seat you on your thighs, he would be pulling against himself. You would get pulled deeper into the saddle, and the horse actually half halts himself. This is why the correct seat is so important. A balanced, deep, stable, and supple seat practically takes care of the timing of the aids automatically. The rider does not have to make as big of a conscious effort to find the right timing. The horse and his seat take care of that for him.
When your seat is closed by tucking the elbows in, and when your waist is stabilized by sufficient muscle tone in your abdominal, oblique, lateral, and lumbar back muscles, the fingers merely have to close around the reins for a split second, when you feel the impulse from the hind leg in your hand.
This half halt may have to be repeated every stride, until the horse can balance himself. Every new half halt should be a little smaller than the previous one, until, over time, you can regulate your horse's gait merely by adjustments in the muscle tone of your abdominal muscles.
- Thomas Ritter
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Last Update: January 13, 2007