Recent convert to Western riding and a QH. Love his quiet mind, but his walk is a bit short. I’m used to bigger movers and while I love his sit all day trot, I’m getting left behind on trail rides at the walk. He is a tiny bit downhill, and has a straighter shoulder than my TB, so I’m not sure if I can “fix” him. Any suggestions?
Thx!
If you are trail riding, it’s more important for your horse to be comfortable and working within the limitations of his conformation and athletic ability. You may just need to jog a little bit to catch up. If he is short strided due to his conformation, you may cause problems by asking for him to extend his natural stride for a long period of time. But isn’t is relaxing to be on a good minded QH!!
Very! He’s perfect for me right now. But part of me wants it all - the gaits of my TB and the mind of my QH. How perfect would THAT be?? 
Make 100% sure your saddle fits behind (not on) the shoulder, then miles and miles and miles of trail walk and long trot.
Experiment to see if posting allows him to use his back more. Sitting is more comfortable to you, but might be counterproductive at first if you want more stride length.
Good ideas, thanks.
A bit of work over trot poles set at a longer walk distance, ditto trot work, but bear in mind he has to travel at a distance comfortable for his conformation, it will never be that huge free OTTB walk.
Lots of good suggestions so far.
Also, if the horse has spent a lot more time in an arena than on long trail rides, you may find that his gaits just naturally relax and lengthen over time as you spend more hours moving freely down the trail.
My first mule had a distinctly different trail walk than arena walk. I used to joke that he was “shifting into trail gear.” You could definitely feel him stretch out and lengthen once you started down the trail. And it was certainly not anything that I ever taught him.
I have one that came like that and is much better now. He is more than a little bit downhill and has that big heavily muscled rear end and topline. He felt like he had a slightly sticky parking brake at first. He seemed especially sticky going down hills - somewhat pace-y or lateral if you will.
I spent quite a bit of time walking (at first) and (later) trotting on slightly hilly terrain. I focussed on keeping myself swinging in time with his body and thinking of encouraging his barrel to move properly by “opening” my leg on each side as he walked. I also counted the rhythm out loud going down hill (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 . . . ) which helped me keep the rhythm in my body and encourage it in his.
We did lots of transitions and some turns on the forehand and hindquarters in the ring, followed by leg yielding and eventually some shoulder-in and haunches-in. We are working on half pass but aren’t quite there yet.
As I have gained more and more control over his shoulders and haunches, so that I can help free up his barrel, he walks better and better. The trick of course is to do all of this without pulling on his mouth. He needs a long relaxed frame with straightness to be able to swing at the walk (and trot . . . ).
The good news is that, at least for my guy, the big walk IS in there. And the other good news is that along with the better walk, I have a much more rideable horse!
If you can go out with a big strided horse it might help too. My Icelandic taught our Arab to have a much bigger walk, and my POA can relatively easily outdistance Warmbloods stride for stride.
Stretching him manually wouldn’t hurt. Lots of horses get tight in the back and shoulders having to account for people crippling down their gaits to be “rideable”. Lots of good DVDs etc on how to do it safely for people and horses.
The more you reward freedom of movement and softness, the better. As someone pointed out, forcing a longer (or worse, quicker) stride than he can offer will just make him tight. Same deal if you try to do too much sitting trot/canter at first.
Lastly, a good gallop can work wonders. So many horses ride around like they have a handbrake on all the time, and a really big free rein canter (or gallop, if you’re game) can really get the carbon buildup out of the engine cylinders.
Just a thought - if you are used to riding English and on contact, you may still have more of a hold of his mouth than he is used to, even if for you it feels like you have no pressure at all on him. Not saying that you are doing this, but something to check out. If you set your reins right down on his neck and let go, does his gait lengthen?
Practice elasticity - use your body to hold his slow walk, use more and more of your body/energy to swing him into a more stretched out walk. Go back to normal, return to bigger walk. I use alternate legs, and my horse will never break into a trot.
Hey thanks you guys, all good ideas! Huntin Pony, YES! He does feel sticky going downhill and he does have a big 'ole QH butt and shoulders to go along with it even though his body isn’t overly wide. I will work on encouraging his body temp with my own, drop my rein hand down, and try ground poles even though he has no problem knocking into them. I think I’ll start riding him more often in my dressage saddle which will encourage me to get off his back more often at the trot. Appreciate all the good advice!
You might want to check how his front hooves are being trimmed. So often I
see QH with an upright, high heels, short toe type trim because in QH shows
they sometimes reward that stilted walk.
Often when new farriers are brought in, they just continue this unbalanced
trim because they “think” this is just the natural way the horse’s hooves grow
and they don’t change it to improve it. I’ve also heard farriers refer to this as the QH trim and believe that what the owners want.
When trimmed this unbalance way for a long period of time, the ligaments and tendons constrict and shorten and thus shorten the stride. It’s a slow process to correct it but it can be done- again slowly and correctly.
Hope this is something you or an experienced person with knowledge of hooves can look at.
