Circle L Ranch

01/05/2026

Walk-Only Lessons: Making Them Valuable & Not Boring When Footing Won't Allow More

Okay instructors - we've all been there. Footing is frozen, muddy, slippery, or just plain unsafe for anything faster than a walk. You've got students scheduled. Canceling means lost income (for you AND disappointing students) but the thought of teaching yet ANOTHER walk only lesson has you wondering what on earth you're going to do for 45 minutes. Walk-only lessons can be INCREDIBLY valuable... if you know what to focus on.

STOP THINKING OF WALK AS "LESS THAN"
Walk is not the consolation prize when you can't trot. Walk is where so much learning happens:
1. Proper position without speed masking issues
2. Independent aids (you can't fake it at walk)
3. Precise steering and accuracy
4. Understanding timing and feel
5. Building strength without momentum helping
6. Lateral work and advanced movements
Some of the best riders in the world spend HOURS working at walk. There's a reason for that.

WHAT TO WORK ON IN WALK-ONLY LESSONS: (Don't forget to screenshot or save this post!)
1. Understanding the Walk Itself
- Learn to FEEL the footfalls (four-beat gait!)
- Collected walk to extended/working walk
- Counting strides between ground poles and then lengthening and shortening stride (if regular walk is 6, try to do it in 5)
- Walk-halt-walk transitions (square and balanced)
- Perfect halts. Feel if the horse is straight and square when they halt. Huge for precision!

2. Steering and Accuracy
Set up patterns that require precision:
- Steering between cones (space awareness is HUGE!)
- Box made with poles for turning practice
- Figure-8s through cones
- Practicing a "perfect" circle (not an oval!)
- Straight lines (harder than it sounds!)
- Finding straightness out of corners/finishing turns properly

3. Lateral Work (But Make It FUN!)
Connect it to whatever discipline they love and aspire to perfect. Dressage rider? Western rider? Jumper? ALL need lateral work! Walk is THE BEST gait for teaching lateral movements:
- Leg yields
- Turn on the forehand
- Turn on the haunches
- Shoulder-in
- Haunches-in (advanced)
- Gently lifting the shoulders

4. Pole and Pattern Work:
- Walking over pole patterns
- Counting strides through poles
- Ground poles with different spacing

5. Position and Balance Work:
- Dropping and picking up stirrups (coordination!)
- Stirrupless work (builds deeper seat)
- Ba****ck lessons to focus on seat
- Two-point at walk (builds strength!)
- Posting at the walk in slow motion (super controlled!)
- Practicing different seats: neutral spine, full seat, driving seat, half seat, light seat

6. Connection and Rein Work:
- Teaching connection through the walk
- Different rein usages: direct, indirect, leading, pulley
- Understanding how each rein usage moves the horse's body differently
- Bending exercises
- Halting WITHOUT rein usage (seat and core!)
- Soft, following hands

7. Dressage Test Practice
Walking through dressage tests is AMAZING for:
- Practicing corners
- Preparing for transitions
- Counting strides to know when you want the transition
- Accuracy and spatial awareness
- Building competition confidence

8. Games and Brain Work
Keep younger riders engaged:
- Simon Says (listening skills!)
- Around the world (coordination)
- Eyes closed work (body awareness - supervised while lead!)

STRUCTURE A WALK-ONLY LESSON:
10 minutes: Position work, dropping/picking up stirrups, different seat practice
15 minutes: Accuracy patterns - circles, serpentines, steering between cones, pole work
10 minutes: Lateral work (go slow, celebrate every good step, connect to their goals!)
10 minutes: Trail obstacles, games, or dressage test practice
Keeps them mentally engaged even without speed.

THE MAGIC OF MAKING IT RELEVANT:
When students see why walk work matters to their goals, they buy in. Whatever discipline your student rides, connect the walk work to it:
- Jumper? "Great turns and balance at walk = smoother courses at speed"
- Western rider? "Lateral work and soft hands = better patterns and trail work"
- Dressage rider? "Walk is worth the same points as canter - it MATTERS"

SET EXPECTATIONS UPFRONT:
"Hey everyone, footing is limiting us to walk today. We're going to work on precision, position, and movements that will make you SO much better when we add speed back. You'll be surprised how challenging this is!" Managing expectations prevents disappointment.

THE HIDDEN BENEFITS:
Sometimes slow work creates the biggest breakthroughs. Walk-only lessons actually IMPROVE faster work later because:
- Students develop better feel without speed
- Position issues get corrected before they're reinforced at speed
- Horses stay sound (not slipping or straining in bad footing)
- Riders learn that quality matters more than speed
- Connection and communication improve

Will some students be disappointed? Maybe. Especially younger riders who just want to go FAST but part of our job is teaching them that riding is more than speed. It's precision. Partnership. Feel. Control. The students who embrace walk work? Those are the ones who become truly skilled.

Bad footing doesn't mean bad lessons. It means creative lessons that focus on fundamentals students often skip over. Walk-only lessons can be some of the most valuable riding your students do all year - IF you make them purposeful, varied, and FUN. Great riding happens at every gait... including walk.

Instructors: What's your favorite walk-only lesson exercise? Drop your best walk work ideas below - let's build the ultimate walk-only lesson bank!

** Need new ready-to-use lesson plans ideas to refresh your program? Check out our online lesson plan library - link is in the comments! These lesson plans are created by instructors, for instructors.

12/29/2025

How cute is this little calf?

12/26/2025

Today Stormy and Magnum decided that they were going to wear a strand of hay in their mane or forelock

12/25/2025

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Enjoy this time with your loved ones!

12/20/2025

12/19/2025

“If your horse looks at everything, give him more to think about.”

Most spooky horses aren’t naughty.
They’re just not busy enough mentally.

Spookiness often comes from too much free mental space.
If the brain is empty, it starts looking for things to worry about.

That’s why I say this all the time in lessons:
“Keep them busy mentally — don’t leave space for distraction.”

A focused horse is rarely a spooky horse.

This isn’t about riding harder or tiring them out.
It’s about asking small, clear questions, all the time:

– small circle
– bigger circle
– walk–trot–walk
– transitions within the pace
– slight change of bend
– a few steps of leg-yield

You’re not drilling.
You’re organising the brain.

When a horse is busy answering simple questions,
he stops inventing problems of his own.

Busy brain.
Calm body.

And if your horse is still looking around?
That’s usually a sign to ask more questions, not fewer.

Quick question...
ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?

12/16/2025

“If your horse trips over poles, he’s showing you the real problem.”

Poles never lie.
They expose things we often miss when we focus only on fences.

That’s why I say this so often in lessons:
“If he’s not listening or not balanced, he’ll trip over the poles. It tells you exactly what’s missing.”

When a horse knocks poles again and again, it’s almost never clumsiness.
And it’s very rarely about bravery.

Most of the time, it comes down to one of three things:

– the horse isn’t focused
– the horse isn’t straight
– the horse isn’t using his body correctly

Poles slow everything down just enough to make the truth obvious.
They show you when the rhythm isn’t consistent.
They reveal when the horse is drifting or falling in.
They highlight when the balance is too much on the forehand.

That’s why polework is so valuable — not as an exercise in itself, but as a diagnostic tool.

Instead of riding past the mistakes, use the poles to ask better questions:
Can the horse stay straight?
Can he keep the same rhythm?
Can he lift his body and organise his feet?

When those answers improve over poles, the improvement shows up everywhere else —
in the canter, in the transitions, and over fences.

Poles don’t create problems.
They simply show you what needs attention.

Fix that, and the jumping becomes dramatically easier.

Join my next pole clinic: https://danbizzarromethod.com/coaching/clinics

12/13/2025

BigE

12/12/2025

12/12/2025

Sunny

12/11/2025

Stormy

12/07/2025

5 Things Any Rider Can Do to Be Successful:

Be a Good Learner
Good Learners want to know anything and everything they can about training, showing and horse care. They watch videos and read books and listen to podcasts about horses and training. They ask good questions of me, the vet, the farrier, the grooms. They never stop learning.

Be a Good Listener
Good Listeners can tune out distractions. They pick up the things said around the barn, in other lessons, between the trainer and the grooms, between the vets and carriers. Good Listeners learn to pay attention to what is being said and not being said. This applies to the horses, who don’t talk in words, but have so much to tell us. Good Listeners pay attention to how their horse is feeling. They know when he is calm and happy, or nervous and upset.

Be Responsible
Responsible students know that ultimately, they have to take control of their own learning. It’s not up to their trainer, their parents, nor their horse—especially not the horse. The horse didn’t sign up for this sport. We ask them to let us ride, train, and jump them. Most of the time they comply. If the horse doesn’t, the responsible rider asks why and tries to be a good listener and good learner.

Be a Worker
Workers show up. They are ready to learn from the moment they get to the barn. We all get distracted, but a worker is the one who puts in the extra time. They pick up, and help around the farm with whatever is needed. When they ride, they ride with a plan. They do transitions, and figures and have a goal. They ride without stirrups, without reins. They put in days of long, boring fitness rides because it is the right thing for the horses. They do the hard things, because it makes them stronger and better.

Be Brave
Bravery is trickier to define. Not everyone is inherently brave. Some people are brave until something goes wrong. Others ride like they are infallible. But to me, bravery is the willingness to keep trying—to keep stretching. To do the hard things even when you think you can’t. To trust the people around you to just do it. You might fail. You might fall. But that is how we grow and learn. It’s ok to be scared, but that fear doesn’t go away by not doing it.

Riding is a sport that rewards talent, but the most naturally talented rider in the world can’t succeed without these five traits. They’re the lifeblood that keeps riders going through the inevitable hardships of our sport, but anyone can be this kind of rider. All it takes is a diligence and dedication to keeping the right frame of mind.

📎 Save & share this article by Emily Elek at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2020/05/29/5-things-any-rider-can-do-to-be-successful/