Some good exercises to do in walk?

Question

Hey, I'm trying a new kind of training with my horse, and I'm not going to be cantering for a while. What fun exercises can I do in in walk and some for trot too?

Preferably ones to work on bend and transitions, but any other fun ones you can suggest would be helpful!

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is alot to do at a walk, You can walk over poles, set up a trail class, Walking over a trap is always a challange! Alot of bending you can do, shoulder ins, leg yelding stuff like that.

good luck!

Answer 2

you could try walking, stop... walk 5 steps, stop, walk 4 steps, stop, walk 3 steps, stop etc... get the horse listening to you, Do you have a school with markers, try walk round the school, then trot at the one marker and by the next marker go back to walk, then next marker halt. try and leg yeld from a 5 meter circle out to a twenty meter circle. and stuff like this.

Answer 3

Set up on obstacle course, weave through poles or cones, turn in boxes, open/close gates, pick up and put stuff down from your horses back, practice moving dismounts, walk/trot over grounds poles, walk for X number of strides, then trot for X number.  Practice halting from each gate, and goes from a halt right into a trot.  Side pass, half pass, turn on the haunches...get creative! =) have fun!

Answer 4

Halts, half halts etc will get your horse more attentive.  You could try leg work, shoulder in, shoulder out, turn on the forehand, rein back though that should not be  done too often otherwise your horse will start thinking backwards.

Try walking on a long rein and then gradual collection.  

Try circles, loops and serpentines, helping the horse to be more flexible - good for you too to practice accuracy.

All these things can be done in trot too.  While you are in walking mode you could do some leg and seat excersises to improve your seat and the length and position of your legs.  In both walk and trot you could try slowing the horse by the slowing of the movement of your seat necessitating less use of the reins.  When the horse is walking and you swing your hips in time to the walk try slowing your movement down and you should find your horse will have to come back to you.  Same in trot.

Enjoy.  Wish I had a horse to do all these things with.

Answer 5

you can do long and low where you allow the horses head to strtch right down which is brilliant for neck muscles.

try some leg yielding and shoulder in.

for a bit of fun you could try bareback if your confident its great for freeing up the back and gets you more in une with the horse. Maybe some trotting poles and figure of eights. Good luck!

Answer 6

There are lots of different exercises you can try without canter.  Try lateral work such as shoulder in, travers and turn on the forehand.  Do lots of different shapes such as circles, teardrops, serpentines and small squares (these help to teach your horse to turn on the hindquarters).  All the lateral work with help with bend and to get your horse to wrap around your leg more as well as the circles and shapes.  

Also do lots of transitions up and down the paces and focus on using lighter and lighter aids.  Work on getting a square halt.  

If you have a safe area such as a fenced in arena try riding in just a halter and one rope.  Use your body, legs and voice to control your horse to encourage you to use the reins less.  Also use the time to focus on your position with doing bareback or no stirrups to deepen your seat.  

Sepending on your horse's level of training you could also try teaching him to extend his paces and collect.

Hope this gives you something to work on and to keep you both interested