5 Things You Can Learn from Hand Walking Your Horse
Not many horse people are encouraged to walk with their horses. Often, this is only used for recovery/rehabilitation or as a cool-down. Not as a way of spending time with your horse.
When you have a non-ridden horse, handwalking is often one of the few things you can easily do.
It doesn’t require expensive or special tack.
A halter and lead rope are all you need.
Here are 5 things you can learn, hand walking your horse.
#1 His fears
When you take out your horse on the road, you’ll learn quickly what startles him.
Which things are new to him and make him curious or nervous:
Cows
Bikers
Strollers
Trash cans
#2 What he’s curious about
Maybe he’s using his nose to sniff new and familiar smells.
He wants to smell other horses’ manure.
Even when it’s already old.
It’s like catching up with his socials: who was here, what emotional state was he in, does it worry him, or was he/she an interesting individual?
He might want to look at new things, like cars, dogs or children.
#3 How solid your cues are
When you’re walking your horse, does he listen to your cues?
Cues like ‘ walk on’, ‘halt’, ‘wait’, ‘check this out’ and ‘keep moving’?
Does he respond 10 out of 10 times?
9 out of 10?
Less than 5 out of ten times?
Or, almost never?
#4 Maybe your cues are not his cues…
In general, if you’re not an experienced horse trainer (yet!) you wouldn’t notice that your cues are not what your horse is paying attention to…
In groundwork, horses often pay more attention to what the handler’s feet and legs are doing than to the voice cue.
‘Walk on’ by itself has no effect…
But in combination with the feet of the handler moving, the horse starts to walk…
In fact, the horse doesn’t pay any attention to the voice cue at all (otherwise, he’d also move forward just on a voice cue).
When you hand walk your horse it’s easy to test it:
Offer voice cue ‘walk on’.
If your horse moves, reinforce with a treat! Well done, horse!
When your horse doesn’t move, do what you always do.
Probably start walking or moving.
Then stop and only do the thing you’re doing with your body (without the voice cue).
What does your horse do?
#5 His Confidence Level
Does he leave his buddies easily, or is he worried about leaving them?
Does he rely on you? Is he the one who takes care of you? Or does he make his own plan?
Is he slow leaving the barn and fast going home?
Or, is it the opposite? He wants to go out and explore and doesn’t want to go back soon.
Join us for 10 Days of Hand Walking Your Horse
You can discover a lot about your horse, your relationship with your horse in consistent hand walking.
Do you want an ‘excuse’ to do something FUN with your horse for 10 days?
Can you use some accountability to get started and keep going? Join us for my “Ten-Ten” Challenge:
Rules are simple:
10 Consecutive days of Hand Walking Your Horse
10 Minutes a day (so it’s easy to start. You can do more if you’d like)
Never skip 2 days in a row. You can skip one day: life happens. Just not two days in a row.
That’s it!
Participants are really enjoying this 10/10 Challenge.
Click HERE to join us!
Happy walking!
Sandra