hi it's josie and today i would like to talk to you about feeling the footfalls of the walk
so why is this important because when you come to train your horse you would like to give your leg
aid in the appropriate timing of the footfalls of whatever gait you're in so that your horse
has the best opportunity to do what you ask him if you're giving an aid when it's actually impossible
for him to do it to me that is very unfair on the horse this is something i wished i'd learnt a lot
earlier on in my riding career but i didn't so if i can do this later in my career you can do it now
i promise you that this will definitely be worth the effort you put in to learn it
so as always we have a little bit of theory because theory is what underpins
feel if you are a talented natural rider with natural feel you probably won't understand why
those of us that are like me and had to had to learn feel want to know this stuff
i i needed to learn feel if i can do it anyone can do it so the horse in walk is a four feet
gait so he travels left hind left front right hind right front left hind left front right
hind right front so how do i know that he's doing that because i can feel it in my seat
and i've put the work in to learn this right so i know where his feet are because i know
how his body moves in the particular gait and then when i sit on him i feel what's happening and i
can equate that into my brain to what's going on underneath me and you can do this too i promise
you you can we're going to keep it really simple today because you need to just start from the very
basic building block so let's talk about the walk so when your horse is walking in his four beat
gait and his hind leg inside hind leg at this moment because that's what we're talking about
is about to come through his abdomen and his rib cage need to get out of the way so they swing
out and then that hind leg can come through and then as the outside hind leg needs to come through
the rib cage and barrel swing in and you get to feel that against your legs
you need though to sit very relaxed in the saddle that doesn't mean relaxed like this okay
that is not relaxed that is just floppy you need to sit up nice and tall you need to have the tone
of a dancer in your body so think about how a dancer dances when they're on stage they have a
beautiful tone within their body they're not stiff and they're not floppy they just have a nice tone
so with that tone in your body and if you relax from the waist down so let everything just relax
around the horse don't let him come to a stop keep him moving you should be able to feel the barrel
swing against my inside leg outside leg inside leg outside leg inside leg outside leg so i can feel
that swing so when it comes against my inside leg i know that his outside hind leg is coming through
and when it swings against my outside leg i know that his inside hind leg is coming through so as
it swings this way and and touch and pushes my leg this way i know the outside legs coming through
when it swings that way and touches the outside leg i know the inside hind legs coming through
there is also another very good way to feel this and it's to feel what your hips are doing
so as his rib cage moves out that way my hip is going to drop as he steps on this leg to push
himself through he's going to push my hip up so my hips going to
do this sort of motion down up down up down up see if i can show you what i'll do is i'll just
exaggerate them down up down up down up i'm talking about my inside one so i know that
he's standing on his inside hind leg now now now now now now so i'm hoping this little
green disc will help you see my hip come up up down up down up down up down so i know
that when it's there he's stepping through there he's stepping through there he's stepping through
very stepping on it very stepping on it very stepping on it so i can time my aid for that
hind leg depending on what i want him to do with it so because i know where it is and whether he's
stepping on it or coming through i can decide what i'd like him to do with that leg and time my aid
appropriately if i want him to move it sideways do lateral work then i would be putting my leg aid
on as he's coming up off and about to step through because that's the only time he can step over with
it if he's already stepping on it then he can't bring it over can he if i would like him to take
a little bit more weight behind i would give a half halt when that hind leg was on the ground
and keep it there for a split second longer now i know this all seems to be complicated but you
will be able to do it but first of all you have to learn to feel where the hind legs of the horse are
this will also come in very handy when you get to the point that you wish to teach your horse
walk to canter transitions because the first stride of canter starts with the outside hind
leg so when you give him the canter aid you need to give him the aid when that hind leg is on the
ground so that he can actually go into canter if you miss that bit then he has to wait another
complete uh walk stride before he can then push off of that foot again now i'm hoping that you'll
be able to see what my hips are doing as his hind legs are stepping onto the ground so it is
right left right left right left right left right left right left right left right left
i promise you if you practice this you will be able to do it if i can do it anyone can do it it
does take practice though well worth every minute you spend doing it once it's automatic pilot
you can concentrate on doing other things with your horse
i truly hope that helps you thanks for watching