Teaching a horse to halt square

Belle1

New Member
Nov 28, 2005
195
0
0
My horse tends to halt square in front (as long as I have him going forwards and listening) but never square behind, and I am hitting a brick wall when I try to get him square.

Has anyone got any suggestions for teaching a horse to halt square?
 
make sure you have a good walk, then ask for a halt. then use your weight, a person on the ground or a long schooling whip if you can, and a cue (ours is 'stand up') and move the legs into the right place. wait, praise move on repeat.

over time, they will learn what you want and do it automatically.

helps if they can do it inhand aswell :D
 
Unfortunately I have no one on the ground to help, and whatever I do I can't persuade him to just move one leg!! I've tried using my legs by nudging or squeezing, shifting my weight, tapping with a schooling whip but nothing seems to work. If I get too insistant he goes backwards or sideways which is not something I want to encourage when I am trying to get a good halt.
I think I'll have to teach him in hand first and hope I can transfer it to under saddle.
 
This probably won't be of any help as sounds like you've tried but I ask for halt thinking about a good forward transition so give her a squeeze and back end comes under. Same as trot to walk, engage hind quarters so that she steps under.

If one leg is out of place another little squeeze and she moves it under her but that happens only if I didn't ride the halt well in the first place and her quarters weren't engaged, so I would focus on that first.

Did 2 tests on Sunday and scored an 8 on both with the comment 'lovely square halt'. Downward transitions are the only thing we do well at the moment.
 
newrider.com