20 Year Old I-2 Horse...

This guy was a handsome sweetie. She didn't mention his breed, he looked like either a TB, or a horse with a lot of TB in him. He was a dark bay and looked a lot like my Jessie. She wanted to work on getting more impulsion and more lift.

Your back controls the tempo, holding the reins just shortens the neck and may slow the horse; use the back/sit up muscles to steady the rhythm or slow the speed

Look straight up at the ceiling to keep from leading with the chin; also look side to side to loosen up the neck

Imagine that there are arrows that point straight down from your seat bones, whichever way the arrows point, so go the hind legs. --Kyra Kyrklund

****An exercise for getting *more* from your horse****
SI on long side, SI in medium trot 3 strides, regular SI, then SI in medium trot 3 strides (do the SI at medium trot twice on each long side)

As you do this exercise, start coming less back from medium trot at shoulder in each time you do SI at medium trot
****End Exercise****

****Half Pass Work****
Do the half pass, medium trot, regular trot, medium trot, less trot, medium trot, just a little less trot, etc--it's better to have 3 or 4 strides of medium trot a bunch of times than to have a couple of long medium trot half passes

When half passing, think that you're going to dismount off the horse with the leg the horse is bent around

The aids for half pass are inside leg and outside rein; stepping into the iron is why the horse goes sideways

Traditional American preparation is from shoulder fore, Jane doesn't prefer this method because the horse may tangle up its feet getting repositioned once it switches for the new movement

Klaus Balkenhol also doesn't like the Shoulder Fore to Half Pass method, he prefers to bend the horse and then "take" the horse; it's kind of like doing SI and HI at the same time; practice maintaining a 10 meter circle bend on the long side, once it's easy, take them into the half pass

Make sure you canter with your arms so that the horse doesn't nod behind

Finish the half pass in shoulder fore, so that the horse doesn't open the joints

An 8 or 9 half pass at 3rd Level=6 at Prix St. Georges=5 at Grand Prix

****Rober Dover Half Pass Exercise****
In the walk to the left, keep the horse equally bent from nose to tail, leg yield, 2 steps half pass, 4 steps leg yield---the bend should be the same whether Leg Yielding or Half Passing

"When I do it that way the half pass just happens"--this is what the rider said after trying the Dover exercise at the trot, her horse looked amazing during the exercise too