Improving horses walk?

[Flying_Form]

Hi there,

Hoping to get out to do some dressage/showing with my horse, however really want to improve his walk first. He has a lovely forward trot and canter, and carries himself in a gorgeous natural outline due to this forwardness, however in walk he thinks that it’s his “break” and immediately seeks a long rein and wants to amble around, and nosey at what other horses/people are doing in the surrounding area

Because of this, despite him being so forward/hot in all other gaits, when I put leg on in the walk to get this forwardness he gets a bit annoyed. So far what’s worked is using my body to push him on however this only works to an extent (I do feel he is also ignoring me a bit because he is very good at listening to the riders body in all other gaits!), have also been using leg yielding and circles to increase suppleness. Looking for tips to increase the quality of his walk so it’s a purposeful march. There’s a time and a place for a stretchy walk after hard work and I think because he works so hard in trot/canter and is a people pleaser in those gaits I’ve been letting him chill in walk a bit too much and it’s coming back to bite me!

 

[Skib]

What do you mean "annoyed" ?
For years my riding lessons (o.a.p beginner) were mainly in walk. And walk was never idle. Dispel that idea that walk is a rest?
My party piece after the London Olympics was to walk across the diagonal on a long rein and canter at the next corner.
But in my early lessons I rode endless walk halt transitions, going large, and each halt had to be with the horse's shoulder absolutely at the letter and absolutely square. I was also expected, going large, to walk more collected on the short side of the school and to extend the walk down the long side. The collected walk eventually became the way I was first taught canter.
Also in walk but involving turns, we wove up and down parallel poles and also rode across them.

You use the word purposeful. But purpose doesnt just involve the quality of the gait. I was taught much of my riding by Mark Rashid who teaches that the horse needs to know 3 things, speed, gait and destination. That idea of destination has been invaluable. Decide before you start the walk, the point where you are going to halt. Just vaguely walking large has no arrival point. Decide in advance the letter at which you will either halt or transition. So much arena work for horses involves going round in a treadmill.

But I know from hacking that for the horse to walk brisky it needs to be able to swing its body from side to side. So both legs on the side of the horse restricts that swing of the rib cage. Using one leg and then the other in my experience will speed the walk but not cue for trot.

 

[millitiger]

Practise walking on a contact out hacking, it's the best place to practice walk.

Make sure your seat bones are 'walking' too. Sometimes when we're trying really hard to get forwardness, we tighten our seats and inadvertently put the handbrake on.

Try finding some upbeat music that has the same rhythm you want from your walk. If you have this in a headphone, it can make sure you are asking for purpose with rhythm and cadence, rather than tightening and rushing.
Find the right rhythm for the music when you're out hacking or when you have the best/purest walk

 

[4Hoofed]

Practise walking on a contact out hacking, it's the best place to practice walk.

Make sure your seat bones are 'walking' too. Sometimes when we're trying really hard to get forwardness, we tighten our seats and inadvertently put the handbrake on.

Try finding some upbeat music that has the same rhythm you want from your walk. If you have this in a headphone, it can make sure you are asking for purpose with rhythm and cadence, rather than tightening and rushing.
Find the right rhythm for the music when you're out hacking or when you have the best/purest walk

This and especially I find on the way home but I built my boys march up by getting him on a contact, improving the rhythm etc who starting earlier and earlier in the hack. Now when we hack alone we can do the big loop (1.5-2 hours for normie horses) in about an hour in walk! (My horse is a giant!) interspersed with stretchy and noisiness breaks to keep it interesting! We also have a killer hill on this route!

 

[maya2008]

Transitions. Lots of halt/walk/halt and then walk/trot/walk. Make sure every transition you ever ride into or out of walk is forwards, often people forget on the downwards transition that that should be forwards too, so they just drop in and…go nowhere.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

What do you mean "annoyed" ?
For years my riding lessons (o.a.p beginner) were mainly in walk. And walk was never idle. Dispel that idea that walk is a rest?
My party piece after the London Olympics was to walk across the diagonal on a long rein and canter at the next corner.
But in my early lessons I rode endless walk halt transitions, going large, and each halt had to be with the horse's shoulder absolutely at the letter and absolutely square. I was also expected, going large, to walk more collected on the short side of the school and to extend the walk down the long side. The collected walk eventually became the way I was first taught canter.
Also in walk but involving turns, we wove up and down parallel poles and also rode across them.

You use the word purposeful. But purpose doesnt just involve the quality of the gait. I was taught much of my riding by Mark Rashid who teaches that the horse needs to know 3 things, speed, gait and destination. That idea of destination has been invaluable. Decide before you start the walk, the point where you are going to halt. Just vaguely walking large has no arrival point. Decide in advance the letter at which you will either halt or transition. So much arena work for horses involves going round in a treadmill.

But I know from hacking that for the horse to walk brisky it needs to be able to swing its body from side to side. So both legs on the side of the horse restricts that swing of the rib cage. Using one leg and then the other in my experience will speed the walk but not cue for trot.

A beginner riding a well-schooled RS horse is very different from the experienced owner teaching a horse to walk well.
OP, as well as the things you are doing have you tried walking over poles? If you vary the distances, the horse will have to listen to you and anyway should still consider this 'work'.

 

[paddi22]

the 'walking your seat bones' that millitiger mentioned is a game changer. you can use the motion to control the pace of the walk and lengthen and extend it or halt. it will make your horse way more responsive. you've taught him so far that walk is a break, so you need to unschool that. to get a more purposeful walk don't suddenly put the leg on, you should be pressing each calf separately on each side to activate the corresponding hind leg as it pushes off. best thing would be to get a dressage instructor to show you how to activate each hind leg and get a swinging walk. once you get the timing right it transforms the walk.

 

[sbloom]

Slow Walk Work group on Facebook, it's free. Best to address balance this way and go from there, the better balance the horse is in the easier it is to go forward, and the work is somewhat diagnostic too.

 

[Trot_on]

Hack with a bigger horse so your horse has to walk out to keep up.

When schooling, don’t let walks be his break - keep him working in the walk then halt, give him a pat then give him a proper break to help him learn to separate the two.