goose stepping dressage horse

Is it his/her breed? Mine is a Gelderlander and she doesn't cover much ground in walk, a friend said "too much lift" but her trot covers the ground like no other. I work on relaxation to get a longer stride but there's still a lot of high stepping because she's meant to do that.
 
I'm not sure what you mean, OP. Do you mean somewhere along the Spanish Walk spectrum, or, as I think the poster above suggests, a horse going with 'too much knee'. Or do you mean a horse that's just not symmetrical in the gait?
 
breed is kwpn.
it is as if the shoulders lift really high and the front hooves are lifted higher than needed before they are put down to the ground. ground is still covered as the step forward is also quite over big if that makes sense. almost like the start of a spanish walk when the horse is just learning....?
had comments 'goose stepping' on sheets but no further details added. horse has a great walk most of the time, very 4 beat and huge over track.
it is equal on both sides and not constant- happens mostly if the walk is collected or the moments before the walk trans to piaffe if the transition isnt sharp. and only at walk, no other paces.
horse also does this at liberty, particularly when showing off so i dont think its particular to the training...?
 
Sounds like tension. That's quite a specialist issue to address though and hard to say what the best way of dealing with it without seeing. What does your coach say?
 
My KWPN did this when he was younger, we used a lot of lateral work in walk to help solve it and asking him to be a little bit rounder also helped.
 
have you got any vid?
CS sometimes does a silly *pretty* walk, where he almost grabs the front leg up higher than normal then does an exaggerated flick with his toes before placing the foot down.
its a symptom of not being 100% in front of the leg and the eaiest way to stop it is to send him sharply forward in to trot each time he drops me in the walk.

would also avoid the piaffe for the time being as sounds as though the horse may be getting confused in the collection?
 
Will try to get vid.
Horse will do it at liberty too
Trainer is at gp level says to make walk bigger or get the neck very round. This does sort it out.
Horse can be lazy, tho improving as I am more strict in my riding....
Hopefully if the forward issue gets better the erm feminine catwalk walk should get better.....
Not sure its confusion as the horse has competed at a high level...well could be confused but only by the bad pilot lol.
 
Horses normally goose step when they are being shortened from in front with their back dropped so they are not stepping under behind correctly and looking to take the contact forward and down. Small circles and lateral work to encourage the hind legs under and the neck lower will help a better connection. Horses with a very big over track find this hard.
 
I personally think this is due to over-rounding the horse so it loses the freedom in the back. Therefore I'd march the walk on in an extended walk with a longer neck
 
I can't help with resolving it, sorry, but it may help you perhaps to know that a friend of mine owned a big dark warmblood mare who did this almost-Spanish-walk completely naturally as a four year old. She would go into it any time she felt like it. She also had a massive walk overtrack. I have no idea what happened to her, she was sold on.
 
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