Does your naturally gaited horse lean on the bit? Does it feel heavy on the forehand? Mine was. Then I discovered an unconventional exercise that brings balance, lightness and engagement: the counted walk to piaffe.

A few years ago, I audited and rode in a few clinics with Susan Norman who was both a student of classical French dressage Masters Philippe Karl and the late Jean Claude Racinet. Impressed with the lightness and balance we learned, I began purchasing DVDs and books by Karl and Racinet to learn the classical French method of dressage.

In Racinet’s book Another Horsemanship and a DVD: Getting Started In Lightness: The French Classical Dressage of Francois Baucher as taught by Jean Claude Racinet presented by one of his students Lisa Maxwell, I learned about the counted walk. This was something I had never heard about in the 30 years of riding dressage.

Watching the horses on this DVD inspired me. The counted walk transformed ordinary horses, even ones with downhill conformation, who were heavy on the forehand to becoming light and balanced after a few steps.

I had to give the counted walk a try with my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse, Makana and was amazed the first time we tried it. The steps are slow, shortened, and engaged, unlike the flat walk and running walk which are long striding and pushing in tempo. The head and neck of the horse rises up from an engaged chest, lifted shoulders and wither. The front legs rise up at the knee.

Any time I feel like my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse feels heavy on the shoulders and needs more engagement behind, I do a few steps of counted walk.

I have been dabbling with the counted walk for a few years now. This year, I began experimenting with half steps and steps in place—our version of a piaffe. Our piaffe is nowhere near show-quality dressage standards yet using it as an exercise has really helped improve balance in the shoulders, engagement of the chest, lightness in the bridle, and engagement of the hindquarters and joints.

After a few steps of counted walk, transitions and quality of the flat walk are improved in balance and length and depth of stride, as well as our canter transitions and canter quality. Plus, the counted walk and steps in place are really fun to ride!

The video below shows a terrific balancing exercise for the naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse: transitions of collected walk to counted walk to steps in place—piaffe.

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