Slow Walk Work (FB group)

[Landcruiser]

Shall we give it its own thread? There seem to be quite a few people here on that group and doing the exercises. I started it with my youngster a couple of weeks ago. She already has a very slow walk and tendency to grind to a halt, and I have a tendency to nag her..and none of that was really improving and we were both frustrated. I have seen a big difference in her already! And it's been really....nice! It takes away all the pressure, and gives the horse space to think and move in their own time. It's a lovely way to take a step back and enjoy time with your horse while doing something that is working towards improving connection, strength and suppleness.
There is a free ebook on the page, and there are 3 free webinars coming up, Saturday evenings starting 1/2/25

 

[Rowreach]

I've spent many years trying to convince people about the power of walk work. Good to see that it's becoming more understood.

 

[planete]

I am a fan as well. Little cob has lit up with understanding since I stopped pushing him to emulate the faster finer beasties and nickers with pleasure at the praise he receives for his new skills!

 

[Nocturnal]

Hadn't heard of it - thanks for the tip, just joined

 

[dorsetladette]

Just joined - Hadn't heard of it before.

 

[MissMoo]

Saw it come up on FB the other day, will go and take a look. Thank you

 

[sbloom]

I'm SO glad you're all benefitting from it, balance BEFORE movement is something I bang on about, on here and elsewhere, all the time!

Those of you who can afford to do so, do take one of her paid courses, she's dealing with so much activity in the group and doing it all for free.

There are also loads of people joining who have no clue that it's based on a specific programme from Diana, asking questions to which 90% of correct answers will be "start the programme" but other members are sending them off with advice other than Diana's so feel free to inform them and direct them to the featured posts. I think Diana is too polite!

The joys of FB groups.

 

[Bobthecob15]

I’m in the group but I’m a bit unsure where to start?!

 

[Landcruiser]

I’m in the group but I’m a bit unsure where to start?!

Have you seen the free e-book?

 

[jojo5]

I’m in the group but can’t spot the free E book?

 

[Lois Lame]

Facebook members only? I've never joined, but could go against my principles I suppose...

I wonder what is meant by 'slow walk' work. Literally a slow walk? or a normal walk but it's called slow because it's a walk, as opposed to trot. Contact or no contact?

 

[SEL]

Facebook members only? I've never joined, but could go against my principles I suppose...

I wonder what is meant by 'slow walk' work. Literally a slow walk? or a normal walk but it's called slow because it's a walk, as opposed to trot. Contact or no contact?

It's primarily in hand work based on classical training on the FB page

 

[Rowreach]

I've left it Her stuff is interesting but I don't need my feed bunged up with random horse owners posting pictures of their horses and asking questions which are answered if they were to look at the resources.

Sadly that's what happens when good pages suddenly get swamped by thousands of new followers

 

[sbloom]

Featured posts peeps, same with most FB groups.

I've left it Her stuff is interesting but I don't need my feed bunged up with random horse owners posting pictures of their horses and asking questions which are answered if they were to look at the resources.

Sadly that's what happens when good pages suddenly get swamped by thousands of new followers

Indeed but it's clear that loads of people don't really understand what to do when they join a new group - featured posts and/or files are nearly always the place to find the rules and the resources the groups are based on.

 

[sbloom]

Facebook members only? I've never joined, but could go against my principles I suppose...

I wonder what is meant by 'slow walk' work. Literally a slow walk? or a normal walk but it's called slow because it's a walk, as opposed to trot. Contact or no contact?

It's all in the featured posts and some on https://responsiveequine.wixsite.com/equine-therapy will explain her approach, but really without joining the group you're not going to know. It's how to utilise slower walk in various ways to improve your horse - balance before movement, most training is the other way round.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I got excited because I love groundwork and doing things at the walk because it is so valuable and transformative, but I'm feeling rather underwhelmed after joining the group. I think it's one of those things where you can take away a few things that could be useful to you and leave the rest.

Some of the "transformations" are ok, but not mind blowing. I've seen some really amazing transformations happen from proper work, and I've personally noticed positive change from posture and ground work.

Sometimes these type of groups just get weird though. Especially when it becomes some odd cult following, or the person turns out to be nuts. There's one that does some balance method, and man, is she out there. I'm not saying that this one will be that way though.

I do like most things that encourage people to be more in touch with their horse, and feel as though groundwork can be underrated at times.

 

[TPO]

I got excited because I love groundwork and doing things at the walk because it is so valuable and transformative, but I'm feeling rather underwhelmed after joining the group. I think it's one of those things where you can take away a few things that could be useful to you and leave the rest.

Some of the "transformations" are ok, but not mind blowing. I've seen some really amazing transformations happen from proper work, and I've personally noticed positive change from posture and ground work.

Sometimes these type of groups just get weird though. Especially when it becomes some odd cult following, or the person turns out to be nuts. There's one that does some balance method, and man, is she out there. I'm not saying that this one will be that way though.

I do like most things that encourage people to be more in touch with their horse, and feel as though groundwork can be underrated at times.

If anyone is on insta Scarlettequinetherapy is a new page focusing on posture work. It's not a cult following and is just small snippets of her posture work with her horse and clients. Breaks down exercises and what she's looking for from the horse etc

Not looked at this fb page but know the type and how they go. Only just spotted thr SET insta page and it was more up my street

 

[CanteringCarrot]

If anyone is on insta Scarlettequinetherapy is a new page focusing on posture work. It's not a cult following and is just small snippets of her posture work with her horse and clients. Breaks down exercises and what she's looking for from the horse etc

Not looked at this fb page but know the type and how they go. Only just spotted thr SET insta page and it was more up my street

I'm going to take a look at that one. Thanks!

 

[SEL]

If anyone is on insta Scarlettequinetherapy is a new page focusing on posture work. It's not a cult following and is just small snippets of her posture work with her horse and clients. Breaks down exercises and what she's looking for from the horse etc

Not looked at this fb page but know the type and how they go. Only just spotted thr SET insta page and it was more up my street

I'll have a look thank you

I take bits from all sorts of places for my horses - I just don't think one size fits all and some of these trainers have the talent & timing I'll never have and it's hard for them to really pass that on via social media.

Plus I have one cob whose default posture is on her forehand and one who is a typical Welsh type leg mover with head in the air and braced neck (that's field posture). Different exercises for different needs.

 

[sbloom]

Diana's didn't have a cult following, far from it, she's a very quiet lady who just does her own thing, mostly Heather Moffett trained, and has found her own way to communicate her work. She has some small paid programmes and an inexpensive membership group too. The group has grown organically, especially as its free. No programme is perfect but yes, the basic postural work, helping people understand the basics of balance, and teaching observation and connection skills in this programme are all invaluable.

I do think video feedback helps people with timing - sure, in person hands on help is even better, but for most people it's just not available.

And we have a lot of people who are very clever marketing programmes that are seriously compromised which lure those people in. This isn't the only programme I recommend, far from it, but it's one of the very few that has a decent free introduction.

 

[Widgeon]

I've left it Her stuff is interesting but I don't need my feed bunged up with random horse owners posting pictures of their horses and asking questions which are answered if they were to look at the resources.

Sadly that's what happens when good pages suddenly get swamped by thousands of new followers

I've set it to "show me less" or whatever the setting is. The critical content is under Featured Posts and the eBook.

 

[southerncomfort]

I got excited because I love groundwork and doing things at the walk because it is so valuable and transformative, but I'm feeling rather underwhelmed after joining the group. I think it's one of those things where you can take away a few things that could be useful to you and leave the rest.

Some of the "transformations" are ok, but not mind blowing. I've seen some really amazing transformations happen from proper work, and I've personally noticed positive change from posture and ground work.

Sometimes these type of groups just get weird though. Especially when it becomes some odd cult following, or the person turns out to be nuts. There's one that does some balance method, and man, is she out there. I'm not saying that this one will be that way though.

I do like most things that encourage people to be more in touch with their horse, and feel as though groundwork can be underrated at times.

I felt the same CC.

Lots of interesting stuff, but I feel it's only one tiny aspect of postural work, not an entire method in itself, but feels quite evangelical.

Also put me off that she's quite anti polework.

 

[Fieldlife]

I felt the same CC.

Lots of interesting stuff, but I feel it's only one tiny aspect of postural work, not an entire method in itself, but feels quite evangelical.

Also put me off that she's quite anti polework.

The anti pole work post put me off.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

She's not completely anti pole work, to be fair. She does atleast provide a good explanation behind her rationale. I agree with some of it, but not all of it. I'm not anti pole work at all, but I am in favor of mindful pole work.

I disagree a bit with her take on straddling the pole. When I was doing it with my previous horse we both had a lightbulb moment during it, and he never "shutdown."

While I do think it's best for the horse to be comfortable, secure, and with correct posture, I do think that exercises that go outside of that range can still be beneficial.

 

[Lois Lame]

I wonder why she is anti pole work. Presumably she sees a lot of people over-do and doing it poorly.

Also, so often I see that people use poles that can move if/when knocked by a horse. (Nothing to stop a knocked pole sliding across the ground.) This seems very dangerous to me. I pointed this out once to someone and she said, "Oh, I thought it was for safety purposes that you have poles that can move." I said, "No, quite the opposite. It is dangerous if they move." Made no difference to anything though. Mind you, I've never seen a horse roller-scating, or heard of it happening, but that could be down to luck.

 

[sbloom]

I wonder why she is anti pole work. Presumably she sees a lot of people over-do and doing it poorly.

Also, so often I see that people use poles that can move if/when knocked by a horse. (Nothing to stop a knocked pole sliding across the ground.) This seems very dangerous to me. I pointed this out once to someone and she said, "Oh, I thought it was for safety purposes that you have poles that can move." I said, "No, quite the opposite. It is dangerous if they move." Made no difference to anything though. Mind you, I've never seen a horse roller-scating, or heard of it happening, but that could be down to luck.

She's written a long post about it. My understanding is that adding load (ie increased range of motion, resistance etc) to compromised bodies is harmful. As the proportion of compromised horses is bigger than you'd imagine, more often than not the polework is harmful, strengthening the dysfunction at best. She is not saying to never use them but is speaking out against the proliferation of pole work clinics etc and willy nilly handing out of polework exercises to horses that aren't remotely ready for them, in an effort to "strengthen" them.

I mean if you have a horse that's stiff behind, why would you think that forcing them to pick the hind legs up higher than usual would actually help the cause of the stiffness? Yet we see horses with arthritis and problematic hocks doing polework on a regular basis. Sometimes when I'm in an arena doing a saddle fit I have to look away from horses being worked over poles by riders who can't land softly (as it asks more of the rider too), are hanging onto the mouth, the horse is hollow and has its hocks trailing behind. I can't remember the last time I saw it benefitting a horse.

 

[Walrus]

I joined the group but found it was clogging up my feed and i couldn't really follow what was going on. I like the "No Back No Horse" facebook group as they have strict rules about who can answer questions etc so the information tends to be good and not overwhelming.

 

[Nocturnal]

I found the flood of people introducing themselves a bit flummoxing but recently there have been some interesting posts highlighted. The difference between German and French classical training for instance.

But then I don’t use Facebook for much other than horses so not so bothered about what my feed looks like.

 

[Peglo]

I disagree a bit with her take on straddling the pole. When I was doing it with my previous horse we both had a lightbulb moment during it, and he never "shutdown."

I couldn’t quite get my head around her dislike of this particular exercise. Of course it is not a natural thing for a horse to do but neither is a lot of the strengthening stuff I do in the gym, doesn’t mean there isn’t reasons to do it. But I also don’t have enough knowledge on horse biomechanics to know either way.

I couldn’t get my horse to understand what I was asking of her when I’ve tried to do it with her so it would be easy for me to dismiss the exercise since I was inadequate at teaching it but the benefits I read about why to do it made more sense than her disapproval of it when I read it. Which of course means nothing since I’m not at all an expert.

 

[sbloom]

I couldn’t quite get my head around her dislike of this particular exercise. Of course it is not a natural thing for a horse to do but neither is a lot of the strengthening stuff I do in the gym, doesn’t mean there isn’t reasons to do it. But I also don’t have enough knowledge on horse biomechanics to know either way.

I couldn’t get my horse to understand what I was asking of her when I’ve tried to do it with her so it would be easy for me to dismiss the exercise since I was inadequate at teaching it but the benefits I read about why to do it made more sense than her disapproval of it when I read it. Which of course means nothing since I’m not at all an expert.

I think part of the issue is that we're effectively forcing abduction, ie the moving outwards of the legs. It's better to help the horse find it's own balance through gentle slow work than to give them some kind of restriction, a physical barrier, that they have to work around, when they're more likely to compensate and use the wrong muscles. And because we're kinda forcing it there may be occasions where horses are effectively being flooded, we put them in a situation they just have to deal with, there and then, and can't say no.

There are a lot of exercises that have traditionally been given as rehab, even these slightly newer ones, that many feel are perhaps not as helpful as we thought. Doesn't mean to say they're not good for SOME horses, but in my experience horses have more fundamental issues, on average, than is realised so we push them into these compensation patterns.