All I’m looking for is a nice, rhythmical walk that’s forward but without rushing or breaking into a trot.
We’re talking about a complete greenie (horse) doing Intro level training.
Any ideas for exercises we can try that will improve the walk but keep her engaged and listening.
Thank you.
I like raised poles. Set for walk, about 3ft. Gets the haunches active and gives you a feel of what it should be.
I always start my rides without stirrups too which … for what ever reason, gets my mare in the mood for work.
My old dressage trainer used to tell me to brush my ankles, front to back against my mares barrel. It woke her up but didn’t confuse her with the aid to trot.
Hills too.
Shoulder-in,
Haunches-in,
Shoulder-out,
Haunches-out
And transitions within the lateral work…eg., walk/whoa in shoulder-in, etc.
Once those are learned these, then half-pass and the “stair-step”…eg., shoulder-in to half-pass, back to shoulder-in.
Counter to USDF, these are extremely basic exercises which teach the horse the rein, leg and seat aids.
This, of course, assumes that the rider knows the rein, leg, and seat aids.
Trailriding over terrain, preferably with an older experienced horse as a lead.
Thanks for the suggestions 
I can get a nice trot from her but her walk is sloppy and when I try to set a nice pace she tried to evade by trotting.
Like those suggestions pluvinel and yes, I know the aids. I also agree that they’re relatively simple movements.
We do lots on upward and downward transitions but not lateral movements so I think I’ll try throwing that into the mix.
I usually wake her up with a short trail ride before schooling or a quick warm up in the round pen but I think I’ll try your suggestion pryme-thyme.
Don’t have any poles right now but it wouldn’t be a problem to go buy some.
I don’t expect wonderful things from this mare just looking to have some fun with her at schooling shows and possibly a little LL eventing too.
Quote: “Quick warm up in round pen”
You are trying to get your horse to walk nicely and enjoy the walk right?
Walking/warm up in your round pen will not do.
With you plans at LL eventing along w dressage schooling shows - take the horse out of round pens.
What above suggests are not “extremely basic” exercises for a horse u describe.
Riding out in the open - trailriding - you can teach your horse to be sure footed, confident and you can sneak in move off the leg, lengthen and shorten the walk. Then come back in your ring and ask for better walk there. your horse will understand what you mean.
[QUOTE=kinscem;8309261]
Quote: “Quick warm up in round pen”
You are trying to get your horse to walk nicely and enjoy the walk right?
Walking/warm up in your round pen will not do.
With you plans at LL eventing along w dressage schooling shows - take the horse out of round pens.
What above suggests are not “extremely basic” exercises for a horse u describe.
Riding out in the open - trailriding - you can tech your horse to be sure footed, confident and you can sneak in move off the leg, lengthen and shorten the walk.[/QUOTE]
kinscem, I’ve trail ridden this horse for almost two years from mountains to beach. She’s very sure footed and confident riding out alone or in company. She knows how to move off of my leg and can do turn on forehand, turn on haunches, leg yield and more. When I use the term greenie I was referring to her working in an arena, training for a specific discipline. My bad, re-reading the OP that was unclear.
To expand on the original post, when she’s switched on and listening to me I can halt this horse from my seat. The purpose of the round pen warm up isn’t to directly improve her walk, whats it does is get her attention on me before we start riding in the arena. I’m a firm believer that horses need a little time to wake up and switch from pasture mode to under saddle mode. In that respect the round pen works for her.
When we’re done with her round pen or trail ride warm up, we move to the arena and that’s when/where I have trouble getting a quality walk.
Also, she’s a draft horse so using her back end and walking forward aren’t her forte, ask more more impulsion and she wants to trot, it’s easier for her.
[QUOTE=4THEHORSES;8309302]
kinscem, I’ve trail ridden this horse for almost two years from mountains to beach. She’s very sure footed and confident riding out alone or in company. She knows how to move off of my leg and can do turn on forehand, turn on haunches, leg yield and more. When I use the term greenie I was referring to her working in an arena, training for a specific discipline. My bad, re-reading the OP that was unclear.
To expand on the original post, when she’s switched on and listening to me I can halt this horse from my seat. The purpose of the round pen warm up isn’t to directly improve her walk, whats it does is get her attention on me before we start riding in the arena. I’m a firm believer that horses need a little time to wake up and switch from pasture mode to under saddle mode. In that respect the round pen works for her.
When we’re done with her round pen or trail ride warm up, we move to the arena and that’s when/where I have trouble getting a quality walk.
Also, she’s a draft horse so using her back end and walking forward aren’t her forte, ask more more impulsion and she wants to trot, it’s easier for her.[/QUOTE]
Great. So what was your problem?
My guess is that this horse is sooo tired of you complaining about her.
[QUOTE=kinscem;8309445]
Great. So what was your problem?
My guess is that this horse is sooo tired of you complaining about her.[/QUOTE]
Re-read the OP sweetie.
The problem is that she won’t maintain a good walk in the arena and subsequently in a test.
If you don’t know why that’s a problem I suggest you revise dressage 101.
[QUOTE=4THEHORSES;8309151]
All I’m looking for is a nice, rhythmical walk that’s forward but without rushing or breaking into a trot.
We’re talking about a complete greenie (horse) doing Intro level training.
Any ideas for exercises we can try that will improve the walk but keep her engaged and listening.
Thank you.[/QUOTE]
A few suggestions:
I echo the suggestions of raised poles and hillwork. For poles I use landscape timbers from Lowes or Home Depot because they are very cheap! Not a great length for jumps (too short) but just fine for cavaletti.
My horse has a very poor walk. Cavaletti, hills, and all-around training and strengthening have improved it somewhat but it will never be his strong feature. I honestly think the most important thing has just been developing his body in general. He is now showing GP and his walk is still usually a 5 or 6 at shows but at home it’s sometimes a 7 and that feels like a big victory.
One thing that helped me at shows, where he used to get tense and jig in the free/extended walk, is to pretend we are just hacking out. I relax my entire body and let it swing, and act like the test is over, and that really does seem to help.
If you haven’t already, try to get some knowledgeable eyes on the ground sometime. Rushing and breaking could be about the horse, or you may have some tension or other issues you’re unaware of. I’m not knocking you…it happens to all of us and can be hard to identify by oneself in the moment.
Finally, I would recommend against getting fixated on the walk because if your training advances appropriately it should improve on its own, but it is an easy gait to make worse through schooling.
[QUOTE=pluvinel;8309178]
Shoulder-in,
Haunches-in,
Shoulder-out,
Haunches-out
And transitions within the lateral work…eg., walk/whoa in shoulder-in, etc.
Once those are learned these, then half-pass and the “stair-step”…eg., shoulder-in to half-pass, back to shoulder-in.
Counter to USDF, these are extremely basic exercises which teach the horse the rein, leg and seat aids.
This, of course, assumes that the rider knows the rein, leg, and seat aids.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but for an intro-green horse this is just a ridiculous suggestion. If we were talking a 1st level horse this would be an appropriate response. OP probably hasn’t even taught this horse what a half-halt is yet, much yet lateral movement.
For a truly green horse who really only knows kick means go, go faster, and go faster-er, I like poles. Set them three feet apart, and if you raise them, place them closer together.
I also like setting markers around the ring - teaching them to move within the gait - slow walk, fast walk, slow trot, fast trot… this is the building step for teaching the half-halt anyway. Teach her to halt off of your seat, teach her to move off of the application of weight, etc.
Since your mare is not green outside of the ring, I don’t think hills will help. You have to teach this horse to be adjustable, which it sounds like she hasn’t learned yet. Transitions within the gait, out of the gait, and lots of bending lines, changes in directions, figure eights will teach her to walk in rhythm that you want. I do think it’s important to start incorporating moving off the leg, leg yields, etc into this horse’s education so that once she is a little further in her education you CAN do the exercises pluvinel suggested, because they are GREAT if the horse knows them and the aids for them.
[QUOTE=4THEHORSES;8309484]
Re-read the OP sweetie.
The problem is that she won’t maintain a good walk in the arena and subsequently in a test.
If you don’t know why that’s a problem I suggest you revise dressage 101.[/QUOTE]
Are you expecting her to maintain a good walk all by herself?
If so, that’s GREAT! No, seriously, that’s great. However, you have to be the one monitoring it every stride. Did that stride match the previous stride? If not, do something immediately. Do something immediately every time and eventually you’ll be doing something a whole lot less and she will be maintaining a good walk all by herself.
I don’t think this is about the horse. I think it’s about rider discipline. Totally fixable. Probably not what you wanted to hear because it’s not a magical exercise that’s going to fix it. But, since the horse has a good consistent walk outside the arena, well, it’s up to you to raise your expectations and follow through inside the arena too.
Thanks for the suggestions
I certainly wouldn’t rule out my riding as being part of the problem. I school the horses at home without a trainer but there are quite a few good dressage trainers in the area so a few lessons sure won’t do any harm!
It would be fantastic if she would eventually maintain a good walk on her own but right now I have to ride her every step of the way. Trouble is her evasion technique is to try breaking into a trot. When she does that I correct it and bring her back to a walk. Usually I can correct it in a couple of strides.
She does know half halt and I use it. She can also shoulder in although it’s very rough around the edges.
The Lowe’s pole would work great so I might pick some up at the weekend.
Hill work we do one the trails (most of the trails around my place involve about 50% hill work) so we’ll keep at that.
[QUOTE=4THEHORSES;8310365]
It would be fantastic if she would eventually maintain a good walk on her own but right now I have to ride her every step of the way. Trouble is her evasion technique is to try breaking into a trot. When she does that I correct it and bring her back to a walk. Usually I can correct it in a couple of strides.[/QUOTE]
She will. Be patient. Persevere. Be absolutely stringent in your expectations and corrections. She will eventually get dead bored of being corrected and will figure out that what you do when you are not correcting her is what you want and you will both heave a sigh of relief.
I must have missed the jog thing. Welcome to my world. Welcome to a myriad of exercises that will HELP to achieve the above. (but it still comes down to rider discipline)
Exercise 1 is bringing her back to walk.
Exercise 2 is bringing her to halt before re-starting the walk.
Exercise 3 is immediate rein back after a halt before re-starting the walk. (must rein back to the point where she softens her back and jaw - useless if you go forward with the original tension remaining in place)
Exercise 4 is shoulder-in (not just a weenie little shoulder-fore, get her moving on 4 tracks and really thinking about her feet) the moment you feel that little tension that suggests she may want to jog.
Exercise 5 is shoulder-in followed by flexing and counter flexing the neck until she is over that omg I really feel like I need to jog thing.
Exercises 4 and 5 are only any good if you catch that moment before she jogs. If she’s already jogging do one of the first 3 things.
I know your pain. I have a horse with an easy 8+ walk who has a 0-2 walk every time she learns something new. Canter walk transitions blew her walk into a million pieces. Months later I’m just finding the last few bits of the puzzle to put it back in place.
Patients and perseverance and more of the same for as long as it takes.
A good article about schooling the walk. Don’t be put off by the title-does not just deal with lateral walks. Also addresses the issue of horse jigging.
it’s walk. walk is simple.
also, it’s for an intro horse. some of those suggestions are really complicated! lol
Walk is simple. To improve the walk…just walk.
And walk a lot.
The walk is such a great way to slaughter the competition, especially the stretch walk because it’s a coefficient. If you can get the 8s and 9s on your walks then you have it made.
Walk is a row boat gait. Remember to follow the horses head with your arms.
I had a judge tell me that one time long ago, (to follow the movement with my hand) and it improved my medium walks by a point.
Horse’s are creatures of habit, just like us!
If you start out your ride, as soon as you get on, with “horse, soften your back and put your mug down into the contact” then eventually that is what you will always get.
Don’t be discouraged if it seems hard. Intro is just that, intro. Often you don’t get those finer tuned moments until the horse is working a little more through and over the back.
And make sure you have a specific aid for the walk. So it is very clear to your pony what you want.
For instance I alternate my leg aids. When the horse’s right fore goes forward, my left leg is on. And I keep my body more swingy. and I allow the horse’s head to bob and I row boat with that bob.
I have found over the years that when I bring my horse back into a working walk from the stretch walk if I counter bed and leave the inside rein alone my horse will stay a bit more fluid and not lose the marching…
A good rhythm is about relaxation. Getting too tricky and technical can be counter intuitive causing tension in the horse.
Wonderful, thank you for all the ideas.
I’ll be trying some of these over the weekend!
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