An exercise I often utilize at clinics is to ask a rider to slow their horse’s walk for a few steps. I don’t mean asking the walk to be slowed to what the horse wants to offer. I mean to slow the walk to a pace that is even slower than a horse chooses to offer. I often use phrases like “slow down so that a snail could go whizzing past you,” or “slower than a park statue.” But in essence, I am looking for a walk that is slower than the horse’s idea of a slow walk would be. It might be a 5km/hr speed or it might be so slow it takes a single footfall every second or two seconds.
I was asked about this at a clinic a few weeks ago. Why do I want a “slow walk” and how to achieve it?
Let me say from the start that the walk is the most neglected and under utilized gait in a horse’s repertoire. It’s also the hardest gait to get right, in my opinion. I think this is largely because the walk has the least amount of natural impulsion. Most horses don’t put out an effort to offer any form of the walk than the one they feel naturally inclined to offer. It takes considerable work for a horse to present a bigger or smaller walk than the one that issues just below the surface. This is precisely why the walk is such an important gait to work at and refine, whether on the ground or under saddle.
It is because a horse tends to present one level of effort in their walk, that asking for different types of the walk is so useful in developing focus and following a feel. Imagine how much mental effort and focus a horse incorporates to listen to us when we ask for it to move a single foot once every second. This is so far outside of what a horse would normally offer, that making it happen without resistance requires a tremendous amount of focus and effort. For that reason, I have used this exercise a lot, with great success, when working with a horse whose mind is as busy as a kite in a windstorm.
If you follow my work you will know that the slow walk I am talking about is derived from the horse’s idea to walk slowly. It’s not by the rider or handler constantly applying the brakes to prevent the horse from walking quicker. That’s just out-muscling the horse and using the reins or lead rope with more strength than the horse’s idea to walk out. There is no benefit from that.
Nevertheless, I start teaching a horse to slow its walk by slowing my energy, either in the saddle or on the ground. Eventually, I want the horse to follow my feel, so the first thing I present is the energy I want the horse to learn to follow one day. Even if I know the horse won’t hear or listen to a change in my energy I need to present it first so that when it is ready to listen, my reduced energy is there for it to hear.
So I always begin by presenting lower energy in myself. If this doesn’t cause the horse to change its thought and slow its feet, I then apply a feel in the reins or lead rope firm enough to change the thought. I wait before releasing the pressure for a slowing of the feet, a relaxing of the posture, and a softer feel. All of those things are necessary because when they are all changing it indicates a change of thought. Therefore, I wait and wait until some degree of change occurs in all of those variables. It may happen in the first step or in the tenth step. No matter how long it takes, I wait before removing the pressure of the reins or lead rope. The moment I detect a change, I release the reins/lead rope and establish the energy in my body.
The goal is to teach the horse to carry a slow walk by itself because I have a slower walk in myself. At first, it’s for one step. Eventually, it builds to two steps, then 5 steps, then 20 steps, then your horse can carry it as long as you want. But keep in mind that the object of the exercise is not to slowly walk laps of the arena. It is to help build better focus and connection. In this way, the slow walk is not unlike a half-halt. The big difference is that the slow walk exercise is designed for better focus and connection throughout the ride, whereas the half-halt is a moment of re-balance, and insistence on a change of a horse’s thought is not a priority for most riders. In most cases I have seen, riders are happy if they get a fleeting shift of focus when applying the half-halt to ready a horse for the next imminent movement.
Of course, this principle can be applied to all gaits. But in my opinion, the walk is an often neglected gait in the search for impulsion, focus, and connection. I see it all the time. How many people lunge their horse for 10mins, yet only spend 1min of that session on the walk? How many people never ask for an exaggerated slow walk on the lunge or when riding, but happily ask for a fast walk or trot? In your next session, (whether on the ground or when riding) ask your horse to move one foot once every second, for 10 seconds. See how soft, relaxed and focused it feels.
I’m helping a horse to walk slowly through a narrow gate