(21)...a. ...in addition to these lessons there are two schools, which the old masters considered quasi an indication for the horse's readiness to enter the upper school. These are the halt and the rein-back...
(21)...b. ...true lightness in these schools signals the horse's ability to not only in locomotion alternately for longer periods of time with the haunches support its weight (...as contrasted with its support by only one haunch in bending and in side-passes...), but also to bear weight in the stand-still with lowered haunches for a given period of time (...and as later more so in the levade...)...
(21)...c. ...the full halt reaches perfection when (1)...the hindquarters are closed, (2) ...both haunches are supple and released, (3) ...(...withers and...) lower neck are fully elevated, (4) ...upper head and neck are poised, (5) ...the horse keeps a near zero pressure contact to the rider's hand, (6) ...and, in perfect balance (7) ...stands perfectly still.
(21)...d. ...this list serves to illustrate that and why only school horses are able to perform the school halt to its full extent. On the way to this perfection, during which the horse prepares for the necessary increase in suppleness doing bending work and side-passes, and acquires the ability to bear equal weight with both haunches, the rider will have to content himself with compromises and less perfect executions...
(21)...e. ...the rider's how-to...
(1) ...The rider, by fine-tuning retaining and propulsive aids, balances the lowering of the haunches, the elevation of the forehand and the position of the head/upper neck...
(2) ...the contact of the horse to the rider's hand (...Anlehnung...) provides him with a base to evaluation his actions...
(3) ...if impacts from his legs are too strong the horse will not be able to balance the upper neck and head properly...
(4) ...if he does not maintain impulsion the horse's forehand will sink and it will begin to seek support from his hand...
(5) ...in addition the timing of the rider's aids must be correct...
(6) ...while the horse's hind legs rise, he will with subtle impacts from his spurs, encourage their liveliness and proper motion...
(7) ...when the horse's hind legs lower, he will with precisely matched passing arrets encourage them to support the horse's weight...
(21)...f. ...Premise is the proper passing of impulses and the horse's willingness to at last respond to the simultaneous and equilateral action of both reins...
(22)...a. ...With a young horse there can be no mentioning of a regular half or full halt... All the rider can do is to progressively slow it down with repeated indications from the reins (...and voice commands, which previously have been established on the lunge in start-up...)
(22)...b. ...physical how-tos...
(1) ...Half and full halts will work only if the horse, in an initial phase of training in well regulated gaits...
(2) ...has come to the rider's hand, and has established a dependable contact between its mouth and the rider's ring fingers...
(3) ...they will only work after self-propulsion, as a the result of the hind legs' lively action...
(4)... passes through the horse's back, neck, poll and on to its mouth...
(5) ...and, resulting in the horse pushing himself off the bit (... Abstoßen vom Gebiss... In French called the rêne fixe...)...
(6) ...permits the rider to administer a simultaneous rearward action of both ring fingers, which passes throughout the horse's body to its hindquarters...
(7) ...These rein tractions will work only after all actions here described have successfully taken. Because only then the horse's body will fully function as a self-contained whole... (...and the rider be able to address it as a sound and complete living being...)