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Walking a horse is a great exercise for both the horse and the rider, as it warms them up and acclimates the rider to the horse's rhythm. Learn to properly walk a horse with help from a riding instructor in this series on horseback riding.
Hi, my name is Lisa. I'm an instructor at Enterprise Farms, and today I'm going to be talking about and demonstrating for you, the walk. The walk is a four-beated gait in each, with no suspension. So, that means that each of the four hooves is lifted and moved individually by the horse. The walk is probably the least appreciated of all the gaits because it is apparently simple, but it's one of the best. But, one of the best gaits to work on very, like several different things. Obviously, for your walk, that's where you do most of your warm-up. It's a great, it's a great gait to work on, suppling your horse, like riding them around in circles and getting your rider warmed up. The other thing is it's a really good gait to get used to the rhythm of your horse, really sitting into the saddle and feeling and trying to get a feel for how all of the horse, how the horse is moving under you, the mechanics, the movement of the walk. And so, you've just seen me walk a horse. This is a, like I said before, this is a good gait to work on all of your equitation, your good posture, really getting into the rhythm of the horse and stretching the horse and making it more supple, and working out all of the kinks. It's really good to slow it down to the walk and to focus on the basics. And so, that is how you would walk a horse.
