In today’s video I’m at a show and I’m going to give you some tips for hand walking your horse around at the show. It can be a really useful tool to get your horse relaxed and used to the show environment if you do it correctly.
First off, I like to use a rope halter when I hand walk. You can put pressure on, take pressure off, and also use a nice long lead rope.
At the bigger shows, don’t forget to have your number on when you hand walk.
When I hand walk my horse, I like for them to be at my shoulder. I don’t want them really ahead of me or dragging behind. I also want to make sure that when I go, they go, and when I stop, they stop. As I’m hand walking them, I want them to be connected to me and not just off in the surroundings. When I walk him forward, he should come forward with me. If I stop, he stops, and if I back up, I also want him to back up.
Another thing I like to do is practice dropping their head. If I go somewhere where he’s afraid, I’ll ask him to lower his neck by just putting my hand on the side of the halter and asking him to drop his neck down. When their heads go down, they relax; when their head is up, they get more and more tense. If you can get them to put their head down, they will relax more.
If I’m hand walking my horse and I come across something they’re afraid of, I want to make sure that they see it from both eyes and then that they relax as they go by it. I’ll walk him a little bit by on his left side and then let him try and get him to look at it. Pet him and then try to get him to drop his head because whenever he drops his head, he’ll relax a little bit more.
Then I’ll walk by on the right side so he sees it out of his right eye. I try to stay between him and the scary object. You don’t want to get on the opposite side of the object because if he jumps, he’ll jump on top of you. So, try to stay between your horse and the scary object.
Just reassure your horse. You want to give them confidence, get them to drop their neck, pet them, but at the same time, keep control so they’re not just taking over and getting themselves more and more worked up.
Let me know if you try hand walking at your next show.
Happy Riding!
Amelia
