ridecamp@endurance.net: [endurance] How do you fix a Poor Walk?

[endurance] How do you fix a Poor Walk?

Nancy Churchill (nancyc@nwlink.com)
Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:52:12 -0800

My horse, Chavo, has many wonderful qualities, but his walk is not one of
them. He has this plodding, slow, take-me-to-the-knackers walk that I just
can't seem to improve. Even when on a loose rein on a downhill on the way
home, his walk is just plain POKEY! In addition, he trips frequently at the
walk, but hardly ever at the trot.

After spending the winter mostly walking, due to poor trail conditions, I'm
out of ideas. Any encouragement to increase the speed of the walk (legs,
stick, voice or a combination) results in either improvement for a few
steps, or movement into a trot. I'm using more energy to get the horse to
walk on than it would take me to walk the trail myself! I swear!

So if any of you have any ideas about teaching an old horse (he's 15) a new
trick (a faster walk), I'd be very interested. In the meantime, I have
decided to do more work at a Very Slow Trot.

Nancy Churchill nancyc@nwlink.com Redmond, WA