The walk is often seen as something you do before you get down to the real work.
But in reality, the entire training process begins here; with groundwork, handwork, lunging, and riding.
Establishing contact so your horse pays attention to you
In walk, you establish contact with your horse, because you can’t do anything with a horse you have no contact with.
You can feel:
- whether your horse is following you
- whether he responds to your aids
- whether he is mentally present
Only when your horse is paying attention to you can your aids get through.
Without contact, there is no communication.
Then you’re busy correcting instead of working together.
Walk as the foundation for pace and direction
In walk, you lay the foundation for:
- establishing contact
- determining pace
- determining direction
- getting your horse to connect with you
If you can’t achieve this in walk,
it won’t come naturally in trot or canter either.
Work calmly at a walk and prepare the body
Once contact is established, you can calmly work your horse at a walk.
That means:
- taking your time
- working both left and right
- loosening up the body
In this phase, you can already work on:
- lengthening
- riding forward and downward
- under-stepping
For example, by working on the circle.
Warming up on the left and right creates balance
By gently warming up your horse on both sides:
- greater symmetry is achieved
- unnecessary tension disappears
- space is created in the body
It is precisely the simplicity that makes it effective.
This creates:
- contact
- calm
- connection
And that is the foundation on which you can build.
What happens if you skip this
When you skip the walk phase or make it too short, this often happens:
- you spend the entire training session correcting
- you keep searching for the foundation
- you correct what should have been prepared beforehand
It then feels like you keep coming back to the same point.
Not because your horse doesn’t want to,
but because he never really got the chance to start off right.
With a solid foundation, you can work through the session calmly
When the contact, tempo, and suppleness in the walk are right:
- there is a connection between horse and rider
- working through the session becomes easier
- aids remain clear
- there is more calm in the training
You then need to correct less
and can shift your attention to the subsequent exercises.
Not harder,
but more focused.
In conclusion
Everything you will later ask of your horse,
you already announce in walk.
If you take the time for that,
it will carry the entire training session.
If you skip it,
you will keep searching.
Walk is not a starting phase you have to “get through.”
It is the foundation upon which everything rests.