Exercises to improve the walk

[tatty_v]

My horse and I compete at Prelim level and have just started trying a couple of Novice tests. He's got a lovely, active, rhythmical trot and the canter is improving, but walk is still very much a work in progress! In particular I am struggling to create any impulsion and so we often get comments about inconsistent contact. I appreciate I am fighting a bit of an uphill battle as when he came to me age 14 he'd not really been schooled (only jumped and hacked) so I suspect walk is still in his mind time to chill out and amble around! If anyone has any ideas for exercises we could try to improve this I'd be very grateful. For example, is there anything I can do with poles on the ground to make it all a bit more interesting for him? In terms of what I do at the moment:

- Walk usually forms part of our session, usually after a trot and a canter to warm up and loosen up.
- I never finish on a free walk and do practice free walk to medium walk transitions.
- I try walk to halt transitions, leg yield and shoulder-in and rein back.

He's more than capable of a nice forward walk (as demonstrated out hacking and on the way back to his stable!) and seems to enjoy the other parts of his schooling (he has an active mind and likes to be kept busy and entertained!)

Thank you

 

[milliepops]

I think the walk can be a difficult pace to improve compared to trot and canter, where you can use the impulsion to help improve connection from hind legs to the contact. That said, it is possible, but you probably need to be patient and keep coming back to it throughout the sessions.

What's the quality of the contact like in the trot and canter? Be critical with yourself - it's easy to disguise little wobbles in the other paces IME so have a really good think about this. Is he steady and even into each hand, confident and consistent to the bit? If not, then you need to bear that in mind when you are in walk, because you will need to improve this in general to improve the walk itself.

Is he marching forward in a good rhythm or is he dawdling along in walk? If he is dribbling along, address this first and keep the contact steady and encouraging.
On the other hand, make sure that you aren't pushing him out of his natural rhythm, because this can cause them to lose balance and go lateral, which is a pita to fix.

Quite often it's tempting to do too much in the walk at once - because you can get away with it in trot & canter (not you specifically, I mean in general!) Sometimes you see riders pushing and pulling to try and get the horse in the rein but actually they are over riding and the horse's back becomes tight instead. Think about how you are sitting in the saddle, and try and let your seat move just as much as the horse moves you, without making any extra effort - follow the movement. I know I sit too still when I am trying too hard, so I need to remember to let myself move with the horse in walk... the result is fairly instant with mine, and they swing into a bigger walk with a soft back as the tension falls away.

Also you could think about all of these things when hacking, so he gets used to walking to the contact all the time.

So in short - examine what you really have in trot & canter and be aware that you are unlikely to improve the walk beyond that *to begin with*. Make sure you aren't giving too many contradictory signals, and then concentrate on having the horse in front of your leg, and providing him with an inviting contact. Then keep going! There's no quick fix but you should see results soon

 

[JillA]

We were always taught to leave the walk, trying to "improve" it generally results in it getting worse. Improve all paces by ensuring the hinds are engaged and the jaw is relaxed and he is in front of your leg and the walk will improve of its own accord.

 

[milliepops]

We were always taught to leave the walk, trying to "improve" it generally results in it getting worse. Improve all paces by ensuring the hinds are engaged and the jaw is relaxed and he is in front of your leg and the walk will improve of its own accord.

I'd agree up to a point, but only because a rider with no feel at all can make an average walk go lateral by indiscriminate faffing.

I was also told not to try and improve the walk once, and this left me with a phobia of breaking my older mare's enormous walk. As a result it was impossible to ride decent walk pirouettes etc and she was never truly through in walk until I got brave enough to just get stuck in.

But if you have got a walk with a fundamental problem (not in front of the leg, not accepting the contact etc) at some point you have to work IN walk to address it.

I would say to the OP to proceed with care and provided the horse has a good natural rhythm in the walk when hacking etc then she will quickly feel if she is overcooking it.

 

[TheHairyOne]

I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and see if anyone had any interesting variations on exercises to do only in walk, since that's the stage of rehab I am at now and can only exercise in a school (big with a great surface) mon-fri. Ideal world I'd be hacking, but I'm not doing it in the dark!

After flexibly and thoroughness, very tight circles are a no go. Horse has ALWAYS had a lazy walk unless excited by something, therefore zero relaxation.

His walk now feels better than it was (nothing to do with injury being treated, which was acute and done in the field). I think I am probably riding it better since if I don't keep his attention it may generate broncing and walk, halt trans are all we can do, so getting much sharper off the leg, combined with the fact he's also happy to be doing something again. But where is the balance between overriding and not asking enough and asking too much of him at this point?!

Given the all clear from original problem, so now it's strengthening everything after 3 months of box rest with controlled (HA! ) in hand walking. Lucky boy is out in a smallish, but not tiny paddock, for about 9 hours a day now too.

Thanks.

 

[milliepops]

are you allowed to do sideways during his rehab THO? After the initial straight lines work I've always incorporated lots of lateral work into my mare's various (!) rehabs to redevelop her suppleness - so all the stuff you can do on the track or on giant circles as appropriate - shoulder in, travers, renvers, half pass, walk piris, leg yield etc and swapping & changing between them.

Practicing square halts, rein back etc..

Other productive exercises would be walking squares off the track - really challenges straightness around the turn and lots of stiffer horses will swing the quarters out, also good for testing your connection to the outside rein (also check that he doesn't disappear from the inside rein) and multiple loop serpentines (loops as big as rehab progress allows)

I haven't chosen to use poles during a rehab simply because my mare enjoys it a bit too much and I also worry about her making a special effort or stretch to reach a pole that might be at just the wrong distance... but that could be my owner paranoia coming out, can you ask your vet/physio if they would suggest anything?

 

[TheHairyOne]

are you allowed to do sideways during his rehab THO? After the initial straight lines work I've always incorporated lots of lateral work into my mare's various (!) rehabs to redevelop her suppleness - so all the stuff you can do on the track or on giant circles as appropriate - shoulder in, travers, renvers, half pass, walk piris, leg yield etc and swapping & changing between them.

Practicing square halts, rein back etc..

Other productive exercises would be walking squares off the track - really challenges straightness around the turn and lots of stiffer horses will swing the quarters out, also good for testing your connection to the outside rein (also check that he doesn't disappear from the inside rein) and multiple loop serpentines (loops as big as rehab progress allows)

I haven't chosen to use poles during a rehab simply because my mare enjoys it a bit too much and I also worry about her making a special effort or stretch to reach a pole that might be at just the wrong distance... but that could be my owner paranoia coming out, can you ask your vet/physio if they would suggest anything?

Thanks MP, yes, sideways is fine to do thankfully, but whilst his trot work has always been good we have a tendency of 'stalling' in walk lateral work. We were working on this prior to injury by really reving up the trot work then doing a small amount of walk work, then pushing on again, but this obviously isn't an option atm. He has a very nice straight rein back, which I must use more. I'm also not as good a rider as you - might get my instructor in to refine me!

The vets advise last time she saw him in hand to sign off the start of the ridden work was 'try to stay on him, try to walk, do whatever you need to to keep him there, good luck, and call me if you need more sedation!'. He is being pretty good minus drugs now thankfully. Sadly in hand work of any sort is still too exciting, as this was my other go to option.

Pole work might actually be a good shout, and rather than going over going between/around to help focus his mind and if he thinks he might be doing pole work it might keep him more forward.

Thanks. Coming to the end of week 2 now and wishing the evenings were lighter!

 

[tatty_v]

Thank you very much for the detailed replies, I really appreciate it. We definitely have a case of dawdling going on! If you ask him to go forwards, you get a couple of steps of a more active walk, and then it lapses again, so it draws you into a horrible spiral of nagging, flapping, him getting crosser and the whole thing going to pieces! Tempting as it is to not "over ride" the walk, I do think I need to do something as I know he's not walking out in the way he can. I'm tempted to just focus on getting him forward, at the expense of the contact/shape etc until we can break out of the dawdling pattern. In terms of the other paces, contact in trot is good - steady and uphill. Contact in canter is still a work in progress in that he settles into it, but still wants to star gaze through the upwards transition. x

 

[tristar]

i agree with getting him going forwards, with no restrictions, i have just got off such a horse and today his trot was more forward and his walk was very good, before he was what i would call tight in the walk, i think he is also now coming fitter which is one of the major improvers of walk, he was also very very straight i`m glad to say.

also i make sure he is allowed lots of opportunity to stretch down in walk and soften the back and i try to keep my hips supple and follow the movement, but it has taken time, i don`t harass him, i ride what he offers and wait till he comes good and it feels half right then use soft legs and my seat to `ask for more activity

 

[rachk89]

I improve my horses walk by working on it a lot. You are maybe focusing more on the trot and canter and less on the walk. Try doing a lot of short transitions, walk to halt and quickly back to walk again. Walk to trot, couple of strides of trot and back to walk again. Walk to trot to halt to walk. I keep doing variations of that to get him focused and the walk improves quickly. Had to work a lot on his free walk on a long rein as that sucked. He doesn't get lower than 8 in it now.

I haven't done canter work really at all this year apart from two short canters. Focusing on improving the walk and trot more for bend, flexibility and rhythm before attempting canter. He does now keep walking forward even on small circles and same in trot but in trot we get very little proper bend on the right rein.

 

[Sukistokes2]

I improve my horses walk by working on it a lot. You are maybe focusing more on the trot and canter and less on the walk. Try doing a lot of short transitions, walk to halt and quickly back to walk again. Walk to trot, couple of strides of trot and back to walk again. Walk to trot to halt to walk. I keep doing variations of that to get him focused and the walk improves quickly. Had to work a lot on his free walk on a long rein as that sucked. He doesn't get lower than 8 in it now.

I haven't done canter work really at all this year apart from two short canters. Focusing on improving the walk and trot more for bend, flexibility and rhythm before attempting canter. He does now keep walking forward even on small circles and same in trot but in trot we get very little proper bend on the right rein.

^^^^^^

This .......
I've been doing a lot of this with my instructor to help improve Kev's plough horse walk.

 

[tatty_v]

Had a really good lesson yesterday focussing on the walk. Instructor had us on a square in the school alternating doing medium walk, a more collected work and a more extended walk with a turn on the forehand at each corner. I could really feel the difference and that's the first time I've managed changes within the walk rather than just nagging for a bigger walk, so really pleased Lots to practice!