Spanish Walk By By Allen Pogue (C) 2007

One of the more interesting High School movements you can teach your horse is the Spanish Walk. When executed correctly a horse demonstrates his willingness to offer generous, majestic steps seemingly in slow motion. Onlookers are often awe struck by the poise and balance required for a horse to move in such beautiful yet unlikely way.

This extreme form of extending the front leg with each step is sometimes used therapeutically to help horses that exhibit limited range of motion as it the stretching step helps to free up the shoulder when more extension is wanted at the trot.

Each individual horse has his own particular way of offering this expressive gate. Some lift the leg high and straight-out, others slightly arch the knee joint before straightening the entire leg. Either form is acceptable as long as the leg is straight when it hits the ground. The initial challenge is for the trainer to first teach a horse how to lift, extend, and then straighten the leg while moving forward. The horse's weight will come down on the extended forelimb as it straightens and lands in the vertical position. The moving forward part of teaching the Spanish Walk presents the real difficulty because a horse can easily get stuck with the hind end when too much attention is focused on the lift or height of the front leg. From the very beginning it is a good idea to impress upon a student horse that movement is the major goal and that lift and height is of secondary consideration. The height will come as the horse drives forward from behind and becomes more relaxed with the demands of the movement.

In a previous Horse Gazette article we gave instructions to teach a horse the Jambette or leg extension, which is the foundation of the Spanish walk. If a horse has learned this pose then he already has a basic understanding of the cues and how to respond.

To start on the Spanish Walk, place the horse close to and parallel to a wall or safe fence and ask for the Jambette by tapping the back of the forearm with the butt end of a whip. The horse should respond by extending the leg and as he does so, immediately urge him forward and praise any obvious effort to move in a way that is above and beyond the average walk step. It is this initial effort that has to be generously rewarded in order for the horse to begin to have an understanding that forward movement must be coupled with the high leg lift. When your horse responds to your request, walk him forward a few steps before asking for the move again. In the beginning it is best to start from the halt. Continue to school only one leg. Do not switch legs at this point and do not ask for a big step using alternate legs. The horse must learn to focus on only offering the big step from one side until the move becomes muscle memory. It is common to spend a few days or even a week or more focusing on the same leg. When the horse has become reliable and will offer the big step any time he is cued, only then is it time to reverse directions and school him from the other side and ask for the big Spanish step with the opposite leg.

When schooling a horse it helps to develop an easy to follow dialogue. The word "BIG is a short and easy to understand command and one that does actually communicate your intention from the heart. You can begin to count cadence for the horse as a way to make it easy for the horse to anticipate his response to your directives.

We usually call the horse by name and then ask, "Are you ready? Follow this quickly with the verbal cue "BIG with a simultaneous touch of the whip. You take a step forward yourself to give the horse an action to mimic. As his leg is coming down say "Step indicating that the other leg should also be part of the action. Accompany this action by saying the numbers, "3 - 4". This is a verbal cue for the horse to continue on walking with normal steps. Then repeat the entire sequence, "Big, step 3 - 4". In this way you will be cueing for, and expressing a desire for the horse to take a Spanish step at every forth stride. This has proven over time to be one of the easiest variations for the horse to understand. Perhaps it is because it gives the horse time enough between BIG steps to relax, prepare and follow through with the next BIG step.

As the horse's understanding grows and his ability to follow cues becomes sharper, you can ask for two or three Spanish steps in a row or for the horse to take a big Spanish step at every other stride yet always on the same side. It is very important not to rush the horse into the Spanish walk using both front legs alternately. The horse will begin to offer the walk using both legs completely on his own when he is ready. When he does show the ability to give Spanish steps of his own and chooses to use alternate legs only then is it time to teach a movement called "the three step. In the "three step", we ask the horse to give a Big Spanish step every third stride on alternate sides. The "three step" is a schooling technique that is often seen as part of a finished performance of Spanish Walk.

To this point, all schooling has been from the ground. When the horse begins to show that he is comfortable with Spanish Walk, and he responds willingly every time you ask for the move, either leg only it is time to use a passive rider. At this time, you may begin to transfer the cues from the ground handler to the rider. In the beginning the horse will need time to rebalance under the weight of the rider and the rider must remain passive and do nothing to disturb the ground handler's control of the situation. Slowly and incrementally the rider will begin to take control of the horse. He will do this by slightly lifting the rein hand on the lift side (big Spanish step) of the horse as he presses his opposite calf against the horse's side. This will indicate to the horse that he should drive or push from behind as well as lift the front leg. Forward movement is the key to obtaining a brilliant, dynamic Spanish walk. Traveling the path toward creating an exhibition horse can be a thrilling experience and you and your horse may as well be doing the Spanish walk.