Riding Lessons for Life #19

The Half Halt:
In a riding lesson that I, myself, was taking the other day, I was discussing half halts with my trainer and he said, “The most important part of the half halt is the letting go.”    The half halt is when the rider pulls back on the reins in order to slow the horse down without stopping entirely or to shorten the horses stride without losing momentum.   In either case, the rider checks the reins back for a stride, and then immediately releases the pressure on the reins.  The reason the letting go is so important in the half halt for several reasons. First of all, if the rider maintains a constant hold on the reins the horse will get annoyed, often to the point of the horse pulling against the rider’s hands in order to try to get away from the constant pressure, and the horse will learn to ignore the pressure so that it eventually becomes meaningless. Another reason letting go is so important is because we want the horse to learn to maintain its own rhythm and to go along without constant dictation from the rider.

After my own riding lesson I kept thinking about the letting go of the reins being the most important part of taking back on the reins.  This same idea relates to many situations in life as well.  My first thought was that in raising children, we raise them to think for themselves, become self sufficient and handle themselves in different situations.  When children become independent, productive members of society it’s because parents have often used a half halt; they have checked in, communicating what needed to be communicated and then let go, allowing the children to find their own rhythm in life.  We have to let go and allow individuals to find and maintain whatever life pace is good for them, we cannot control another person!  Like a horse whose rider never lets the rein contact go, people too will become annoyed and frustrated with constant control and no freedom.  This same idea applies to the workplace as well.  A boss cannot efficiently run a business if they are micromanaging.  An efficient employer will simply half halt.  They will lay down the basic outline of what needs to be done, and then allow the employees to go ahead and do it.

Half halting is important in life.  Sometimes we need to check in without losing momentum.  We are always going forward in life and it’s great to have people in our life that we can discuss things with and then be let go and allowed to change directions if necessary.  Remember when you take back on the reins in life, the most important thing you can do is let them go again.

Claire Affleck
Claire Affleck Training website
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