{"id":14784,"date":"2014-12-03T11:09:07","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T00:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=14784"},"modified":"2016-06-09T16:06:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T06:06:30","slug":"martina-hannover-riding-your-test-the-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2014\/12\/martina-hannover-riding-your-test-the-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Martina Hann\u00f6ver – Riding your dressage test – The walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WALK<\/strong>
\nI think walk is the hardest thing because there is no moment of suspension, it is not a swinging gait. Trot and canter go forward. It is like when you ride a motor bike and you have to drive really slow, it is very difficult. It is much easier to go fast and be straight, and it is the same with the walk.<\/p>\n

Some horses with a really big walk, you have to keep them fast enough, so they are really 1 \u2013 2 \u2013 3 – 4, with a big walk they can go 1 – 2 and be lateral. They should really go in front of your legs, and you should stay quiet and not try to balance them too much \u2013 or then it can become dangerous.<\/p>\n

I heard from so many people that you don\u2019t collect young horses in walk when they are three-year-olds. But I always train my three year olds that they have to walk into the hand, round, down, going forward from my leg and into the hand, and work on the bit, so that they know this contact from the beginning. Then you can take them a little bit back \u2013 just a little bit \u2013 still in front of your leg, and just for a couple of strides \u2013 just to look and see if there are problems or not. But the horse really has to go forward from your leg.<\/p>\n

If I do feel the horse has gone lateral in the walk, then I do try to help them a little with my reins, so that they feel every step, so that they don\u2019t panic, and they don\u2019t feel hectic. I don\u2019t know if they think about which leg they are using, but I try with my reins to tell them which leg they should use now. Some horses are better in collected walk when you ride them a little bit slower, so they don\u2019t get stressed. Some get tense and that\u2019s when they go a little lateral.<\/p>\n

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\nWALK PIROUETTE<\/strong>
\nThis is the same as canter pirouette \u2013 you have to think of shoulder fore. Get the horse straight in front of you. Ask him for the bend in the poll, the outside rein is telling the front end to turn around the hind legs. With your outside leg you stop the horse stepping out with his outside leg, and with your inside leg you keep them stepping and the activity behind. With some horses you have to push them a little more with the inside leg and some you have to push more with the outside leg. It is like us, we can\u2019t write with both your left and the right hands. Every horse has its \u2018chocolate\u2019 side where everything is much nicer, like the half passes, or the pirouettes, then we don\u2019t have to push so much.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why we have to ride walk pirouettes. The judges always seem to give the mark between a 7 and an 8 \u2013 I\u2019ve never had a nine for walk pirouette. We have many other interesting movements where you can give a score from a 4 to a 9 or even a 10 \u2013 which is better because you can get the horses and riders more separated. I don\u2019t know why we have to ride walk pirouettes any more. They took them out of the Grand Prix and that was a good decision.<\/p>\n

If you get a horse that just wants to turn quickly, then at home you train the pirouette bigger – and some they are so slow, it\u2019s hey wakeup, this is a wakeup call!<\/p>\n

\"martina2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

SIMPLE CHANGE IN WALK<\/strong>
\nIt is the same as we were talking about in the canter entry \u2013 the horse has to have the chance to step under. I don\u2019t like the half halts to walk where the horse stops with both hind legs, then there is no flow or rhythm.
\nSometimes the horses learn the aids from canter to walk and they start to anticipate it, and do it too quickly, then you can go back and ride canter \/ trot instead of canter \/ walk to keep the horse forward. Especially with the older horse, you have to train this transition from canter to trot and trot to canter and the same in walk to canter and canter walk. If the horse is too calm, then I\u2019ll do it faster, and if he is too hot after the canter I\u2019ll let him relax.<\/p>\n

I train it always on a turn at the beginning. In a corner or on a volte, not on a straight line.<\/p>\n

You can get into problems with the walk if the horse is not strong enough and is not straight enough between your legs \u2013 then the horse becomes too lazy behind, and we are in big trouble! When we try to go from the big walk to a little more collected walk, then we get a little tension in the back, and we have a pace, a lateral walk, which we really don\u2019t want. We have to look hard into the horse and wait until it is ready for the walk to be made a little bit smaller.<\/p>\n

It is not easy to make a bad walk into a good walk; I have had a few. Some of the Rubinsteins with their big walks were not so easy to collect when we started, but that was because they were too lazy behind and had just been ridden on a long rein. So when I started to collect them, I just had to make them faster from behind and then they went super.<\/p>\n

It is very important that the horse accepts your leg, then you can make them faster from behind without making them tense in the back. Ask them to go a little bit faster with the hind legs, but don\u2019t make them tense. That is always the start, that the horse allows itself to be ridden with both legs and to go forward\u2026<\/p>\n

More from Martina on her Who’s Who page:<\/p>\n

Hann\u00f6ver, Martina<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n