(calm music)
- Whoa. Good boy.
Welcome.
Today, we're gonna be talking about teaching your horse
how to do the Spanish walk.
This is a really fun and beautiful trick,
and I'm gonna walk you through the steps
of how I start teaching it on the ground and under-saddle.
I'm here with Wassabi and Wassabi
has never done a Spanish walk before.
So I'm gonna be showing you the first steps
of how to teach this.
We're gonna be using a stick here
as an extension of our arm to help our horse learn this cue.
And I'm gonna start off by making sure
my horse is comfortable and relaxed with this aid.
So I'm gonna be petting him over his shoulder,
petting him down his legs, and you can see how Wassabi
is totally comfortable with this.
He doesn't move away and he doesn't shift.
So if I had a horse that was walking away
or worried at all, I would just keep petting him
until he stood still like Wassabi is doing.
The next step is to gently tap your horse
just above his knee.
And you're tapping him like this
with a gentle, consistent pressure.
You're gonna vary it from light to a little quicker
to light again.
So I'm gonna go down and gently tap Wassabi.
And when he shifts his weight and picks up his foot at all,
like that, I'm gonna pet him and release him.
Now that was really cool.
Wassabi actually offered to bring his leg forward.
Most horses are just gonna bring it straight up,
but if he offers something like that,
I'm gonna really pet and reward.
Now, if you're doing this
and your horse is really struggling to lift his leg,
it can be because his weight is on the leg
you're asking him to lift.
So if I was the horse, if I wanted to lift this leg
and I was leaning on it, it's gonna be really difficult
to lift it.
So what I would do in that case
is notice where the horse's weight is
and shift him to the leg that I'm not asking to lift.
So if Wassabi's weight is on this foot
and I want him to lift it,
I'm gonna take his halter, direct him away,
and then tap the foot
and you can see how he's already having to step away.
Now, if he steps away too much,
I just stand with him and ask again,
just gently tapping.
Right there, he picks up his foot and I'm gonna pet him.
Now, as soon as he gives me something good,
I would walk away as a reward.
And then we would work on the other side.
So on the other side,
I'm gonna take my stick here and pet him, rub down his leg,
check that his weight is not on this foot
and then gently tap.
And when his foot lifts like that,
I'm just gonna pet him and walk away again.
I'm here with Meg and Meg understands how to lift her legs.
So she's a little further along than Wassabi,
but she hasn't learned how to extend her leg forward.
So I'm gonna be showing you a little bit
of how I start teaching that with Meg.
So I'm gonna start off by just making sure
she's a little more squared up here.
And then I'm just gonna touch her leg until she lifts it up,
right there.
And I'm gonna check that I can touch the other leg.
She lifts that one up. Good girl.
So to get her to bring it forward, I'm just gonna touch.
She is gonna lift the leg and I'm gonna step her forward.
Good girl.
And then I'll do that again.
She lifts the leg, step her forward as she lifts it, touch.
Step her forward. Good girl.
And you can see how she's having to,
after she picks up the leg, have to reach it out.
Over time, this is gonna help to teach her
to be able to reach that leg out more.
So touch it, right there was better.
Good girl.
So walk over here and I'll just do that on the other side.
Hey, pretty girl.
So I'm gonna touch her,
ask her to pick that foot up and then step it forward.
Good girl.
Again, touch it.
Step it forward.
Very nice, Meg.
So I'm here with Crosby
and Crosby is further along than Meg.
He knows how to extend his leg out.
So now I'm gonna introduce a verbal cue
for the Spanish walk and that cue's gonna be step.
And then I'm also going to offer
or teach a finishing cue to my horse.
This is very important because sometimes
when the horse is learning,
he's going to present that action of doing the Spanish walk
when you don't want it to be done.
So you need a cue to say, no, thank you
in a way that's very calm and positive for your horse.
So I'm gonna ask Crosby to step. Good boy.
And then do the other leg.
Step. Good boy.
And then I'm gonna start asking him
to walk while doing this.
So step, good.
We'll step forward, step.
And it's normal, when you're teaching this,
for your horse, good boy, good boy, step,
to offer one leg more than the other.
So this is because our horses have one side
that is gonna be a little easier for them than the other.
And if this happens, you're just gonna keep repeating
until they get more consistent.
Step. Good boy.
Step.
Good boy.
Step. Good boy.
And then, finished.
Finished.
Good, so you can see when I tell him finish,
he's stopping there.
I'm just gonna square him up a little bit
and just pet him and let him know we're done.
I'm here with Legend and I'm gonna teach you
the final stages of the Spanish walk on the ground.
I've got Legend's bridle on.
We're no longer gonna need our stick for this stage.
I'm just gonna be using a verbal cue
and gently lifting each rein
as I give that verbal command for my horse
to do the Spanish walk.
So I'm gonna start by putting my reins
over my horse's head.
I'm gonna stand at his shoulder
and I'm going to ask him to walk forward
and then lift my rein.
Step, step, step, step, step, step.
Good boy.
Finish and then change sides.
So I'll turn him around this way.
I'm gonna do this on both sides.
Step to his shoulder.
And step, step, step, step, step, step, step.
Good boy. Finished.
And then I'm going to do this under-saddle.
So I'm under-saddle with my horse
and we're gonna go over doing the Spanish walk under-saddle.
If you are first teaching this to your horse,
you can have somebody on the ground that can help cue
your horse from the ground while you're on them.
And this can make it easier to transition to under-saddle
or if you don't have someone that can help you out,
you can cue the horse under-saddle.
If they have confusion, get off.
Do it a little on the ground, get back on
and just slowly build your way up to the place
where they're more consistent.
When I'm cuing the Spanish walk under-saddle,
I wanna make sure I have a cue that's different
than any other cue I'm gonna give my horse
during riding so that he doesn't get confused.
So that cue for me is extending.
When I lift my hand, I'm gonna extend one leg
a little bit forward and shift my weight to the other side.
So if I lift my left hand,
left foot comes a little forward.
And if I shift my right, right foot comes a little forward,
weight goes to the left.
So I'm gonna pick up my reins.
And (clicks tongue).
Step, step, step, step, step,
step, step, step.
Good boy.
Step. Good boy.
Whoa.
So when we're working on this with our horse
and they're first learning,
they may pick up one leg more than the other,
or maybe a little inconsistent.
And this is normal when you're first doing it under-saddle.
So just be patient.
Through repetition, they'll start getting more
and more smooth and picking up both legs more evenly.
So if you guys have any trouble with teaching
the Spanish walk, let me know in the comments below
if you want more detail about this
or if you wanna to teach other tricks.
I thought this was a really fun trick to teach my horses.
I hope that it was fun for you and let me know how it was
for teaching your horses as well.
Have a wonderful week.
I'll see you in the next video.
(calm music)