At the risk of sounding dumb (hey who’s kidding, I am!), what exactly does “using your seat” or “using your core” mean when you’re in a 2 point/galloping position?
I do “something” to slow a horse down, a tightening or resistance of following the motion, before I use the reins as reminder/backup, but I struggle to explain what exactly I’m trying to do.
What does “using your core” to rate speed feel like in 2 point? Are there any other similar feelings in everyday life that it can be compared to?
So many things in riding have no direct correlation with Real Life.
What you are describing is something in the very wide category of “half halt” which is notoriously hard to explain and teach. I think that’s because a half halt requires a rider who is solid enough to give consistent signals with the seat, tactful enough to try seat before reins, and a horse that’s sensitive enough to feel the aids and fit enough to respond to them. A horse on the forehand can’t really half halt.
So it’s really hard teaching a beginning rider on a green horse. And when a given rider does advance to half halts on a given horse, it’s often a little idiosyncratic hence why there are so many different descriptions of what it feels like.
I totally believe that a good horse and rider combo can half halt or rate in two point just by tightening the core or lifting the body angle slightly. But you can’t explain or teach that to someone who is not totally solid in two point.
No, I’m trying to explain it to myself so I can be more confident that I’m doing it correctly.
For a half halt in a full seat, I imagine a book hanging off the edge of a table with me standing in front of it, and using my hips to push it fully onto the table. That means core/back tightens, chest raises, thighs tighten a bit. Then it all relaxes again once the book is on the table (or, in riding, horse responds/rebalances). Maybe that’s a bad thing to envision, but it’s how I imagine it because I read it in an old book somewhere, and it seems to translate well.
Is there something similar for 2 point? Is it just a lifting of the chest and lowering closer to the saddle that would effectively communicate to the horse what you want? If that’s it, I already do that. I just wanted a visual, or thought I might be missing a component.
I’m trying to personally understand it better so I can hopefully execute it better.
When I half halt in 2 point, I usually just lift my shoulders which in turns tightens my core, and my more advanced horse listens to that pretty well. If they don’t listen to the raising of the shoulders and tightening, then I will come down closer to the saddle, and if that doesn’t work, then I will sit down and go to my hands more. I may pick my hands up slightly when I raise my shoulders to also give them the idea. But the change in my balance by lifting my shoulders seems to help re-blanance without much more. And me lifting my shoulders brings me closer to vertical. The amount I move is dependent on the amount of half halt that is needed.
That probably doesn’t help too much, but I will practice this while I am warming up, to be sure my horse is listening to the subtle ques I am giving with my body. This way you can practice without having a jump or something forcing you to be exact. Then maybe just working on it on the flat will make you more confident you are doing it right, if you are getting the response you are hoping for.
My brain shuts off when I try to think through “real life” metaphors for things in the saddle. Wonderful as Sally Swift seems to have been when my own coach channels Swift to say “imagine you are carrying a tray” or “kneeling in a pew,” I have to say: but I never do this in real life!!
If you are able to use micromovents in the saddle to alter the way your horse is going they may be subtle enough and also so related to what the horse is doing that you can’t really describe them. If you are getting the desired result then you are doing them correctly for this horse and it’s also a sign the two of you are a fairly advanced team :).
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Depends on the horse but no. You don’t use your seat when in two point…or you would no longer be in 2 point…you would be in 3 point with your seat in the saddle. But there are other ways to cue a half halt then with your hands (or from your seat). Lifting you shoulders or stretching open with your stomach while staying in 2 point can only be done if you engage your core. This sifts you’re balance a bit to cue a horse. Some sensitive horses will also respond to pressing your knees and thighs into the saddle by rolling your knees inward a bit. This has an added effect of lightening your lower leg on the horse. But all of it has be trained for the horse to understand.
It is pretty much the same. Pushing your hips forward (in 2 point) will lead to lifting your shoulders (otherwise you would fall forward). It requires core strength to do it effectively. I also “squeeze backwards” with my thighs and knees.
instructor and I were talking once on the ground (neither of us on a horse). We were kind of moving around in space, putting things away and at one point, while behind me, she kind of stopped me from moving out of her way by placing her hands on my waist and sort of saying “just stay there” with her hands. The sort of thing you’d do in close quarters in any activity. She said, “That’s a half halt”.
Now, granted, she had her feet on the ground, which we don’t have when we half-halt a horse. But I’ve always used my legs like she used her hands to steady the horse under my body to say, “stay there”. Yes, it requires core strength, because the core is what you’re telling the horse to ‘stay’ relative to. Does not require sitting.
The feel of tightening and closing my upper thigh is what got it through my brain. I can’t think knee or I’ll pinch, I can kinda think core, but it’s the thigh that makes sense. I had to practice it off the horse, laying in bed or sitting down to get the idea of tightening and isolating those upper thigh muscles.
If I can do it, anyone can do it!
For me that’s implied in the physics of how the OP is describing small alterations to core and shoulders. Obviously your basic balance needs to be rock steady in order for the horse to interpret a small change in rider posture as a cue.
A half halt is a momentary pause in your following body, while your lower leg continues to ask for forward. So even in two point, your body is following, urging on, or pausing. So your leg and lower inner thigh which needs to be against the saddle even in two point helps you with the pause by holding for a second.
Yeah, it’s not the balance that’s the question. It’s the physics of “what do you do” when you ask the horse to ease up a bit. I know, but it’s not an “I know” as in “I can explain”. I was trying to understand what I should be “feeling” a little more, but maybe the instinctual things that I do are plenty. Your answers have been helpful, thank you!
Exhale. As in letting all your breath completely out, in a relaxed, body letting out the bad air kind of way.
Im not a dressage rider, but accidentally got a lesson, while on vacation, with an advanced dressage barn.
I was on an schoolmaster, and pulled him to a stop.
Instructor was (rightly) horrified.
She made me do it again, and having read about the exhale thing somewhere, I tried it.I didn’t consciously do anything with my body except let all the air out in a relaxed long exhale.
And it worked.
Watch WFP ride Chilli Morning cross country when approaching obstacles. He shifts his weight back closer to the saddle and the horse’s balance moves to the hind end, setting him up to jump.
One of my riding instructors told me that when you do it right, you feel it in your chest. I thought that sounded really weird until I felt it! I don’t know, but I think that when the shoulder blades are properly back and down and the chest lifted that the back and shoulder muscles stretch the pectorals, which pull against the sternum. With your body in the correct position, you barely have to do anything, it just happens.
Try halting while STAYING in two point. When you figure out how to do that (well and easily)…you will know how to do less for your half half while in two point.
To bring my horses balance back while in half-seat, I do three things simultaneously - breath out, push my heels forward, and bring my shoulders back. Pushing my heels forward is essential because it puts pressure on either side the withers - an effective way to naturally slow the horse. Of course this means that I am using my lower leg to help support my weight - not just my stirrups.
