Riding Helpful Hints - Part 2 By Bonnie Gruber Do you have trouble with keeping your horse on the diagonal during the free walk? Are you sure that the judge is going to ask your horse to take a breathalizer test after the free walk is done. It can be fixed and these hints will also improve other parts of your test. At the bottom of the tests it says that the free walk can be ridden on a long or loose rein. I have found that you will have more control of the front end if you do not give up the connection to your horse’s mouth instead of riding the horse “loose”. First you have to understand that you have to keep it simple. Most wandering on the diagonal is caused by over corrections done by the rider. Try some of these exercises first to prepare both you and your horse to ride the diagonal correctly. Using the same principles of riding a correct circle in the first article, you will do it in the free walk. When you can keep your horse from wandering on the circle it will be easier to keep him straight on the diagonal. It is important to remember to ride the free walk correctly. Keep your hands as near to a normal riding position as possible. Don’t spread your hands apart (the judge will nail you for it in a test, so you might as well make a habit of doing it right all of the time). Remember to keep your elbows bent. For you short armed riders out there it is especially hard when you want to lower your hands, but the elbows still must be soft. Then test him on the 3 or 4 loop serpentine. Does he remain stretched down on the changes of direction? If he doesn't the problem could be that: You loose the connection to his mouth and he is not stretched over his topline. He is not energetic enough with his hind legs. When he walks, it must not be lazy. He has to walk with conviction. You must feel him step energetically under your seat with his hind legs. He must not get slow. A good test of a correct free walk with a connection is to see if your horse will stay at whatever length of rein you give him. Feed him a little bit of rein at a time. Does he pull the reins from your hands and just pull his head lower? If he does, take up the reins and start again asking him to wait for you to give him more. Don't give him more until he relaxes and accepts that length. This can be time consuming and require a lot of patience but the reward will be a soft connection to your hand. Practicing that will help to improve the overall connection. Let us start out with making the turn across the diagonal at F. If you stare at the ground just ahead of the horse, he will definitely go crooked. Sometimes all it takes is planting your eyes just before H and don’t take them off. As you get closer to H start slowly picking up your reins. By the time your shoulders are at H, you should have your reins gathered up and your horse should be parallel to the long side and in medium walk. As the horse stretches down and you teach him to reach for the bit and to stay connected to your soft hand, he will stay with you more and the wandering free walk will be a thing of the past. If you can get your horse to free walk with a nice solid (not pulling) connection, the bonus will be that when you do the infamous “stretchy circle at the trot” it will come much better. Next year, second level horses will be required to stretch down in the canter. Work on the walk and the other gaits will come too.