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  Discussion on My Horse Won't Walk!!!
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Member:
Smorton

Posted on Monday, Dec 27, 2004 - 5:25 pm:

When I first enter the arena, my horse will walk to warm up, but the minute I start out at a trot, from that point forward when I ask him to walk we do this little prancing trot (he has a very slow jog and it's slower than his walk!)and I have to keep a lot of pressure on him to keep him from moving out from the walk. I try to release him but the minute he feels me release the pressure it's back to this annoying little prance. He does this on the trail too - we jog trotted 10 miles at the last trail ride - it's annoying and uncomfortable after about an hour of it. I need some advice on how to break him of this bad habit. It's not that he doesn't get worked - I work him under saddle every day and he gets plenty of exercise. He's a paint in case you are interested. Anyone have any ideas on how I could train him on this? Any help is greatly appreciated!!!
Member:
Chohler

Posted on Monday, Dec 27, 2004 - 6:00 pm:

What do you do for groundwork?

If one of my horses decides that he doesn't want to do what is being asked I disengage the hindquarters, and start again. You should ask your horse to disengage the hind end anytime he does something inappropriate on the trail.

Depending on what you mean by keeping a lot of pressure on him, you may be inadvertently asking him to keep moving faster.
Member:
Ajudson1

Posted on Monday, Dec 27, 2004 - 7:19 pm:

Our oldest Arab mare (now retired) was terrible holding a walk on the way home. She always had a wonderful fast ground covering walk but once we turned for home she'd sneak into this little jig. It wasn't really uncomfortable but it wasn't a walk either. If you didn't correct her she'd go faster and faster.

What I would do is pick up one rein, pull her head around to my knee, relax both reins and see what she did. Repeat til she walked calmly on a loose rein. Pretty soon it got to the point where I would wiggle one rein with my pinky and she'd be going "Oh, oh, I'd better walk".

As this mare is very sensitive, I'd also make sure I stayed relaxed by breathing slowly, and got all tension outa my body. Trying to "hold her back" got her crazy. Circles make me dizzy so that was out.

I wasn't sure if you are riding English or Western, but it sounds like you need to go back to square one and get the walk down pat. A walk is a walk is a walk til told otherwise.

I like some of Clinton Anderson's ideas on a horse holding their gaits. His new book is at Amazon and is worth checking into.

Good Luck!!
Member:
Kckohles

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004 - 7:15 pm:

Hi Shannon,

This is a learned behavior that you need to help your horse un-learn. The foundation needs to be to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. Difficult but not impossible.
The walk is where you need your horse to be most comfortable. If you hold your horse at the walk then there isn't comfort in walking. Use your reins to communicate to the feet to walk. The moment you feel your horse prepare to walk let the release (a give) of the rein teach your horse. But wait until the very moment you feel your horse prepare to walk.
You also want to help your horse relax, this jigging thing is a very stiff gait with a lot of stiffness in the back and neck. Think about your horse letting that tension out of his neck and back by causing his head to lower and lengthen. I use an "S" trail to help bend the spine and allow them to relax. So you go one way for a few strides then the other but you help your horse straighten out in the middle. An "S" has a straightness in the middle. You have to allow enough slack in the rein for your horse to have room to lower his head. If your horse doesn't give and follow the bend in the "S" then you might maintain that direction until you make a full circle. Once I get a walk and then I feel my horse tip back and prepare for the jig again, I use my reins to direct them in an "S" trail again. I take the energy they are building up and direct it in a bend. When a a horse walks there is more weight on the forehand (front legs) but for the trot or jig the weight will tip back because the trot is weighted more equally between the front and hind legs. Think about using your reins to communicate not to criticize, show your horse what you want with your reins and then release when you feel them preparing to give it to you. You will direct your horse rather than think only of holding him back. It might feel sort of similar at times but instead of just holding on to him think about helping him find the walk.
Another thing you want to make sure and do is relax your legs in the stirrups. A common thing to do with a horse that jigs is to brace up in the saddle to try and prevent them from going any faster but the opposite is really true. If you get stiff and braced in the sadddle and the stirrups you will push the saddle down into your horses' back and cause them to want to stiffen and escape that pressure. There shouldn't be anymore pressure in your stirrups than you would have in your feet on the floor while seated in a chair. Your calves should touch the sides of your horse, they shouldn't be stiff and away from your horse. If you want your horse to relax than you have to relax your body too. Proper riding position is also important to prevent your horse from trying to escape the pressure of the saddle. You can have a good fitting saddle and if you ride it incorrectly make it just as uncomfortable for your horse as a bad fitting saddle. There should be a straight line from your shoulder to your hip to your heel.
Using disengagement as a training tool is a really quick way to own a crippled horse. Disengagement is a necessary tool to ride horses safely and I don't ever get on one that I don't make sure that I can disengage them. But the trend to use it for training purposes leads to crippled horses, I have seen it in horses all over the country. Horses are not designed to turn that way and doing so repeatedly puts a lot of stress on their bodies. You can take your pick between front-end or hind-end lameness because both are a result of using disengagement for training.

Good luck and be patient this is how riding "feels" to your horse so you will have to help him re-learn how the whole riding thing can feel. Your horse doesn't know that it could be any other way so it is your job to help show him how relaxed and easy riding can be, he wants it much as you do.

KIM
Member:
Skeller

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004 - 9:34 pm:

I have the same problem with my mare who is shown english pleasure. She anticipates (I really have to THINK walk). One trick I've used is to do some very shallow serpentines (in the show ring). You can do regular ones at home. Also I agree with Cheryl, disengaging the hind quarters works wonders. Using one rein (and completely releasing the other) turn her head around so she walks in a tight circle, enough to make her back legs cross. As soon as she stops, release that rein. Repeat on the other side. Make sure you have absolutely no pressure on the second rein.
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004 - 7:21 pm:

Angie's mare must be related to my favorite litte riding mare-also Arab and mostly retired now. When she was young she was perfectly mannered, except when headed home from a trail ride. Her walk would get faster and faster, and then turn into a jig. I would turn her in circles everytime she started jigging, and when she walked we'd head towards home again. After a while, she got a lot better about walking home, but on the occassions when she just couldn't contain herself, she'd break into a jig, then with no cue from me, turn into a tight circle! A very weird way to go home.

btw-I also tried working her in the arena when we got home instead of putting her away. Even though I did all the exercises she hated, it never did seem to cure her of this bad habit. Eventually we arrived at a comprimise; she learned to do a running walk, which I accepted as a walk, and which let her feel she was hurrying home - not the most professional solution, but one I was living to live with.
Member:
Scooter

Posted on Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004 - 8:41 pm:

Hi my gelding has been a nightmare prancer since he'd been broke to ride. I now have a calm non jigging horse but it was a long battle. I have to agree with what everyone said but absolutely none of them worked for him, I was ready to sell him because I couldn't take it any more, then one day I was wathching a Parelli show (I am not a huge fan) but some of his stuff is good. Anyway they said most people prance with their horse (I did) stiffened up, leaned forward, pulled back and genrally fought him all the way. WELL their suggestion was to lean back, relax your hip and spine, if you have to lean back so far as you are almost laying down so be it. Do not pull on your reins as you are doing this. So cowgirl that I am I thought huh it couldn't be that easy after all these years of trying everything possible. Next day I tried it and it worked pretty darn good, after about a week of this if he would feel me switch my weight back he would walk IT WAS GREAT. Now when I release reins, shift weight he will even stop on a dime. I would suggest trying this if it stopped him it will stop a train. Good Luck i know the pain!
Member:
Lisamg

Posted on Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 - 12:35 pm:

In my humble opinion ...

Jigging to get home faster is just part of being a horse. We all know that horses take twice the normal time to get where they're going and half the normal time to get back.....

Yes, you can undo this behavior with a lot of work. However, ....... have you ever just tried trotting home?

Being a distance rider I spend very little time at a walk. Trotting is the "slow" pace of choice. I don't seem to have this problem with any of my horses anymore. But if I insisted they walk home...... I'd bet it would develop in a hurry.

JMO

Lisa

Member:
Mrose

Posted on Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 - 1:37 pm:

In my case, I'm not talking about walking all the way home. I often ride 5-20+ miles. My dad, a former calvary man, taught me to always walk the last mile home so your horse is cooled out when you get to the barn.
Member:
Erika

Posted on Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 - 2:17 pm:

Ever notice that horses can't wait to get home and some will do anything not to leave in the first place. Yet, accidentally leave the gate open and.....!
Member:
Kckohles

Posted on Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 - 3:07 pm:

There are a few other things that you can do that will help. Tie your horse up when you get back from a ride for about a half hour and grain them before you go rather than when you get back. These two things will help them not be in such a hurry to get home.
Trotting home is a good idea too, then you can trot around the barn area for awhile then back out on the trail and try to walk home but repeat the process if you have to. Trotting home really isn't a problem either.

KIM
Member:
Christos

Posted on Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 - 3:39 pm:

We have actually talked about this in another post, but I think here's a good place to repeat it.
Walk is the easiest gait to destroy and the most difficult to fix.
Jigging comes from attempting to collect the horse at walk before collection at trot and canter is solid.
Walk has very little impulsion and a lot of movement. The lack of impulsion does not naturally press the horse on the bit, so the rider falls into the trap of pulling the reins to "collect".
Because of the very fast succession of the four beats, it takes a very supple rider with very sensitive hands to follow each beat as it comes "into" the reins. Most riders do not meet that criteria.
As a result, a sensitive horse will end up confused if not afraid to walk.
What Diane describes is the way to fix it. Ease your hold on the reins and relax. Tell the horse, by relaxing your body, that work is over for the moment and he can walk.
He should DrOp his head and stretch his neck and back, "chewing" the reins out of your relaxed grip. If he does not, as my trainer used to say, you have collected his trust to the bit out of him.

Member:
Scooter

Posted on Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 - 10:34 pm:

Christos, I like your trainer he hit the nail on the head. I work at an equestrian center and one of the trainers there suggested when the horse gets prancing and way behind the bit to kick him forward that worked pretty well also, scared me to death to kick a alraedy goofy horse forward but after he would spring forward I could get the spring unwound and he would strech more it did work, but not as well as my other post.
Member:
Ekdahld

Posted on Sunday, Jan 2, 2005 - 1:08 am:

Everyone wants a gimmic, a quick fix. There is no such thing. The way get a horse to do many things is with bit pressure (or lack thereof). When you pick up on the reins the horse has one goal - to get you to DrOp the pressure. If you hold constant pressure the horse gets frustrated because he doesnt know what you are asking and eventualy quits trying and becomes mad and unruly. Think about how people learn something new, no one gets it right the first try and you should not expect the horse to do so either. Every time you pick up and then release the reins you teach the horse something, if he is raising his head when you release he thinks that is what you want and will try it the next time you pick up the reins. The same is true of any action that the horse is doing at the moment you release the reins. If you want your horse to slow to a walk pick up the reins and at the moment that he makes the slightest effort to slow down DrOp the reins, he will soon learn that is what you want and then you can ask more of him until finaly when you pick up the reins he slows to a walk with just a light touch and if you are consistant he will learn quickly.

I hope this helps
Derek
Member:
Terrilyn

Posted on Monday, Jan 3, 2005 - 8:33 am:

I have a mare that speeds up and jigs when horses we ride with maintain a faster pace in front of us....I have fought her to maintain a steady walk for years. I tried Dianne's suggestion this weekend (had to lean WAY back) with looser reins...the difference was immediate. We worked on this a lot over the weekend. I works. I had tried just sitting deep and relaxing in the past which helped somewhat, but the exaggerated relaxation and really leaning back made with a more relaxed rein made a noticeable difference. Thanks for the tip!
Member:
Erika

Posted on Monday, Jan 3, 2005 - 8:56 am:

Here's a little trick that works like magic on one of my horses:
When finished working or doing something tiring and the horse is GLAD to walk, I rub a little on the withers as soon as we start the loose, low walk.
My horse now knows that anytime I give that little rub, she can DrOp her head and relax. I can almost hear her sigh when I do it!
My trainer thought it was quite remarkable when she got on and tried it.
Takes a while, but works.
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