How I Conduct a Training Session at the Walk    

Since I am now in transition from no medicine for my Multiple Sclerosis to re-starting the only medicine that has ever controlled my MS, my body is changing daily.  This means that there are days when I only walk when I ride a horse.  There were times, when I was younger, when I would have been terribly bored just walking around the ring, keeping on the rail and going around in pointless circles, and accomplishing nothing. 

However, as my body became disabled, I started to learn the joys of a good walk, free striding, with impulse, confidently reaching for contact, and an ideal opportunity to fine-tune my aids and the horses’ response to my aids.  People can miss out on getting their horses truly responsive to the aids if the walk is not trained as thoroughly as the trot, canter, and gallop.  This is a truth that I never realized when I could ride a horse at the faster gaits, and one of the reasons that my horses never did quite as well as I desired.

First, after mounting, I do ride on the rail a while, then I start doing big, slow turns in one direction, and after a while I reverse and do big, slow turns in the other direction.  After several minutes I increase the difficulty by telling the horse to go from the big, slow turn in one direction to doing an equally big, slow turn in the opposite direction.  This requires the horse to change the flexion of his whole body, something that some horses (like Bingo) have problems doing properly.  I concentrate on keeping good contact with the horse’s mouth, and I signal the turn by advancing my outside rein instead of shortening my inside rein.  If advancing my outside hand does not result in a turn I add in the leg aids, first my outside lower leg as the horse’s inside foreleg advances, if that does not work I alternate my outside thigh with my outside lower leg.  I use an inside leading rein only when the previous steps have failed, at first alternating with my outside lower leg, if that does not work I start to use my outer thigh (at the same time as the inside leading rein) alternating with my outside lower leg.  If that does not work I stop using my outside leg and alternate my inside thigh with the inside hand.  My goal is for the horse to turn willingly, smoothly, with proper flexion of his body, while maintaining the speed I desire, preferably without me having to use my inside rein aid.

After I have a few good turns in both directions, I will start working on the three speeds of the walk, first on the rail.  I start with the horse’s normal walking speed for covering ground (not the shuffle where the horse is not going anywhere.)  I go at this speed until the horse feels properly loose and relaxes under me, and then I ask the horse to extend his stride by alternating my lower legs (using my lower leg as the horse’s barrel is moving away from it.)  If the horse does not start doing longer steps I then get in two-point or a crotch seat, some horses do not want to extend if the rider’s weight is on their seat bones.  At first, with a green horse, I only ask for three strides of the longer walk before I let the horse lapse into their normal walk, because it takes a LOT more energy for the horse to go in a longer striding walk.  As the horse gets stronger I ask for more strides in the extended walk, working up gradually to doing a full turn around the ring. 

Then, after a half ring of the horse’s normal walk I start asking for a really slow walk, by twitching the rein each time the horse’s front foot on that side lands on the ground.  I have to be ready to use my lower leg to prevent the horse from halting.  After a while of the consistent use of my aids, the horse does slow down a lot and we are creeping around the ring.  Again, at first I only ask for around three strides, working up to more strides gradually.  I have noticed, with horses that do not yet know how to use their backs properly, that the horses feel stiff when they go from a super-slow walk to the normal walk, and I usually get up into a crotch seat/two-point until the horse’s back is freely “swinging” again.

Then I do a turn around the ring, with a super slow walk on the short sides, a normal walk half-way up the long side, then an extended stride walk the rest of the long side, normal walk on the short side, to a super slow walk turning to the long side, then back to the normal walk.  I might repeat this exercise two or three times, depending on how the horse responds.

Then I get off the rail and do the big slow turns at the three speeds of the walk, concentrating on keeping an even speed through the turns.  Often the horses want to slow down when turning, but it is useful for them to learn how to handle their bodies in a turn while in a more extended frame, so I end up using my lower legs a good bit to keep the horse at their normal or extended speed throughout the turn.  Of course the proper flexion of the horse’s body is the most important thing in a turn, the three speeds of the walk is added on to that, if the horse stiffens up at the faster walk I slow down until the horse flexes his body properly again, then I add speed gradually.

All this takes me around 15 minutes.  Then I stop because I am tired and I have to rest.  This ensures that I practice halting the horse, and that the horse learns that I expect him to STAY STILL for a few minutes.  If my back is hurting I will do some stretching exercises then, and when I am doing them I concentrate on keeping my lower leg still, otherwise the horse will move!  I also am mindful about keeping equivalent weight in both stirrups, or with my seat bones in the saddle.

Then I start all over again, and when the horse’s back is “swinging” again I start doing some turns-on-the-hindquarters from the walk, in both directions.  When I get an adequate turn-on-the-hindquarters I will get the horse going straight again, halt, and then as for a turn-on-the-forehand, then I walk some more, halt, and ask for a turn-on-the-forehand in the opposite direction.  If the horse does these two turns well, I might ask for them again one to two more times during the schooling session.  If they do not do them well I go back to making sure the horse starts “swinging” his back again, try again, and if I fail again I usually decided 1) I am not timing my aids correctly that day, or 2) something physical is bothering the horse, and I just go back to achieving a good, normal walk.

I also work some more with halting the horse smoothly, from the lightest possible hand aids.  My goal is to get a good halt from the walk by alternately twitching my little fingers.  If I do not get a halt from twitching my little fingers, I twitch my little fingers alternately again with a more definite, stronger hand aid.  Then I try stopping following the horse’s back with my seat before I give the hand aid.  If that does not work I will do a properly timed hand aid (as the horse’s head is going UP), and if I need to repeat that I do it a little stronger.  Only when all that fails will I “set” my hands, often by leaning with them on the pommel of the saddle until the horse starts slowing down, and then I release my hand aid immediately.  When the horse finally stops, I loosen the reins completely as a reward.  My goal is to get a halt from twitching my little fingers with me putting no extra tension on the reins as the horse halts, and to test this I might make the reins loose as the horse halts.

I also back up once or twice, starting with my lightest hand and leg aids, using more strength as necessary.  I IMMEDIATELY loosen my contact as the horse steps back, and I alternate between sending the horse forward immediately and just standing there on a loose rein. 

Even though I am just walking during the schooling session, I am working on good turns, three different speeds within a gait, responsiveness to my hand, lower leg, and thigh aids, and responsiveness to my driving, restraining and turning aids.  The horse learns how to extend and contract their movements.  With a green horse I start off with low expectations for perfection and I do not try for a very intense workout.  As the horse learns my aids, as his muscles get more fit, and as his endurance increases I start making the walking workout more intense, the turns gradually get tighter, I work more at keeping the pace steady, and I ask for more differentiation between the three speeds of the walk, plus I expect the halt to improve too! 

Of course, when I go up to the trot and canter, I have to work on all of this again.  However, since the horse learned that my aids mean something at the walk, I find it easier to get the horse to go properly at the faster gaits, and they often learn these things quicker.  Then I also have to work on proper transitions between the different gaits, both going up to the faster gaits and slowing down to the slower gaits or halt.

Walking the horse need never be a total waste of time.  And believe me, the more obedient the horse is at a walk the easier it is to get true obedience in the faster gaits.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran