MEDIUM WALK
The medium walk is a clear, regular, and unconstrained walk of moderate lengthening. In the medium walk, you want to feel power and energy.
Remaining on the bit, the horse walks energetically but calmly with even and determined steps, the hind feet touching the ground in front of the footprints of the forefeet. His poll should be the highest point, and his nose should be about 5° in front of the vertical. Maintain light, soft, and steady contact with his mouth.
FREE WALK
The free walk is a pace of relaxation in which you allow your horse freedom to lower and stretch out his neck and head. But even though the free walk is a gait of relaxation, it should still be marching and energetic.
During the free walk, your horse should lengthen and lower his head and neck, and also open his throatlatch so he gives the look and feel of going toward the bit. You don’t want your horse to duck his chin in and close the angle of his throatlatch.
In addition, he should overtrack to a greater degree than he does in the medium walk. I can’t give you a specific number of inches he should overtrack, because a lot depends on variables like his confirmation.
You can do a free walk on a long rein, which means you have a straight-line contact from the bit to your hand to your elbow. Or you can do it on a loose rein, where you have slack in the reins.
You’ll do the medium walk and free walk at Training and First Level. Then, as you go up into the medium and higher levels, you’ll show collected and extended walks.
Collected Walk
In collected walk, your horse remains “on the bit “ and forward with his neck raised and arched, and shows clear self-carriage. His head approaches the vertical position, and you keep a light contact with his mouth. His hind legs are engaged with good hock action.
The walk should remain regular, marching, and vigorous. Each step covers less ground and is higher than at the medium walk, because all of the joints bend more markedly. Although the hind feet fall shy of the footprints made by the front feet, you don’t just want short steps; you want active, elevated, collected steps.
Think about the amount of energy it takes your horse to do an extended walk. You want the same amount of energy and activity within the shorter steps of the collected walk. To have the same amount of energy with shorter steps, your horse has to bend the joints of his hind leg to a greater degree.
Extended Walk
In the extended walk, your horse covers as much ground as possible without hurrying and without losing the regularity of his steps. His hind feet touched the ground clearly in front of the footprints of his forefeet. Allow your horse to stretch out his head and neck, but don’t lose contact with his mouth.
It might help to think that the extended walk is like the free walk since you allow your horse to lengthen his stride and his frame. However, you’re not going to let him lengthen his head and neck to the same degree as you would in the free walk. Ideally, his poll is about the height of his withers. And you still want his throatlatch open and his nose forward; think of the expression, “a walk on the bit out in the countryside”.
Activity VS. Impulsion
All gaits should be active and energetic, period. If your horse is sufficiently active, it will be easy for you to do anything, like a transition, within the next step. Activity is part of having a good working gait, so it belongs at the beginning of the training scale.
You can only refer to impulsion in the trot and canter. Impulsion is thrust. It’s the release of energy stored by engagement. Impulsion is associated with a period of suspension. The trot and canter have a period of suspension, but the walk does not. Therefore, you cannot use the word impulsion when describing the energy in the walk. Remember that there is always more than one foot on the ground in the walk, so there is no period of suspension in the walk; therefore, there is no impulsion.
