Extremely slllloooooooow walk

[dunrobin_topper]

Hi guys just another quick question before the weekend arrives! I really want to focus on my transitions and quality of topper's walk since its supposed to be dry weather!

I had very good response for walk - halt downward transition so thank you very much! Going to try it tomorrow!

But im at a loss of how to get a nice smooth rythmic walk? :confused: I let him work long and low for the first 5-10 minutes of our ride/school work and lower my hands on either side of his neck (saw Carl Hester doing this on your Horse show) When i take up the contact he still feels rather sluggish and im not sure how to get him to 'wake up' as it were! Im making sure i sit up and relax my shoulders etc even tried the exercise where you raise one arm straight up in the air to make me grow tall! I check im allowing myself to go with him and not block in anyway. I just dont know how to encourage him along a bit without obviously hurrying him out of his natural gait. Ive tried walk - trot transitions and this works but only for a little while, i change reins often, try loops and turns etc but nothing seems to work...

I dont want to nag him with my legs although when i watched that Carl Hester demo (horse and country) he was talking about using your heel with quick nudges? I also tried a flick with the schooling whip but again it only boosts his walk for about 3 strides then its back to normal SLOW! I really hope its not me getting in his way so any help is much appreciated! :)

[Laura2184]

Looking forward to responses to this as, like you, if I ask Prince to quicken his walk up, he does for about 3 strides then goes back to normal.. its very annoying.. :rolleyes:

[jenb]

Ok, firstly again you must make sure you are sitting straight and tall. My emphasis here would be on ensuring your pelvis is "neutral" and not tilted forwards or backwards - tilting forwards onto your fork is a common reason for horses not going forwards, as you are effectively riding with the handbrake on!

Ok, once you are straight, walk on and focus on what your seatbones are doing. Imagine you are looking down from above at your seatbones - what shape would they be making? Most people find they make little circles, as they get moved forwards, backwards and side to side by the horse's hind leg movement. Some horses will not give as much side to side movement as others, particularly those who are stiff in the back.

Also feel how your lower legs move from side to side with the horse's barrel - let them follow the movement.

So first exercise, try to equate the circles that your seatbones are making to an object in terms of size - there is no right answer here, I've had everything from an Orange to a Golf Ball! Once you have an image in your head of size, see if you can gradually make it smaller and smaller. You'll find that the horse's walk slows down. Then work on gradually making it bigger - hopefully your horses's stride length should increase.

Then go back to focussing on the horse's barrel movement. As your inside leg goes inwards, follow it through so that you are nudging the horse's barrel to send him forwards. If you time it with the outwards swing of the barrel, you are giving the aid when the horse's inside hind leg is in the air, which is the most effective time to influence forwardness and stride length. Not sure if I have explained that clearly enough, so again - as your inside leg follows the swing of the horse's barrel to the outside, give a little nudge!

The last thing which should clarify things to a backwards thinking horse, is to try not to use your hands and legs at the same time. Keep hands (but not backwards pulling hands!) for slowing and turning, and legs for forwards. Practise separating them by riding a 20m circle in walk, use legs to ask for a bigger walk for half a circle, and then gentle alternate squeezes on the rein to ask for a slower walk (ie squeeze left hand, then right hand and so on).

Hope this helps!

[Esther.D]

And it can will take a long time! I trained one of my Shetlands to walk out more but it took me weeks and weeks of daily training, but once we got there he didn't relapse. It usually isn't just walk, if you have good impulsion in the other paces you *should* be able to get a decent walk. However in my Shetland's case he was very forward going and went well in trot but his walk was dire!

I used a lot of transitions as well, if they are kept awake and alert then the walk tends to improve!

[juliep]

Yes, been there too, and still have to work at it sometimes - I find slapping my boot with the stick helps, it does only work for a few strides, but if you keep persistent with the idea of the walk you want in you head, this can help- work up gradually,3 strides correct, then let horse relax, then 5, 7, etc, until they get the idea this is what you really want, need to be consistent, it is so easy to give up and let them get away with it isn't it?
Julie

[twinkle11]

you could try some lateral work shoulder in leg yeild travers this would really get him listening to you and if using them with lots of diffrent things changing rein ,circles and transitions really getting him guessing of what your asking for next this would really help and wake him up has worked wounders for my once lazy mare but more sharper to the aids and rythm you want:) good luck

[pineapple]

walk to canter transitions, my ex horse was really lazy in walk but after teaching him walk to canter in walk improved no end, was still short striding but much better.