Last month I discussed the importance of developing your horse’s fast walk with impulsion from behind. This exercise cannot be overdone, if you want to teach your horse how to do a smooth 4-beat gait in good form. It’s much more difficult for your horse to maintain an active, correct walk, where every leg moves independently of every other leg, and the horse remains relaxed and rounded through the top-line, than it is to stiffen up and fall into a rhythmic 2-beat, or uneven 4-beat (stepping pace) gait. Unfortunately the 2-beat gaits aren’t smooth for the rider, and a stepping pace usually causes the horse to hollow out so much that it’s detrimental to its long term soundness. Those hock and stifle problems that plague so many of our wonderful animals can often be attributed to the pace or stepping pace.