The half-halt is a signal from an equestrian to horse that encourages rebalance.
A concatenation of driving aids and restraining aids are communicated from rider to horse, creating pause, without interrupting the flow. Half-halting requests the horse to prepare to halt, thus returning its body to balance, and then utilizes the energy created by this constraint to propel into a more true and compelling version of its forward gait.
Physically, the horse’s spine lifts, and the body gets aligned and organized. Another cool output is the mental rebalancing and reconnection between rider and animal in a split-second, almost psychically-transmitted acknowledgement of something that is happening both in the CURRENT moment of movement together, and simultaneously in the anticipation of something that is about to happen in the NEXT moment.
Sometimes it’s invisible, sometimes a little dramatic – but when performed correctly, the half-halt always creates that necessary re-balance, which makes everything still to come possible and beautiful. In a well-executed half-halt, horse and rider must magically breathe, focus, and regroup together, in a kind a mutually rewarding synergy.
So yeah, when my fellow equestrian M and i talk about this great adjustment, it’s natural to compare it to a planetary half-halt. As a world society, we are not used to it. So we have to train up, train hard, and see what harsh or subtle rebalancing reveals.
The perils of thoughtless consumption and multi-taskery have not encouraged us to half-halt regularly in modern life. The luxury of slowing down, of experiencing the place we are, even if it’s one room, or simply our own minds or bodies, is becoming more comfortable with regular practice. Half-halt, half-halt, half-halt.
My stirrups, lying unused in the other room, still have New Mexico horse dirt on them. I consider it holy dirt. Meantime, i’m trying to practice my metaphysical half-halt.
(photo credit Mary Neiberg: Jacket courtesy or MasterMind and Caroline Inivicta Stevenson: Horse credit Rancho Corazon. Post dedicated to M, C, and L & T..)