Q: The dressage judge described my pony’s free work as ‘lacking activity and stretch’. How can I work on this? My pony is slow in the walk and prefers to look around rather than hang his head. Is this fixable, or is my dressage score for the free walk always going to be low?
A: Walk is usually the most challenging gait to work on as it is all too easy for your pony to drop behind the leg and lose the engagement of the hindquarter. It is, therefore, often a sticky point in the dressage test. However, with the proper preparation – mainly a focus on the medium walk first – you can get your free walk looking more respectable for the dressage judges!
Top tip
We would recommend that you work on the walk while out hacking rather than in the arena.
Relaxation for the win
Your pony needs to be relaxed to have a good walk. If your pony is not relaxed, work him in trot, or even canter, until he is ready to listen to you. Once he is relaxed and paying attention, make some walk-trot transitions, keeping your pony in front of the leg at all times. Remember that when you are making a transition from trot to walk, you need as much impulsion and energy as you do to move from walk to trot!
Get him moving
To get your pony to march more in the walk, it often helps to ride out with another pony that really walks out. If this cannot be done, you need to ask for energy with your lower leg whilst encouraging your pony to remain in an outline. Pole work can often help with this as well. Once the medium walk starts to march forward, you can then focus on the free walk.
Long rein, not loose rein
Remember that the movement is a ‘free walk on a long rein,’ not a loose rein, and therefore there must always be a contact down the rein. This does make it easier to keep your pony’s concentration and maintain his outline. When first working on the free walk, do not expect your pony to stretch too much and for too great a distance, as he will need to develop confidence and learn to maintain his concentration. Again, pole work can help – gradually increase the distance between the poles, making sure that you retain the increased stride length after you have walked over the poles. The poles will often encourage the pony to stretch the neck and look forwards and down.
