The Torso & the
Half Halt Concept
The upper body, when properly connected, is a balancing rod that shifts
the horse off the forehand and onto the
hindquarters. When you "brace your
back" to half halt, you make your torso
firmer still with the abdominals and
back muscles working together.
Creating the pulse of a good rhythm
with your torso keeps the horse from
rushing and getting the hind legs too
far out behind. When the upper body
comes back, the horse feels the weight
shift and brings the hind legs more
underneath to hold up the rider. This
may necessitate coming behind the ver-
The half-halting torso
tical momentarily in order to use the
torso effectively in transferring the
horse’s weight back onto the hindquarters. As the horse becomes more supple
and learns the language of the torso,
the aids become more subtle. But if you
start subtle and get no effect, the half
halting aid (engaging your torso) needs
to be stronger.
Advanced riders make these half
halting corrections with the torso all
the time and very quickly. The correct
rider response time is measured in fractions of a second to keep the horse
from moving on the forehand or disrupting the rhythm. Like dancers,
advanced riders reinitiate their own balance in the torso before the horse has a
chance to make an out-of-balance mistake. Self-carriage in horses is achieved
when the horse and rider balance
together and only minor rider adjustments through the torso, arms and legs
are required.
A rider with a correct torso self-carries,
allowing the horse to move more
freely. The horse can then develop
strong abdominals and lifts its back.
required of him in terms of collection,
extension, halting, half halting, etc. The
rein and leg aids are secondary to this.
Anatomically speaking, the pelvis is
influenced by the rest of the torso from
above and by the thighs and legs from
below. For horses to move fluidly under
us, we must lift OUR torsos in a dynamic
way, allowing motion to flow through
their backs. Even the smallest rider on a
big horse can, with sloppy posture, very
effectively keep the horse’s back from
moving well. The slight tipping forward or
backward of such a position also puts
additional weight on the horse’s shoulders
and the base of the neck. If this occurs,
the back of the horse, especially behind
the saddle, moves less and less. If the
lower back of the horse isn’t mobile and
swinging, the hind legs cannot take a long
enough step underneath the rider’s center
of gravity.
The Structure of the Torso
Imagine the spine as a set of building
blocks (vertebrae) arising vertically out of
the pelvis with a bowling ball (the head)
perched on top. Now think of the lumbar
spine as the bottom five of the blocks.
This represents the most flexible part of
the spine because it has no rib cage for
stability. The lumbar spine must try to
support both rib cage and head while
counteracting the natural SOFTNESS of
your abdominal region and stomach.
Flexibility of the lumbar spine is great if
you want to bend over to pet a small dog.
Flexibility is not good if you want to balance a bowling ball (your head) on top of
wobbly blocks (your spine) on top of a
bowl (your pelvis) sitting on top of a
bouncing object (your horse).
Here come your muscles to the rescue.
It is muscle power that generates stability
in the lumbar and abdominal area and in
the torso as a whole. The human postural
muscles are arranged in layers that crisscross the abdomen and run parallel to the
spine. They even reach under the shoulder
blades and up to the head. All these muscles arise out of the upper rim of the
pelvis. Additionally the spine itself is
interwoven with smaller muscles that
refine postural balance, movement and
torque. Layered over all these are the latissimus dorsi muscles (lats) that rise out of
the low back, fan out on each side of the
spine and swoop up under the armpit to
attach very close to the shoulder on the
FRONT of the upper arm. These two muscles aid in the postural stability of the
spine but also secure the upper arms down
by your side.
27