Dressage Free Walk

dianchi

dianchi

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After losing out yet again in the free walk im after training help.
My very slightly exciteable mare wont do free walk any more. She is a bit too smart and knows it not the end of the test and just jogs in anticipation of the work that is still to come.
Ive tried walking an hour a day, shortening and legthening and doing lateral work. This has improved the quality of her walking work but now we have gone from 8's to 4's for free walk.

She will stretch all the way down in trot and canter and you can pick her up without her hollowing, but not in walk. It also now affecting the movement after the free walk as she gets too excited.

I dont ride through the whole test in practice at home as she will just learn to anticipate more. So i ride through the elements seperately.

Any ideas or training/schooling ideas to get her to relax and stretch in the walk and then not resist and hollow in the pic up??
 
I have same problem, I think my fella has def worked out we've not finished. We used to get 7 & 8's for our walk now we're only managing 5 & 6's. He stretches right down once and then lifs his head up again and pokes his nose out.

So any tips anyone please - it would be greatly appreciated!!
 
if he is poking his nose it means you are giving too much rein and not keeping a contact on his mouth - altho you allow the horse to stretch, you should still be able to push it forwards into the contact and feel its mouth. So keep your fingers opening and closing on the reins to keep him soft in the head and to stop him from poking out his nose. Also make sure you have enough impulsion from behind, as if it is lacking it can lead to nose poking aswell.....
 
I pretty much gave him all the rein previously as he would stretch right down with his nose virtually touching the floor and kept tracking up well and got comments like 'lovely walk' from judges.

But yes, now I have no contact with his mouth as he stretches down then lifts straight back up again, so I will try keeping a contact and pushing him on.

Thank you PG.
 
Try giving the rein forwards and letting some slip out...but only enough so that you still have a smidge of contact to play with.

Give the rein forwards rather than taking your hands sideways and down, does that make sense?

This allows horse to show stretch but means you still have a contact for them to seek....
smile.gif
 
I have tried all these ways!!!!! The minute i give i tiny bit she jogs, still have leg contact and some rein contact.
She doesnt stretch out she just holds an outline and jogs.
More u ride down and try make her relax she just jogs or tries to break to trot.
Also have tried riding her down but end up with a long outline and starts to look like a extended walk than free.
 
I can sympathise with you 100%

I have a lovely horse who would potentially be very good at dressage if it wasn't for his walk/FW. My horse is perfectly capable of walking out on a hack and immediately we go in the school. However after a trot and a canter the walk goes out the window. We go from 7/8's for trot/canter down to 4/5's for walk with the subsequent impact on our collectives and hence throw around 3-4% a test.

It sounds like your horse is very similar. Mine takes short 'ballerina steps' and just holds himself. Give the rein contact and he just curls up even more. Very difficult to explain without actually getting on and feeling it for yourself. And bloody infuriating to boot.

I believe this is a learnt evasion from my horse and probably compounded by me not doing something right in the beginning combined with him not truely accepting a contact. For other horses is could be a sign of tension.

I've recently really started to concentrate on this given that we are now limited in how much fun jumping we can do
mad.gif


I've had a number of suggestions from different people and I think it's just a case of playing around to see what works with a specific horse.
When in walk and the horse is evading go straight onto a 8m circle until the walk improves, and repeat over and over
Similarly instead of a small circl go into a 1/4 pirouette and keep doing this until the horse relaxes into the walk
ask for the FW trans from a free trot
try taking a stronger contact in the walk, only very gradually letting the contact go.

.... or the one I find best, work the horse enough that it is begging to walk
smirk.gif
 
i would suggest polework for moving the paces out so your horse learns to stretch in walk as it sound like you horse in not engaging hock correctly. I don't know but i would also suggest that if you haven't, go get back and pelvis checked
 
definitely, forgot to mention the poles ... very useful but the effects don't last long!
Again back fully checked out, as have his teeth.
Very difficult to describe what he does. He actually has a good walk, true steps with a good overtrack. Can walk on a hack and happy to walk nicely when you first go into the school. It's only after a bit of trot/canter that it is lost. It's difficult to put it down to a serious physical issue when his trot and canter are of good quality. Tricky without feeling it for yourself!
 
Difficult I know, but could you be tightening in the free walk? I would be inclined to practice the free walk at home in the test context to show her she has nothing to be tense about, when you turn onto the line of your free walk, deep breathe, flex her away from the judge and then let her out. Try swinging your hips with her and then slow your hips down making them longer and slower movements to see if she will slow with you, the slower the better for practise, some folk will say back off practising at home in the test context but if she is very clever she will learn to enjoy the free walk as her stretch time.
 
my mare acts similar during th prize giving at shows so i stopped letting her leave the ring straight after and we now do another circuit or two before she comes out ,it worked on her .when practiceing try doing the walk early on followed by all the hard stuff and try and leave it out of your full dress rehersal to stop her antisipateing the end of the test
 
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