Exercises in walk?

[NuttyMare]

What exercises can I do in walk under saddle to help improve the quality of the pace?

[KateWooten]

Everything :)

Isolate every body part and move them individually :
Flex head and neck.
Move shoulders over (schooling turn / walking turn on the haunches)
Move butt over (walking turn on the forehand)
Move ribcage over while maintaining forward impulsion (sidepass/halfpass/legyield)

Move one body part faster/ slower than another ... e.g. have the HQ walk a little circle, and the forequarters walk a big circle round the outside (or the other way round)

All the transitions up to walk : halt to walk, walk to halt... without using rein cues. Backup-halt. halt - back (no rein) back up - walk - back-up ... no reins ! <-- this is really quite a neat exercise in making you think about how you use your seat, and how your horse is listening for the next cue. When you have the horse take one step forward one step back as you focus on your seat, you really feel very 'connected' to him.

Hyper-bendy circles ... walk a circle and ask for more and more flex in the head and neck - keep asking for softness and bend in the neck until the horse's nose is near at your boot, but she's still walking forward (hindquarters are by this stage steeping a long way under and over to the side at the same time. This is an exercise in 'release timing' on the rein - ask, by pulling the rein up to your hip and as soon as you get softness, release your hand to your knee - usually asking again in the next stride.

Very serpentines - aiming for no more than 1/4 of a little circle to pass before you feel the horse is totally soft and bent beautifuilly so you release and ask for lovely bend the other way.

What fun you're going to have :D

[Skib]

Youdont say what the problem is nor how advanced you horse?
My teacher teaches almost everything in walk. So what might you enjoy?

I usually start with several walk halt transitions. Helps round up her back and gets her listening. Moving off from halt properly will loosen her at the poll.

You can walk small circles at each letter, to get her more flexible along her length
and weave in and out of ground poles.
Ground poles can be used in all sorts of shapes, both to make one more accurate as a rider and to encourage the horse to be active and pick up its feet. You can use them laid out parallel, or to make a box shape on the ground.

Then when she has warmed up, going large or on a 20m. circle, you can use your seat and rein contact to alter the length of walk steps. Don't be vague about the change over. Choose to do so many steps of each. Or choose a letter where you will change.

If the problem is getting forward movement, mark rashid has an exercise which goes direct from one letter to another across the school. That lends a purpose to your movement.

And to stop the horse getting bored, he asks people to ride in a grid pattern, turning at right angles whenever they like (or when they reach the edge of the school). It helps with riding straight lines and the horse cant predict when and where you will turn.

[palmerlover52]

Leg yielding?

[oldbushy]

riations of pace at a walk. With my young unbroken horse I ask for a faster more umm collected walk . I say to him nice walk then we go back to a slower walk slowlyyyy I find that getting this control at a walk I can now collect him up and after he takes off into trot (fast unbroken sort of wild thing happening) I say slowlyyyy and we relax back into a slower more controlled trot. Actually having said this to you I must try it with my old horse who has had no pace control training but simply thinks that if the rider demandsfaster then you must wind up faster trot faster then whoops trip So I must try some control of walk pace then trot pace on him. Sorry to rave on but yes at this low speed the horse definitely listens more to you and I guess the more you establish this the more control and attentiveness in the faster paces as they can get more wound up by extra exertion needed at the faster paces.