Mare bracing when asked for a halt - what do do?

[16_Hands]

I don’t normally post on this forum but I have a dressage question and need some suggestions. My mare is older - 22 - and normally she’s great. Fairly easy to put together and get her working in a nice frame until I ask for a halt. She pokes her nose out and braces into the halt and then after she stops she will relax her jaw and poll. I have tried everything to teach her to not brace - holding reins and closing legs, easy on the reins but holding with the legs, sitting tall and engaging my core more, and a few others I can’t remember. She’s gotten a tiny bit better recently but she has done this since I’ve owned her, about a year and always try to school the halt every time I ride her which is about 5 days a week. Teeth have been ruled out, she has been chiroed in the last 2 months, saddle fits, so don’t think it’s a pain issue. I’ve tried changing the bit from her usual - a KK ultra to one with a little more “oomph” and that didn’t go over well.

I need some additional suggestions because our dressage is really quite good until we’re trotting up centerline and she braces in the halt.

Thanks!

[Jealoushe]

Have you tried riding the centerline with a little bend and flexion to one direction, imagining a wall to your left or right and keeping her inside leg to outside rein down the centreline?

Also practice the centreline a lot. Come at it from different areas, and also halt in different areas too.

[netg]

Obviously we don’t see you, so this is coming from my personal experience, but still seems to apply to 80%+ riders. You are not thinking forward enough in the halt. So instead of thinking about halting, think about doing the not-halt. Be ready, as soon as you feel her start to brace, to abort - and go forward again. It’s easier for a horse to not stay through and balanced, so they won’t if you aren’t keeping the hind end working properly - and it’s a pretty easy fix if you do this for a while. Only stop when you don’t feel the brace, and always go forward again when you do. Don’t change your hands, don’t throw away the reins, just drive forward until your horse is going well, then try again.

For me, I picture touch-and-go landings. At first, you’ll feel like this passenger jet. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/viral-video/11209089/Aborted-landing-gives-new-meaning-to-touch-and-go.html but eventually you’ll be like a fighter jet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnez74dKEVg

[joiedevie99]

Practice lots and lots of almost-halts as you ride around the track. Working trot, half halt, prepare to halt, feel her downshift, then close both legs and trot off. If she doesn’t trot off promptly, you’ll have to get after her to tune up the reaction to leg. Then repeat the same with trot-walk-trot. Instead of going forward as soon as you feel the reaction, let her come to walk for one step (not one stride), then trot again. Once you’ve tuned those up for a few days, sprinkle in a halt transition, first from the walk, then the trot.

[Mondo]

Yes to what netg and joiedevie99 said!

I will add: once you are comfortable that she is really tuned to your half halt, be half-halting as you approach X to prepare her for the halt. Generally speaking, if you are thinking only of the halt, you aren’t setting the horse up to halt properly, you’re unintentionally slamming on the brakes when you get to X. Let her know what’s coming, rock her back onto those haunches a bit and half-halt your way into the halt. This applies whether you are at training level or Grand Prix.

I hate it when I see an FEI horse canter down the centerline and slam on the brakes at X! Collect your horse first, please! (Sorry, pet peeve of mine.) I see it in the canter pirouettes sometimes too. They don’t collect sufficiently coming into the pirouette and the first quarter of the movement ends up being too large.

Rant over. Back to halt problem.

[16_Hands]

Great suggestions. Anyone else? Something to work on for sure. Thanks everyone.

[phoenixrises]

While I do something differently now. At the beginning I thought of trying to post through quick sand to get my horse to respond to my seat. rather than trying to stop, I let the quicksand stop us. I guess it sounds stupid but that visualization helped me get it. And just as the others said if she started to stiffen right back to going forward.

[dotneko]

I would start by practicing the halts on a circle - let the exercise help with the movement. A circle emphasizes the inside leg to outside rein connection and helps engage the inside hind leg. Keep your legs on into the halt. Do circles in both directions. Gradually increase the size of your circle until your ‘arc’ is almost a straight line.

[AnastasiaBeaverhousen]

Not sure what you mean by bracing…

Take an inventory of what you are doing to prepare for the downward transition.
Without being aware of it you may be holding your breath, stiffening your back and shoulders gripping with the calf and or knee.

Any kind of tension in the rider gets transmitted to the horse causing it to stiffen in the back and neck and to come above the bit.

Can you get someone to video you so that you can see for yourself what is happening?

walk trot walk and walk halt walk are good exercises for this but don’t drill and drill on it.

As soon as you get the halt you want go on to something else.

Hope this helps.

[16_Hands]

She stiffens in her jaw and poll with her nose out in front of her like she’s pulling against the bit. Once she stops she relaxes and comes back to my hand.

[SuzieQNutter]

I have had the same problem with Sim. With him he will open his mouth and stick out his tongue the moment hubby thinks about halt. (We ride without nosebands).

With me he has always thrown or lifted his head in up transitions and brace on downward transitions.

Sim is really very verbally orientated. My first breakthrough with him was saying the words good boy when riding. I had trained him to lunge first and he new Good boy from that.

So what I started doing last week was I did not use ANY aid for the next gait. Not any at all, except saying the word for what I wanted. This worked. I have now added legs back on for walk as although he has not thrown his head, we had a hesitation in his first step of walk in the trot walk transition.

Eventually I will have him doing them with just aids and no voice. But I will make them old hat first.

[merrygoround]

For whatever reason, she is halting on her forehand. Try keeping your hands soft, closing your fingers lightly, closing your inner thigh muscles as you take a deep breath, and add leg, stopping your body. The minute she checks, give with your fingers, but keep riding her into your stopped body. That last second “give” is a matter of feel.

[Dressagelvr]

It sounds like the mare is being ridden by hand, rather than seat.

You need to ride back to front all the time, even (perhaps especially) to halt.

Video would be helpful, but you need an excellent dressage trainer on the ground even more.

Find yourself a good classical dressage trainer and that person will teach you all about it.