Snatching at the reins and jogging

[Bexx]

Hi folks, just after a bit of advice on how to improve the walk.
My little horse is lovely but can be quite hot headed, he often tends to bunch up and drop BTV during flat work. I've spent a long while lengthening the frame and encouraging a longer more swinging step which in trot and canter is coming on lovely. The problems come in the walk, he will jog with no warning and if you try and slow him he will just stop. When you then start to lengthen the reins for the free walk he snatches at the contact even if I totally release the reins. I am certain these are habits that come from tension but is there anything you would suggest that may help?
Just to add, he has had very recent physio and vet checks, his saddle has been checked and teeth are up to date. He jumped a fabulous double clear at the weekend so I am certain it's not pain related. He currently uses the NS turtle top

 

[Pearlsasinger]

It certainly sounds like a schooling issue if all the checks have been done and all declared well.

Perhaps at this stage you are expecting to much. Have you tried just asking for a very few lengthened walk steps? and then before he has chance to jog, etc asking for trot? He might find it helpful to walk over poles to understand where you want him to place his feet. it is sort of the reverse of the advice given to someone whose horse is struggling to maintain a good canter, for example

 

[milliepops]

I agree that I would try just asking for a few longer strides at a time. But I don't think I'd push him back to trot if he was jogging, because at some point you have to bite the bullet and teach him to *walk*. If you don't do much walking (and lots of people don't!) then you have limited opportunities to teach this to him

I think with the buzzy ones there are 2 things to keep in mind, particularly where you have a bit of a contact issue going on. Firstly, can you control him from your seat in other paces, because that can be so so helpful with the walk, you can use that then to encourage the steps slower and bigger, and quicker/shorter. Secondly, if he is snatching, then I would offer him the rein a little at a time, rather than giving it all to him, and teach him to politely move into the space you are offering. If you give too much all at once, sometimes they don't actually work out what you are getting at, and that's often when you get snatching, or hollowing. If you can just coax him out a few inches without him dropping the contact (coming above or behind it) then that's good progress.
You might find a bit of easy-small angle leg yields or shoulder-fore work might help to keep him reaching to the contact too.

the snatching is going to feel frustrating but you have to keep your cool I try to give a bit of passive resistance to a snatcher so they don't pull the reins out of my hand, maybe come with your leg to tell him that's not what you asked but that he should reach into the rein. if you're super consistent then he will probably learn quite quickly not to do this.
When he has done some good steps, I would bring him back into a medium/collected walk and work that for a little while, get the contact and regularity really good again, and then suggest to him that he might like to relax on a longer rein/longer steps for a few more strides.

Improving the walk can be a long term project and it's sometimes a bit difficult but you can do it.
What is his walk like when hacking?

 

[Bexx]

Thanks for the replies both I'll try out some of your suggestions
He is now reasonably responsive to my seat in the trot and canter and has good basic lateral work.
Hacking, his walk is fine, although it can be quite slow, however this is a confidence issue as he has slipped on the road before.
He is 13 and well schooled in trot and canter but it's clear no one has ever spent any time on his walk

 

[Hallo2012]

mine is a hot potato too, what works for him is alternating big sweeping leg yields with free walk on a long rein.

if he jogs i steady him, move him shoulder in a few steps then let the rein out again.

i also aim for more of an extended walk than a true FWLR at the moment so i can support him in the contact a bit more.

 

[milliepops]

He is 13 and well schooled in trot and canter but it's clear no one has ever spent any time on his walk

I think that's quite common tbh

I spend quite a bit of time in walk most days, but I admit with a previous horse who had a naturally good walk I was frightened of breaking it so it was a struggle to make myself do things - hers was a big walk which would score a reliable 8 or 9 for free or extended walk but we struggled to collect it, until one winter when the school was just too frozen to do anything faster and I had to face up to our demons

With current horse I deliberately use walk to unpick any wonkiness or contact issues because there's no need to hammer round the school wearing each other out and there really is nowhere to hide in trot/canter the impulsion/suspension can really help to mask a problem that is still lurking when you come back to walk

 

[PapaverFollis]

I managed to get Granny horse sorted who used to have no walk and no halt! Lol. But I can't remember how exactly! It just seemed to happen over time. I did a lot of hacking in just walk so she never anticipated a trot. I used to warm up with a 10 minute walk hack then start trotting straight away in the school do she didn't practice jogging. Once she was worked in and properly on the contact in trot we could come back to a more collected walk and I did lateral work in the collected walk. A big circle in the middle of the school in trot then a small circle in the opposite direction in walk as you cross the centre line.

Ultimately every time she jogged, we halted. Then we asked for walk again. Ad infinitum. We got there in the end. As I tuned into her I found I could hold her in walk with my seat. As with everything with that horse there was a knife edge balancing point to be found!