After you can ride the half pass successfully—to either direction, with good impulsion and swing— you can begin to change from one direction to the other. To teach the counter change of hand as this exer­cise is called, ask for a half pass out of the corner toward the centerline.

When first teaching this exer­cise, straighten your horse just before the centerline, ride several straight steps, ask for the opposite bend and return to the track. Eventually you will want to be able to ride this movement with only one straight stride between the two half passes.

In the beginning, however, it is easier on the horse to develop the movement in stages. If you ask for the first half pass away from the track, the horse will follow his natural tendency to return to the wall for the second one.

The difficulty of the movement is in riding the two half passes with the same angle, impulsion and suppleness. As all horses are one-sided, this is something you must keep in mind as you teach the exercise. As a judge, all too often I see the impulsion disappear as the horse hits his stiff side, and the bend in one half pass is much more distinct than the other. The aim of dressage is to make the horse equal on both sides—and that takes time.

Related posts:

1. Horse Training Exercises – The Zigzag

2. Horse Training Exercises – How to Turn on the Haunches

3. Essential Exercises for Horse Training – How to Leg Yield Your Horse

4. Horse Training Exercises – Renvers (Haunches-out) On and Off the Wall

5. Advanced Horse Training Exercises – Flying Changes

6. Training Your Horse in Hand

7. Horse Training Exercise – Advanced Canter Departs

8. Horse Training – Shoulder-In On and off the Wall

9. Essential Exercises for Training Horses – Flexions, In-Hand and Under Saddle

10. Horse Training Exercises – Rein Back