10/18/2025
How beautiful is this writing by friend Stephen Forbes 💕
The magic of the elusiveness and art of the half halt✨
It happened in this tiny Italian restaurant outside Osnabrück, the kind of place that only has three tables and a waiter who looks personally offended if you ask for parmesan. I was there with this old dressage trainer, the kind of guy who never smiled, never raised his voice, but could make a horse halt square just by thinking about it.
You know, the kinda German who smoked these harsh little ci******es, inhaled so deep you’d swear he was trying to breathe in the whole continent and hold it so long that when he finally exhaled, nothing came out. Like he’d absorbed the smoke and metabolized the ni****ne into stoicism.
Between bites of my fusilli, I asked him the question everyone’s secretly afraid to ask, because we all feel like we should know the answer (but we don't):
“What’s the secret to the half halt?”
He didn’t answer. Just looked at me, silent, like he was judging my entire lineage. I started to sweat. Then he took a slow sip of wine, the kind of long, uncomfortable pause that makes you wonder if you’ve just failed a test you didn’t know you were taking.
“You breathe wrong.”
That was it. No lecture. No explanation. Just those three words.
I've thought about that often, and only recently realized the half halt wasn’t about control, or timing, or perfect aids. It was about the breath. The exhale.
Everyone talks about the half halt like it’s this mystical secret, the holy grail of dressage. But really, it’s just a breath. Not the tight, panicked inhale we all do when things start unraveling, but the exhale. The quiet kind that drops your seat, softens your hands, and makes your horse go, “Oh… we’re okay.”
The problem is, in the moment, breathing out feels like surrender. Like you’re giving up control. So instead, we hold our breath, clamp down, and pray for balance. But the best riders, the ones who look like they’re doing nothing, they’re just breathing better than the rest of us. They exhale, and everything settles.
Turns out, the half halt isn’t about control at all. It’s about reminding that balance doesn’t come from holding on tighter, it comes from finally letting go.
Want to take this deeper? Try this exercise below:
🫁 The Four Gates Breath
(for harmony, grounding, and invisible influence)
Idea:
Your body has four “gates” through which energy (and tension) flows to the horse, your seat, legs, hands, and heart.
You’ll use your breath to open and synchronize these gates, so your aids become quieter, your seat deeper, and your horse more attuned.
🕊 How to Practice
Begin at the walk.
Let your reins be soft. Feel the swing of the horse’s back and your own spine rising and falling.
Inhale to open the lower gates.
As you breathe in, imagine the breath moving down through your belly and into your thighs. Let your hips melt open; feel your seat deepen slightly. Don’t do anything, just receive the movement.
Pause: sense the still point.
For a heartbeat, notice that there is a quiet space between inhale and exhale. That’s where real communication happens, the moment before you apply any aid. The horse can feel that pause. It feels like presence.
Exhale: open the upper gates.
Let the breath rise gently through your chest, shoulders, arms, and hands. Allow your heart to soften, your hands to grow lighter. Feel as if you are breathing through your reins.
Ride several breaths this way.
Don’t focus on fixing the horse. Just breathe the shape you want. Inhale into grounding and balance. Exhale into connection and flow.
🌬 What it does
Calms both your and your horse’s nervous systems.
Deepens your seat without tension.
Turns your breath into an invisible aid.
Builds that sacred, quiet harmony, the kind where you can’t tell who is leading.
Did you give this a go? If so, let me know how it goes!
Solo Equine thank you. Always, thank you for putting these concepts into poetry, art and consciousness 💕💕
