Masterclass Damian Hallam on walk-halt-walk in dressage
The grand prix dressage rider and trainer shares a simple exercise that is fundamental to creating a responsive horse
AIM
THIS exercise is deliberately simple — does the horse understand that “go” means “go” and “stop” means “stop”? You can’t make a horse active unless he is reactive to your aids.
Many riders never stop twittering with the hand or leg so the horse learns to ignore them by “trancing out”, or can never understand exactly what is required. Working on the principle of pressure and release, the horse learns that the reward (release) follows his correct response to the signal and so
‘Many riders never stop twittering with their hand or leg so the horse learns to ignore them’
becomes obedient to the aids.
This exercise gives you very useful feedback on how much the horse understands and the level of his balance, suppleness, obedience and sensitivity to the aids. I do it whenever I sit on a new horse.
It’s not whether the horse is hot or lazy — it’s “is he obedient to the hand and leg?” More refined seat or back aids can be added later but the horse can only digest a limited amount of information.
THE EXERCISE
1 Warm up the horse. Then, in walk, use light pressure on the rein to ask for halt.
2 If the horse doesn’t stop within two strides, check your aids. Were they clear? Repeat and be black and white. Then immediately release the rein and praise him, through a stroke or the voice.
3 Assess the feedback from the halt — was it balanced? Check he can stay still if you give and retake the reins. Can you make him more supple within the contact in the halt?
4 Ask him to move off in walk by giving a light leg aid. If he doesn’t react positively from the first touch, immediately reapply the leg clearly. I don’t use the whip at all.
5 If he doesn’t react, “irritate” him with a quick leg aid. Make it memorable and even gallop off to get him going forwards.
6 Repeat the exercise until the horse is responsive to the aids.