This is something that has bugged me for a long time. I was recently looking at some videos of professional riders, in FEI tests. One thing I noticed was that nearly all of them, really few exceptions, had what I would consider to be a very poor halt at X upon entering the ring. Collected canter (more or less) down to X and then slam on the brakes. For crying out loud! That’s an important transition. Yes, your horse has probably done enough tests that he knows the halt is coming. But he only has an approximation of where X is, you are the rider, you are supposed to let him know a transition is coming up! It’s so sloppy and IMO, very unfair to the horse. Canter, canter, canter, half-halt, half-halt, half-halt, halt. How hard is that? A canter-halt transition should be from an extremely collected canter - pirouette quality canter. If you aren’t collecting him all the way down the centerline, you are going to get an abrupt halt that he likely falls on his forehand and/or takes a step back for balance. When I started showing at the FEI levels, I recall that one backward step as being the cardinal sin on your entry. Automatic 4. Now, I see horses doing it at the top levels of our sport and I just scratch my head. What do you all say?
Well, from a practical perspective I know that cantering in on the centerline can be a serious moment where the horse goes behind your leg, so I would understand riding them so forward into the halt that it is not a snowflake halt. I do think you see better entrances on more experienced horses and also in the freestyles.
Having made the huge jump from Level 1 to Grade 5 Para, I have learnt not to judge others. Unless you’re competing at [insert level here] and owning it, I figure no one has the right to judge. One of my tests is canter in and halt, and it is harder than you think.
The OP makes specific reference to having competed FEI themselves so I think their comment is fair.
I would also say that many riders are educated spectators of riding that is above their current ability, and that informed discussion of what we are seeing is important for spectators to develop both their own ability and their knowledge of the sport.
Interestingly in most other arts and sports this is considered just fine. We are allowed to judge musicians even if we only sing in the shower, we are allowed to be arm chair coaches of football and hockey. We are even allowed to be informed observers of jumping, to notice when someone chips or jumps long or touches a pole.
But bringing your developing eye to watch dressage, and one of the reactions will always be “well, don’t comment if you can’t do it yourself.” Which is odd, I think.
It’s hard to stay straight at the canter. It’s hardER to stay straight as you collect the canter more and more into the halt. The judge (at least one of them) is in a particularly good position to see how straight you are.
I think if you are competing at PSG or above, staying straight in collected canter shouldn’t be that hard. But, for sake of argument, I’ll give you that straightness is quite important and could be a consideration as to why riders aren’t preparing for the halt better. If you were the judge at C, would you give a lower mark for a little loss of straightness, or for an abrupt, on the forehand, halt?
KyrieNZ - I was definitely not referring to para riders. You/they have a whole lot of challenges that I haven’t experienced, so would never presume to judge. While I have competed at the FEI levels, and trained several horses and students up as well, I would agree with Scribbler that someone with an educated eye could see what I’m referring to and comment on it without having done it themselves.
I recommend watching some tests on YouTube and see for yourselves. Some people get a smooth, lovely transition, some don’t. It’s interesting to note the differences and I think it’s an exercise that hones your eye.
I find this quite hard - you have to have perfect timing to get that float into the halt with each leg squaring up perfectly. And my timing is not that perfect, especially when I’ve got 100 other squirrel thoughts running through my head at the same time about straightness, collection, sitting up, roundness…
My horse likes to hit the centerline, pull through the hand and get behind the leg - we get into a pulling match and then “oh crap, we’re at X, halt dxxx-it.”
I think there are also a lot of people who have gotten scores/comments about “walking into halt” or “stuttered into halt” and to try and fix it, they swing too far the other way by getting abrupt.
Note I have NOT competed at this level. And I’m a crappy amateur.
When scribing, judges who are viewing halts from head on have almost exclusively commented on promptness, immobility and straightness of the halt. For all levels. There is the occasional obvious above the bit, pulling, ducking, etc. But the first three things are almost always the factors about which judges comment. I can see where someone competing a lot would then tend toward abrupt rather than balanced because loss of balance is typically not marked down as much as lack of promptness at higher levels is. Once you’re getting into the international ring with judges on all sides, that halt quality is already somewhat ingrained.
Just for fun, and because someone posted above that horses don’t know where X is so while they know they’ll stop somewhere we have to tell them when…
This was my mare’s first show, and she figured out she was supposed to stop when she got near the middle of the arena. I didn’t ask for this halt - it’s abrupt and unbalanced, even if she made herself square. It’s also before X. I can’t imagine it’s not a struggle with many GP horses to avoid them “helping” like this. https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fp0fYQqE4MM
You’re right, netg. The GP horses do often “volunteer.” That makes schooling tricky because they so easily memorize the test. But I’ll tell you that the volunteers are the horses you want to be riding! Makes your job harder but they are so fun to ride and train because they like what they do and they are thinking about it!
This is all just my opinion. Yours may vary - isn’t that the best part of equestrian sport? No two horses are the same, just as no two riders are the same. I can say with pride that my highest marks at all levels over the years have been for centerline-halts and rein back. It’s just something I’m picky about. (My OCD at work, I guess.)
I will say that my grousing about the halts is directed mostly toward pros, not AAs. Pros should not have ten million things going through their heads as they canter down the centerline. The aids and riding should be essentially reflexive at that point. Again, JMO.
This last is a good point.
If we are looking at top level pros who can presumably make their horses do anything, and we see a trend, that is clearly a choice or something that is being rewarded in scores or a trade-off to get one quality at the expense of another. Within the broad frame work of a discipline style and focus are always evolving, for better or worse, and people are making choices.
So if you are seeing a rougher halt than you like at this level, and the riders are scoring well, it’s not a case of the riders not being able to do a smoother halt. You arent being a catty railbird at a schooling show 
you are thinking about the choices fully competent competitors are consciously making and being rewarded for.
Is it possible the horse is new to the level? If the pro “can” ride good C/H, but the horse blows it in the entry, perhaps the horse is not experienced at that level. Pros ride all sorts of horses.
I say it is usually the ones with less experience that are the more critical/judgemental.
It shows people don’t see the « big picture » and focus only on the most apparent flaws.
While I have competed at the FEI levels, and trained several horses and students up as well, I would agree with Scribbler that someone with an educated eye could see what I’m referring to and comment on it without having done it themselves.
I can see poor transitions, doesn’t mean I will judge people on that.
Maybe you find the canter-halt transition easy on all your horses, but I’m sure there are other movements/part of the tests you struggle with.
Also, what does it has to do with the step backward? It’s still a 4.
And since you showed at those level, you should also know that the halt is just 1 component of the entrance movement.
What bugs me with your post is not that you want to discuss the canter-halt transition that seems to be problematic in the ring, it’s the fact you are saying that it’s so easy… if it was so easy, there would be more scores in the +70%. Horses are not robots, riders are not perfect.
The discussion would be, IMMHO, more productive if we would discuss the cause and the ways to improve the canter-halt transition.
Bashing on Pro riders, they are bad/they should ride better/what a shame/it’s easy, is not interesting.
Sadly, I see it too - there are some great halts, but the ones that bother me are canter, canter, prop on the front legs, croup high, slam, halt. And I have seen these halts get 8s. It is a super hard movement to do well. I am not an experienced FEI rider, but have done it, and have done it both well, and not-so-well (btw, it is required at 4th level, so not just at the FEI levels).
My mare is fairly good at that variation - canter, canter, prop front legs, halt - it is something she can do pretty easily. I do not consider it correct, and am working hard to correct it. When I had my stallion - he could halt beautifully - canter, canter, sit, sit, sit, halt.
I’m not sure why the first variation is rewarded - but I do agree, I’ve seen it too. I think some of the judges simply go for a square and straight halt? I also think it is a harder movement to JUDGE then the trot to halt. And from a rider standpoint, the risk is that you will end up with a walk step or two - and that is going to cost you points. Or, if you have a horse who really anticipates - they may decide a flying change or a pirouette is coming up, and that makes it much harder to obtain your halt (or your straight halt)…
Alibi - the step backward is a major flaw - the horse is always suppose to be forward thinking - a step back shows lack of balance, and lack of forward riding It is much better with lack of balance to step forward… And interestingly, I’ve had my young First level horses get scored down dramatically (4s and 5s) for one step back at the halt, yet haven’t seen that same level of reduction at the higher levels. And yes, the entire centerline is part of the score, but the ESSENCE of that score is the halt and “strike off”.
As for people “judging” that aren’t riding at that level - think of it as learning. No individual riders have been named, it is a valid educational question.
Yes, I don’t think it’s “judging” in a negative sense to ask why a particular move seems to be performed in a certain way that doesn’t seem completely correct. Especially when there appears to be a change over time so that way of doing things seems to be more common, or not penalized.
Again, in other sports, even other horse sports, that would be OK. If I was watching Grand Prix jumping and saw a series of horses getting clumsy distances to the jumps, I might wonder if that was just rider error, or if there was a tradeoff for some element of speed or height going on. And no, I don’t jump Grand Prix :), but I have watched enough kiddie jumping to see when a horse is going increasingly wrong and likely to crash soon.
I have given exactly zero thought to canter/halt transitions in dressage tests but am finding this discussion interesting because it is eliciting some thoughtful technical answers that are indeed applicable to thinking about balance generally.
I’m confused by your defensiveness alibi. I chose one element of the tests that I happen to have been noticing a lot lately and that I was interested in discussing. It’s not “judging” (although I have judged and I have a keen eye, thank you). If you want to talk about other parts of the test that you see people struggling with, please start a thread, I’ll be happy to chime in. I also don’t find my OP worded in such a way that I sound like I coming down hard on people who don’t prepare their horse for the initial transition. I mostly feel sorry for the horse.
Yes, we all make mistakes in the ring. Yes, I may have seen a one time thing from each of the riders I looked at. I commented on it because it seemed very frequent, that is all.
But tone is everything.
I have one horse that consistently canters down CL to halt exactly the way I wish every damn time. We usually score very high for that movement.
Another horse at home is also super consistent; but he suffers from extreme show nerves (especially the first 2 or 3 shows every season) basically he tries to stop and leave… so there is a bit of cantering…to slam on the brakes…move off fast, for the first few shows until he settles back in. If I waited for these to be perfect he would never show. Yes I take the hit on the score, that’s the price for showing this horse. The rest of the season he becomes much more consistent and the score for that movement starts to go back up.
My young horse, he is green to cantering in to halt. Will actually show fourth for the first time in a month. It’s a good transition with one to two walk steps to square up. I will take the hit until he gets strong enough to hold himself… it’s one movement and I won’t correct these walk steps… that’s the phase of progression he is in. Hopefully within the next month it will be gone or consistently down to just one step. Fingers crossed completely gone by end of season.
Sometimes it’s not that we can’t or don’t want to, it’s based on what we are sitting on and why we are sitting on it. As trainers and riders we make choices… but we all have to live with the choices and the life happens moments.
I think Mondo was saying that incorrect canter halt transitions were still getting high scores. I don’t think Mondo would have a problem with incorrect transitions getting lower scores.
Where did I say it wasn’t?
I just came back from a CDI (scribing at C and M) and the few who took a step back got 4s and/or below. 5´s for « resting hind ».
We were talking about canter-walk trans. and slamming the breaks. It’s quite a flaw… but I haven’t seen it scored much higher than 6… if the rest is ok.
I’d be curious to see those scores with a video in order to really understand how it was judged.
I’m not saying the subject is not interesting or unimportant or shouldn’t be discussed, quite the contrary in fact.
I just don’t see bad halts being rewarded in the show ring and I don’t see how saying « canter-halt transitions are so easy that Pros shouldn’t do mistakes like that, what a shame » is pushing the conversation forward in a constructive debate of some sort.
I don’t think anyone can say incorrect canter halt transitions are getting high scores unless one actually sees the test sheets and those usually are not available.
