Big Little, Biomechanics, and the Elusive Half Halt

In one of my first lessons with SW, when Cruise was on the forehand and pulling a bit at the trot, she had me almost walk and then trot on.  On the first successful one, I could feel the shift back from him and then the energy push forward from his hind feet, over his back, and to his head.  Boom. Balance at the trot.  I had the thought immediately that THIS is what a successful half-halt feels like.  Finally, a recipe.

Another variation on this is big little.  On Dressage Training TV, after the rider is stacked correctly and relatively straight, and the horse is toddling along but maybe not as engaged and through his body as possible, big little comes up a lot.  Basically, at the walk and then the trot, the rider makes the gait smaller by narrowing her body, feeling almost as if her abdominals are reeling the withers up, and using a tiny bit of rein.  The idea is to go smaller or “littler” than you think possible, then when you get that, asking for forward with the leg backed up by stick taps.   It takes some playing with, but like the trot-almost walk-trot on, it leads to some really nice working gaits that are truly engaged.  I’ve also found this to be much more successful in getting Cruise to go forward from the leg.  When he is slumping along and I ask for more forward it just pisses him off.  If I almost halt and then walk on(same with trot almost walk) he wants to respond to my leg to get out of the difficulty of going little and is eager to respond to the leg.  After a a couple of big littles, he is also more balanced so it is more effortless to respond to my leg in general.  I feel like this is a really big breakthrough in knowledge for me as a rider.

Of course none of this works without an effective position, which is where having good rider biomechanics in place is so important.  I’m still working on sitting with a more open hip angle and something that has helped is thinking about my thighs as buffers that stick out in front of me.  Sit in a chair with your feet under your knees, then without moving anything else make your thighs longer/poke your knees forward.  For me, this opens my hip angle a bit and when a bit of bear down is added, it really makes my position feel much more secure on those cold windy days.

Another biomechanics thing I have been working on is keeping my right seat bone on the horse’s long back muscle.  I like to weight my left seat bone, curve slightly to the left with my left shoulder back, and leave my right seat bone floating off in space.  Which explains why my halts always end up skewed haunches right.  And why on a right circle my horses fall in and on a left circle they jackknife.  All in a very subtle way but still crooked.  The simple solution is my left shoulder towards the horse’s right ear and the more sophisticated solution is having my right board on, not just my left.  This is definitely a work in progress like opening my hip angle.

What are your works in progress or big epiphanies lately?