Creating more energy in the walk - how?

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maya2008

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Sweet, laid back coblet is so much more forward thinking and lighter to ride than he was even a few months ago - in trot and canter. Transitions are good and from my seat, he stays active and tries hard. But his walk is just the slowest thing ever. He doesn’t care if you squeeze, or kick, or use the whip - this is how fast he is going and that’s it. Both out hacking and in the school. All the techniques I have been taught previously have fallen flat on their collective faces. New ideas anyone?
 
Instead of tapping with the stick. Hold it upside down from normal so it's straight up. Give it a good swish to get a good reaction, sometimes more forward than you are expecting! Don't worry about the front end until you've got the back engine moving either
 
Try deliberately slowing the walk then nudge him on, then bring him back again almost to a halt then bring him up again. Keep repeating this whenever you work in walk. It gets them listening and much livelier.

Be sure to give him a chance to respond to a light leg aid before you add more pressure, if you start out with a strong aid he won't learn to go from a light one.
 
Following with interest. Walk is still our weakest phase although in my case it’s fine outside the school so clearly something I’m doing is interfering!
 
Maybe one thing you have already tried. Are you “walking” your seat bones with him, you might be inadvertently putting the brakes on if you are sitting too still. Different to shoving with the seat (Polishing) that was taught when I was a kid (80s)
 
It sounds like he isn't in front of your leg? Maybe try a few halt walk transitions and make sure you really get a reaction - even if he goes halt to trot to start with, its the reaction you are after. Lots and lots of transitions.
 
Christmas Huffles said:
Lots of good suggestions above.
We find pheasants are super for getting that impulsive whoosh forwards as they explode at us in a feathery attack of panicked surprise...
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I'm finding a recent addition of trio of geese that my terrier enjoys chasing has done wonders for my medium canter ?
 
Ne careful.you are not pushing him out of his natural rhythm.
My last mare had a very slow paced walk even when very forward, it was easy to hurry her up out of her rhythm when an instructor was not around if I wasn't careful.
Pole work in walk really helped my mare especially pole work.
 
I was given a tip recently that it's always best to work on the walk towards the end of a schooling session when the horse is relaxed and knows they've done all the 'hard work'. Not sure why but his definitely works for my horse who is much more obliging with his free walk at the end.
 
myheartinahoofbeat said:
I was given a tip recently that it's always best to work on the walk towards the end of a schooling session when the horse is relaxed and knows they've done all the 'hard work'. Not sure why but his definitely works for my horse who is much more obliging with his free walk at the end.
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I think it depends if you are wanting to increase relaxation in the walk or more activity. I prefer to work on collected walk early in the session when the horse is still fresh.

I agree with twiggy that some horses have a fairly steady natural walk that it's hard to really change without creating other kinds of problems.

My welsh is pretty slow. out hacking, she will walk up any terrain in walk, without missing a beat, but she is never in a hurry - it's like driving a tractor :p
In the school she has had to learn to have more activity particularly in medium/collected walk. This has become easier as the other paces have got a bit quicker off the ground tbh, it's hard to do it in isolation in the walk I think. I need mine to be really hot in order to think a bit quicker with her footfalls, so ride lots of half halts and transitions until she is bubbling over, and then with my seat and legs use quick aids to encourage her to be quicker off the ground. Not particularly covering the ground any quicker, but just being more active.

It's a tough thing to improve on your own so I would suggest some really experienced help on the ground, and a good dose of patience because it can be a long road with the more laid back type.
 
MP - described Finnegan to a tee there. His natural walk is good but he’s generally laid back so under saddle it lacks energy/activity. Trying to get more results in tension and loss of rhythm. So we’ve put that on the back burner to focus on the other paces and transitions between the paces, getting quicker off the aids, using his back end more. Towards the end of the session we did more free walk when he was relaxed and more supple, and short bursts of walk work once we’d warmed up.

He free walk is better, still feels under powered but gets better marks now so it has improved. Still not cracked it but will start to do some stressage again soon which will highlight how the walk is doing!
 
I think that's the right approach Bernster.
If you try too hard and end up disrupting the rhythm that's a more significant fault than a bit of an idle walk, and if the rhythm falls apart to the point where it goes lateral then it can be a tricky thing to resolve.
Making the horse generally more responsive and more used to being active will drip feed into the walk naturally to a degree, and also increase the horse's understanding of your aids when you then come to work on the walk itself. transitions between other paces into walk are a good thing to work on too, because getting the first few steps to be as good as you can, sort of sets the tone for the whole movement.

it's important not to be too wary of working on the walk because otherwise you won't ever improve it, but I think if a rider gets hung up on it that's when you can end up with more problems than you started with. it's something that is better to be teased out over time, IME. Darcy shows his tension in his walk, it has taken about 5 months for him to learn what a free walk is and now it's good, but if I'd got too impatient I would have broken it completely!

I found that K's has improved significantly since she learnt some half steps, because basically that is needing her to step off the ground faster with activity. I also use a lot of lateral work particularly in travers to encourage her to step more quickly. but that's only become possible as an exercise because she knows enough other stuff, it would not be available to someone on a more novice horse, hence why you need patience as they learn :)
 
Ok... next schooling session today so I'm going to have a play and try things! I annoyed him on purpose on Tuesday by taking him hacking with my 'just off the lead-rein' daughter (so we had to go veeeeery slowly, even where we would usually canter!) and his walk at the beginning of the ride actually felt normal, so he CAN walk with energy, if I wind him up enough! I'm not aiming for a specific rhythm or speed or anything, just for the feeling of going somewhere. He may only be 4, but moving like a backwards-thinking snail isn't appropriate at any age! I also had a go at slowing him and pushing him on in walk. From my legs, life just got slower; from my seat, some effect so we'll keep trying that today.

The good swish: gets ears back and a swish of the tail, and one mini jump forward. That's it. No lasting effect, no great forward momentum.

Transitions halt-walk-halt: just give him an excuse to stop more, apparently. No effect.

Transitions walk-trot-walk: give me a lovely trot, snail pace walk again.

Am I blocking him through my seat? Pretty sure not. I'm hypermobile, so super loose in the joints, and I have deliberately been loosening my seat/legs/whatever I can to see if it will help. No difference.

Is he in front of the leg? No, not until you've loosened him up. Then he is beautifully in front of my leg in trot/canter. Slightest touch. In walk? Nope.

Pheasants? Meh, slight spook sideways at most.

Beginning vs end of session? In the school - about the same. Out hacking, we go somewhere at the beginning, at the end I end up thinking we'll never get home we're going so slowly! Funnily enough, if I ask him to trot, he goes fine, at a decent speed!

More lateral work - baby lateral work and transitions got us somewhere in trot/canter, so I am beginning to think I should just teach him the lateral work and that might solve the problem in itself. He enjoys lateral work, so that would make walk more 'fun', as would poles.

He is the sweetest, most laid-back coblet you could imagine, who used to be a ton of hard work to get to move at all and is now so much better. He'll walk into a horse who is kicking out at him rather than expend the energy to kick back. That is his breeding, to be steady and super-safe. I would like to make it home before it gets dark on hacks though, and for some forward momentum/energy in the school in walk!

Funnily enough, when we went out to our one dressage show ever - he was SO excited in the arena, we zoomed round. He'd never been so full of energy, so didn't know what to do with his legs and was almost falling over them in his enthusiasm. Hilarious and very cute, but he CAN do it!
 
OK so with the extra info:
he's 4... be patient ;)

he's not in front of your leg - well in that case you can do some work on that in the walk too. even if he runs off to start with when you ask him to stay on your aids. Until he learns to go for himself then you aren't ever going to improve the walk itself. You will probably need to repeat those lessons throughout his working life.

he's a laid back sort, so to an extent you need to accept you won't change his nature, and if you wanted something buzzy you've got the wrong horse ;) you can definitely teach him to stay awake to your aids and how to develop his paces with time, but as a rider I do think it's important to remember that training will not change the horse's essential personality :)
 
milliepops said:
OK so with the extra info:
he's 4... be patient ;)

he's not in front of your leg - well in that case you can do some work on that in the walk too. even if he runs off to start with when you ask him to stay on your aids. Until he learns to go for himself then you aren't ever going to improve the walk itself. You will probably need to repeat those lessons throughout his working life.

he's a laid back sort, so to an extent you need to accept you won't change his nature, and if you wanted something buzzy you've got the wrong horse ;) you can definitely teach him to stay awake to your aids and how to develop his paces with time, but as a rider I do think it's important to remember that training will not change the horse's essential personality :)
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The very idea of him running off makes me giggle - he doesn't. No matter what you do, he doesn't! I have spent all summer doing all the 'wrong' things just to get him to go more willingly. We have cantered in the same places each time, I've stuck him behind other faster horses and got us left behind, we've gone on super speedy (for him) hacks where we barely walk, so he expects to go fast once we hit the grass... all the stuff that would blow the brains of a more forward going horse and make them super loopy. And the result? I'm not exhausted once I get off now, and I can trot/canter in the school with him going forwards nicely all the time. He still doesn't shoot off, or anticipate, or even get excited though!

He wasn't bought for me - I've just got the job of training him for my husband. I buy 'buzzy', fun, forward going.
 
My previous horse was quite a buzzy forward thinking horse and I found lateral work in walk very useful for getting him to relax, however, Rose likes to be behind the leg and will use lateral work to stop up the forward movement and although I do do some in walk I don't find it particularly helpful. I do find lots of transitions work with her but I do have to be very positive with my aids ie she must react to the request for an upwards trans and she mustn't drop behind the leg on a downwards one which is what she'd like to do!. I am finding absolute consistency works best with her and that means on hacks as well as in the school. She has quite a big walk which can lack activity but if I bustle her along it can go lateral, so I'd agree with MP that it's all about getting her on the aids in all paces and in all situations and the walk will then be more active. Good luck you sound as if you have a lovely boy and if he's only 4 you are not trying to undo ingrained habits.
 
Turn on the forehand won! Much nicer, more active walk following it, and once we'd done a fair few on a square, I could keep the walk with a little nudge of the seat bones when he started to lose it again.

Poles slowed him down - he paused for a microsecond as we got to each pole, to check it out before walking over it!
 
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