Taking your horse for a walk!

Well, it has been averaging in the 60's but cloudy and drizzly with about a 40 to 50 mph wind. Makes for a pretty nippy wind chill.

Right now it is 61 degrees with a 25 mph wind (gusts up to 32) and 93% humidity. Bleh. I don't mind the cold soggies just so long as the wind isn't blowing. I HATE WIND!!!

I used to walk a young colt that I had. I would give anything to have pics of that! Not only did I have the horse, our two pigs (Red & Sheila), our two cats (Bill & Tiny), and our chocolate Lab (Bosley) always had to tag along! I was like some kind of weid animal Pied Piper.

I used to walk a young colt that I had. I would give anything to have pics of that! Not only did I have the horse, our two pigs (Red & Sheila), our two cats (Bill & Tiny), and our chocolate Lab (Bosley) always had to tag along! I was like some kind of weird animal Pied Piper!

Same here!!

Well for those of you saying you never walk you'd always ride...let me say that I'm with you 99% of the time...but in this case, Sandie has an abscess and needs hand walked to get the circulation going but is too uncomfortable being ridden right now for more than a couple mins at a time.

So this was my way of going trail riding with her when I can't go trail riding on her

Here are some more vids by the way!

When one of my mares was preggers I took her for walks instead of riding her, esp. In her later months. We both got our exercise. :)

I would take our young ones for a walk before they started their actual saddle training. It really helped once we got out on the trail in the saddle.

Also when Toby was recovering from EPM we use to do a lot of walks.

I actually plan on doing that with Jynxy once I get her properly trained with the halter (still some stubborness issues, they trained her to walk DIRECTLY behind you and she's having difficulty understanding I want her at my shoulder). I'm on a weight loss "journey" (LOL, gotta love Weight Watchers!) and I figured it's a perfect way for me to enjoy getting my exercise while she's to young to really ride. Not to mention helpful getting her used to the scenery!

Maybe a dumb question (but I'm pretty new to this, so bear with me), but could you reasonably expect to teach a horse to walk "off-leash", in the same way that a dog can be taught to heel?

Yes for the most part. I would always want to keep some kind of security handle on my horse just in case of a spook. I teach my horses to lead so that they walk with no pressure on the lead rope and to ground tie. However, my horses will also follow me around when I have nothing on them or I can lead them with simply my hand on their poll. It just takes practice and a pretty calm horse (I wouldn't want to let go of a hot or jumpy horse).

And by the way, the only dumb question is the question that goes unasked.

Welcome to the forum James.