How To Start Half Steps In Hand With Your Dressage Horse

[@emmawillard1832]

The point of the exercise should be: explaining to the horse to stop into the outside hind and go forward with the inside hind. Slow down stop into the outside, forward upward engage with the inside hind. Stopping the horse onto his forehand is the opposite of explaining to him that bringing his haunches under himself is the lesson. With the head and neck too low, the horse has no choice: the horse cannot use the head and neck as a lever against the quarters -- relative elevation -- when the poll is at or below the withers. Thus it stops into and onto a foreleg instead of into and onto the outside hind. The point of half steps -- from the very beginning -- is to explain to the horse that his haunches are the power to stop and to advance. That exercise alone prompts and promotes supple hips and supple hips prompt and promote range of motion in the joints below the hips.

[@Hannahs_Mustangs]

Ay, this is awesome! I was just wondering how to start this with my mustang! Thank you!!

[@betsysmall3576]

Who is this?

[@sarathompson2748]

Henry Boswell.

[@jessallies1]

Henry Boswell

[@maloryp4]

In 2022, being a pro in horses, and still not knowing that patting a horse on the neck like that is certainly not a praise, is.... pathetic and sad