Ok let’s walk and talk, all about the walk! The walk is that gait that we all forget to work on. How often do you get the the walk, pull out your cell phone, and let your horse amble around without a purpose?
Here are a few reasons why you should focus on your walk:
- You get a score for your walk in the test, and it’s a coefficient!
- If you can’t master something at the walk, you sure won’t be able to do it at the trot or canter!
- The walk is the best gait for older horses or rehabbing horses.
- The longer spent at the walk means a more comprehensive warm-up and a lower likelihood of injury.
This week I’m going to share three great walk exercises you can do with your horse for warm-up or as a complete walk workout.
Alternating walk.
It is very important to practice going from free walk to medium walk and back to free walk. Pay attention to the tempo and make sure that your horse doesn’t speed up or slow down when you take up the contact.
Leg Yield
This is a great suppleness exercise to practice at the walk. In the leg yield, you want to feel your horse lift in their back and connect rounder and into the outside rein. Make sure that your horse stays round and active in the walk in your leg yield.
Halt Transitions.
The third exercise that’s great to practice at the walk is walk-halt-walk transitions. Practice gently asking your horse for the halt from your seat without pulling and then moving quietly up into a walk again at the same rhythm.
If your horse gets frustrated with any of these exercises, it might be most productive in that moment to move them up to a more forward gait just to give them a little release so they don’t get anxious and bottle up their energy into a more explosive release.😂
These exercises are great for a day when either you or your horse, need a day off but you still want to do something productive. Believe it or not, you can accomplish a lot at the walk.
Have a look at the video and let me know in the comments if you find it helpful.
