As I am developing one of my students horses to be ready for the Third Level, collection married with suppleness is of huge importance. Having done shoulder-in and traverse at Second Level, now is the time to take these two movements to the next level and use suppling effect of shoulder-in to improve the challenging half pass.

Everyone agrees that riding traverse on the track is easier then riding a half pass. This is because half pass is traverse on a diagonal line and visually it is very challenging for a rider and a horse alike to stay on the line in correct form. One of the hardest things to do is to maintain bend and line of travel.
Often riders are happy when their horse arrived earlier thinking they done steeper half pass. No, their half pass turned into a crooked leg-yield. Another common mistake, riders themselves ride half pass like a leg-yield with flexion into the direction of the movement. The missing part is bend, horse's head may be slightly turned toward the end of the line but not his chest.
If you find on Youtube GP of World Cup leg 2025 from Herning you will see. Watch how the camera being at the end of the line for the left half pass shows clearly that a horse not only looks directly into the camera but his chest is also facing it. The horse is performing 4 track traverse on a diagonal line.

The shoulder-in can be a great tool to help with the problems described above. If you ride a shoulder-in along the wall, notice how the horse's head, neck, chest and shoulders point into the arena at about 30 degree angle, This means that if you ride a shoulder-in out of the corner of the long side and just before letter E or B start a half pass toward C or A accordingly, the 30 degree you have created is exactly what is needed to ride that half pass. Take your shoulder-in shape sideways inward toward the end of the center line. It will be rather shallow half pass but it will be very correct one. Someone standing at C or A will observe a horse doing traverse on that shallow diagonal line E to C, or B to A.
Seeing the half pass that way creates logical conclusion: you must continue asking your horse to go forward and around your inside leg like in shoulder-in. And outside aids - rein and leg - direct the entire horse into the diagonal line. The steeper the half pass the more collected, bent and on the aids the horse must be.

This idea creates a great exercise - shoulder-in to half pass to shoulder-in to half pass, etc. Both movements in such sequence help to reveal weaknesses in each other. For example, if outside hind disengaged and escaped outward in a shoulder-in, it will be impossible to flow into a half pass. Same with outside shoulder. On the other hand, flowing from half pass back to shoulder-in will be very glitchy if the half pass turned itself into a leg-yield. And no amount of inside rein pulling and inside leg kicking will effortlessly redirect entire horse. At first, ride this sequence in walk to get the scope of the challenge and have time to observe what is happening with you and your horse. When moving into trot incorporate transitions back to walk as a tool to rebalance your horse, especially, during the change between movements. Later these transitions will morph into half halts.

Trying to improve your horse's frame and balance never forget about yours. Change of lines even with the same bend/shape require very connected, supple and quiet seat. Always strive to be one with your horse! Never push him sideways from the seat like a chair! The shoulder-in direction is outward and the half pass direction is inward. This requires a great deal of dynamic balance from a rider and ability to effortlessly flow from sideways toward left in the right shoulder-in, for example, to sideways toward right in the right half pass. This means in the right shoulder-in left thigh and seatbone swing bigger toward left and in the right half pass right thigh and seatbone swing bigger toward right. This should be done smoothly during transition.

Happy riding...