Hey, do you Dressage Specialists teach your horses to stop square as a discrete thing? You know, the way people teach their halter horses to always stand up square? Or do you just ride for general straightness and the rest, and then create that stop?
Some horses naturally have “a leg on each corner” and stop square. Others are perfectly happy to stop sprawled. It isn’t that you teach them to stop square, but you teach them to stop in balance - asking them to take distinct half steps forward until they are evenly balanced, and as a result square. Ultimately, the square stop is just a demonstration of balance.
Funny thing - my mare is most definitely part of the latter group. We have worked a lot on getting her to be balanced at all times, including in the halt. At our show this weekend, she was REALLY hot. We’re showing training, so a perfect square halt isn’t that necessary… But since she’s been getting used to balance, she stopped a little frazzled and haphazardly, distracted by everything around her, then noticed she wasn’t balanced, so very dramatically made a big deal about really picking up her feet and putting them in the corners so she was square. I got marked down for the lack of immobility, but laughed at the enthusiasm she showed in demonstrating that she learned about balance. 
For the horse that doesn’t naturally stop or halt square, and most don’t, it is a case of the rider using the appropriate aids to get the square halt.
Some times it’s simply a case of riding them forward into the halt. Others it requires the rider to slip one leg or the other quietly back to bring up the inclined to be left out leg. No one “trick” but a combination of aids to suit the circumstances.
I was once told that you can tell how collected a horse is by how they stop. A truly collected horse will automatically stop square if you keep the collection all the way through the halt.
When my horse hears the “w” word, all collection goes out the window and he jams on the breaks. It’s his favorite command, you know
Interesting. I do teach it as a separate thing, if the horse does not naturally offer a square halt. And, like most everything else, I start from the ground. When lungeing, I always insist the horse halt square, and rearrange them as needed until it becomes habit. I’ve had a few that would “square up” with a vocal command. I also insist they stand square in the cross ties. They have a little over an hour a day to do it my way, then for the rest of the 23 hours remaining in the day, they can stand any old way they choose. Once well established on the ground, I translate it to under saddle. Make sure my aids are 100% correct and then softly tap the offending (usually hind) leg until the square up, or give a verbal aid if they understand that. I’ve had several people tell me, “I can always tell when it’s a horse you’ve trained in the ring because they always halt square!” (That’s silly of course, because any well trained horse will do it, but it’s a nice thing to hear.)
Thank you for all your input.
I have a young horse who is not broke enough that we can start to work on some straightness. And she’s forever wanting to lean down on her RF leg, so I spend a lot of time asking her to get off that one. If you watch her stop on the lunge or in hand, you can see a difference between when she’s puking down on the RF leg and when she’s holding herself square.
So this horse is at the point where I can start to insist on a square halt under saddle (or anywhere) All. The. Time., if that will help her. And if this crooked little horse will need that kind of remedial straightening, I think I might as well start now.
Do y’all think I’m looking at this the right way?
Thank you for all your input.
I have a young horse who is not broke enough that we can start to work on some straightness. And she’s forever wanting to lean down on her RF leg, so I spend a lot of time asking her to get off that one. If you watch her stop on the lunge or in hand, you can see a difference between when she’s puking down on the RF leg and when she’s holding herself square.
So this horse is at the point where I can start to insist on a square halt under saddle (or anywhere) All. The. Time., if that will help her. And if this crooked little horse will need that kind of remedial straightening, I think I might as well start now.
Do y’all think I’m looking at this the right way?
Yes. Making square halts a habit for a horse that doesn’t naturally halt square is not going to do any harm. In fact, for those lapses in the future where your aids are not 100% or she’s maybe a little distracted and the halt is not as balanced as it should be, she’ll square herself up like it’s no big deal. Win. Win.
However, if she’s an over achiever or a fidget features, leave it alone and let the square halts come when the straightness and throughness start happening.
So, if you can teach her without exploding her brain, go ahead. If not, wait and they will come naturally when the work improves.
Square halts aside, horses that are down on one shoulder or the other, the problem often (usually?) isn’t the front end at all. It’s the diagonal hindleg. If you develop equal loading behind so that the horse is using the hindlegs evenly, the off-balance in the front goes away. Because it’s a just symptom.
So ride the rear end and insist on even contact in front. Which starts with you. Level reins, level stirrups, level shoulders.
Have fun!
On training a square halt, the most interesting method I saw was a clinician with a oh 1st level horse. He had the rider make trot-halt-trot. Repeatedly. And the first step out of the halt had to be trot. Honest trot. not fiddling joggy sort of walk. The horse starts halting square on its own because it is anticipating needing to go briskly forward. No fiddling over which hind leg is not square, etc. which can make horse crooked or fiddly in the halt. It was interesting and it really worked.
[QUOTE=sascha;8276163]
However, if she’s an over achiever or a fidget features, leave it alone and let the square halts come when the straightness and throughness start happening.
So, if you can teach her without exploding her brain, go ahead. If not, wait and they will come naturally when the work improves.[/QUOTE]
You guessed right… this mare is an overachiever. I appreciate your clairvoyance because she has already taught me that being fussy can back-fire. I’m a big fan of “walk forward into the halt” in general and this mare is young enough and weak enough that she finds any re-positioning at the half from under saddle an opportunity to react too fast and lose her balance. I don’t want to teach her to fear some kind of “attack” at the halt. It should be a comfortable, resting place.
Initially, that doesn’t have to be square all the time. But she’s doing well enough strength-wise that I think I could start trying to ride her for that "walk up into a square halt. If she gets it wrong, we could go forward and “walk up to it” again.
Riding with that level of detail is just a question of mental discipline for me. I just wanted to know if it would help me to start doing that sooner rather than later in a dressage horse’s training. There’s a lot you guys start doing with your young horses that you won’t need till way later (life half steps) that those of us who started in other disciplines don’t know.
[QUOTE=Zonderpaard;8276215]
Square halts aside, horses that are down on one shoulder or the other, the problem often (usually?) isn’t the front end at all. It’s the diagonal hindleg. If you develop equal loading behind so that the horse is using the hindlegs evenly, the off-balance in the front goes away. Because it’s a just symptom.
So ride the rear end and insist on even contact in front. Which starts with you. Level reins, level stirrups, level shoulders.
Have fun!
On training a square halt, the most interesting method I saw was a clinician with a oh 1st level horse. He had the rider make trot-halt-trot. Repeatedly. And the first step out of the halt had to be trot. Honest trot. not fiddling joggy sort of walk. The horse starts halting square on its own because it is anticipating needing to go briskly forward. No fiddling over which hind leg is not square, etc. which can make horse crooked or fiddly in the halt. It was interesting and it really worked.[/QUOTE]
Good insight on the opposite hind leg-- here, LH-- being the problem. Watching her move over, left vs. right, and massaging this mare/checking out which muscles get sore also say that she’s using that LH the most. That means we are doing it right, given her natural crookedness. Also, this mare has less muscle behind her withers on the R vs. L. Does that make anatomical sense to you?
I don’t think this mare has the strength to trot-halt-trot yet. I’m game to try it once. But I’ll bet this horse will get worried if I micromanage her enough to get it… or she’ll do a sloppy job if I give her the softer, less-invasive ride she can tolerate.
The exercise that did call my attention to the square halt was imported from HunterWorld. I asked her to stop over a pole, front feet on one side, back on the other. At first, you can walk up to the pole as slow as you like to get that position. Later, you can do that from all three gaits…. or prepare for the stop (which amounts to a half-halt) and allow the horse to keep coming after you get that little rocking back/slowing. I can tell you more about that as I have been taught to use it in HunterWorld or for teaching various things if you like.
The point, however, is that this mare ended up square over the pole more often than she did without. So that attracted my attention to the issue… and perhaps part of a solution.
Ah, the over-achiever. Teach her to over-achieve where she won’t get bent out of shape trying to do more more perfectly and that will start to eventually translate to riding.
Also, it will be good for your self discipline.
Teach her to stand square. Always. As soon as you bring her into the aisle or grooming area, all 4 feet all square always. It’s hard at first, but once you train yourself to pay attention you’ll find she’s already a few steps ahead of you. “Um, I’m standing with my RH cocked and my LF slightly too far under my shoulder. You gonna do something about this???” … “Took you long enough.” 
[QUOTE=showmanship;8276048]
I was once told that you can tell how collected a horse is by how they stop. A truly collected horse will automatically stop square if you keep the collection all the way through the halt.
When my horse hears the “w” word, all collection goes out the window and he jams on the breaks. It’s his favorite command, you know :)[/QUOTE]
Sophie does the same when she hears"Good" and immediately looks for her treat
If she’s so crooked she’s sore, that probably needs to be investigated. It may be that she is over the right shoulder because she is sore on the LH. So making her work the LH just makes her more sore and . . . . so on.
If it’s just weakness, address that through steady work, but be sure it’s just that.
She does sound too green for a much trot-halt-trot. Maybe trot-walk-halt-trot?
But the pole is a clever trick!
is she stiff right hollow left?
If it’s just weakness, address that through steady work, but be sure it’s just that.
She does sound too green for a much trot-halt-trot. Maybe trot-walk-halt-trot?
I agree with Z.
Also be careful with "straightness"if you meant it the way it is used in the training scale…if she is truly green you have other work to do first!
Recently at the Pan AM I was surprised how few square halts there were. There was also no immobility, riders moved off right away. Back in the day when I showed a square halt was a way for me to get some points.
On the LH soreness thing.
She’s not sore as in lame. She’s not particularly body sore…. unless you ask. This mare has always had body work as needed from the beginning. Then I started doing some home amateur massage to help her out between expen$ive vi$it$ from the pro$. And I would massage where/how hard she seemed to tell me felt good.
And that’s how I learned the hard way that she’d like me to muscles deep in her left glute somewhere. She’d lean very hard into me if I let her. And when she’s done, she gets off. I think that goes with the work I’m asking her to do.
In any case, not to worry. I take inventory of her body and try to help her with any over-used muscles. And she is supervised by a DVM who does body work.
I heard - I think from Jane Savoie - that a horse that is round will stop square. My horse never used to when I was taking hunter lessons but after working really hard on getting her to move forward and seek the bit, I’ve noticed she stops square nearly every time. At least on the lunge line. Don’t know if that’s helpful to your situation but I didn’t “teach” my horse that, it was just an effect of working properly.
Good to know that all this will come.
I’m doing nothing fast with this mare. I’m not intent on making the square halt a trick she must learn by next Tuesday. Rather, I wanted to know if-- in my travels-- there would be some benefit to caring about the quality of my halts. I wanted to know if you guys who need those in your discipline later started way early… in a way that outsiders like me would not have suspected.
A properly ridden, forward halt will be square. Some prefer to skirt around the ‘proper’ part and teach ‘squaring up’ as a sort of trick instead. I would ride with the intent of achieving a proper, balanced halt rather than worry about foot placement and teaching the horse to ‘square up’ a la showmanship/halter practices… A square halt will produce itself with strength and correct riding in time.
IMO, it’s similar to the difference between a ‘headset’ and being on the bit. One is a product of correct work and the other is just a trick.
