Liberty Training: Use of the Front Whip as a Half Halt

Prerequisites: Solid halt at liberty using the whip-up position.

Hi again! In this post, I will talk about how to use your HALF HALT during liberty training in order to control your horse’s stride length. I will also talk about how this can be useful in your transitions and developing collection in your horse.

This post is a simple explanation that goes along with the YouTube video above. Please consider subscribing to my channel as I plan to make more liberty and trick training tutorials soon, and I don’t want you to miss out!

Starting Out

To warm up your horse for this exercise, practice making your full halt very precise. Your horse should initiate the halt on the stride after the whip cue is given. If you plan to practice the half halt in the walk, trot, and canter, make sure you warm up your full halt in these gaits as well.

If you are unfamiliar with stopping your horse off of a whip cue, I do talk about this a bit in the video – I also plan to make a post and video dedicated to the halt cue.

Ok, now that you’re warmed up, let’s start in the walk. Let’s make it a nice, forward walk, so we have some energy to bring into the collection.

Make sure you have your horse’s attention, and flick your front whip like you are going to bring it upright, but don’t bring it all the way to vertical. Keep the movement of your whip going in time with the rhythm of your horse’s stride.

You will be restricting your horse’s forward movement with your front whip, so you must keep the energy moving from behind with your back whip. Otherwise, your horse will lose impulsion and may halt.

This is the same concept as the ridden half halt, where you would restrict the forward movement with your reins and seat while keeping the energy from the hindquarters using your leg. The goal is to shorten your horse’s stride and shift his weight over his hindquarters.

You may need to play with the motion of your front whip to determine what your horse responds best to. Be sure to reward the smallest try while your horse is learning.

Once your horse understands the concept of shortening his strides as a response to your whip cue, you may try this exercise in the trot and canter.

Remember that collecting the strides requires a lot of strength for your horse, so respect your horse’s ability and don’t ask for too much in the beginning. This exercise will build strength over time!

If your horse does not respond to your front whip half halt, ask for a full halt to reinforce the cue.

Thanks for reading my thoughts on the liberty half halt! If you would like to be updated when I post more liberty training tips, please subscribe by entering your email at the bottom of this page, and also follow @circusunicornshop on IG and Facebook.

Here are some training tools that I use daily:

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The Liberty & Trick Training Journal ($10) was made especially for liberty horse and trick training features many fun pages to help you set, track and accomplish all your goals! This journal features pages to make a training plan, write down notes about your training sessions, build your liberty act, prepare for performances and competitions, and more!
Don’t head out to the barn without it!

This liberty journal includes:

• Goals with Your Horse
• Building a Training Plan
• Notes from Training
• Preparation for Performance or Competition
• Notes from Performance and Competition
• Draw Out Your Liberty Pattern
• Act Creation
• Space for Additional Notes!

This is a PDF version of the journal, which includes both an interactive PDF for digital journaling as well as printable PDF files for printing and sharing with friends.

This liberty horse journal is also available in a printed book version.