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[KysaSD]

Is this even possible.  I have recently acquired a TWH.  Sweet horse.  A saddle rack that could win a wine glass class.  But more movement in her walk than my Mountain Horses.  Or really any of our horses...mountain horses, foxtrotter, paso fino. 

So, is it possible to smooth out a walk?

[kckc]

the dreaded camel walk?  Lowering the head can help some.   I've had people say that raising the head helps but I've not seen that.   You might see if Ivy (Ivy's Horses) has any ideas. 

[zipeddodah]

My little mare does a terrible camel walk  but she has a wonderful little rack. She's a bit lazy and that walk happens when she's unmotivated and heavy on the forehand.  She needs to be more collected. What works for her is to slightly speed up the walk and get her .more engaged.  You may have to experiment with your horse to learn what works for you.  Lower head ( but not too low) helps as does lateral work. Shoulder fore is very good and you can do this in hand or ridden. My mare also walks better on difficult trails where she has to pay attention and put some effort Into navigating obstacles. This causes her to lift her shoulders and shift her weight toward the rear. I also find that after I canter her a little she puts more effort into her walk. Gets her motivated I guess and working off her rear end.

[stablemind]

zipeddodah, exactly!!!

[KysaSD]

I do have to say her walk is not a camel noodle walk,  but certainly more movement than the rest of my horses.   I will work on collecting her more at a walk.   I can’t say she does this when she’s lazy as she’s usually a mile out in front of whoever we’re riding with. Although occasionally she will doink along.   I have not had the opportunity to take her to challenging trails yet. It rains every other day, like it rained yesterday after my lovely ride.
Here is Rosie as we were tacking up.

[zipeddodah]

Kysa
It's not so much about how fast or slow the walk is rather it's about how engaged the horse is. In your case it might be better to slow your horse down some and work on getting that rear end engaged. That's where the lateral work will really help. It's good that the horse isn't also doing the noodle thing. I had one once that couldn't walk a straight line and found it very frustrating to fix.

[KysaSD]

 This is a horse that sort of fell in my lap. I didn’t seek to buy her, but one of our members is having severe health problems, and paying to board a horse she may never be able to ride again, didn’t make sense. She has a sweet personality and fits in well with the types of horses I like.   I’ve only owned one other Tennessee Walker and she definitely did the camel noodle walk.  Jade was a very good guest horse, and never got upset if the others were far away.   I did eventually sell her because she couldn’t get along with Molly. But not because of her walk. I just made other people ride it!
 Rosie has a lovely horse, and I think one I can eventually use as a guest horse, but she moves out so swiftly at the walk, that I know that will scare timid riders.   I may put Melody on her one of these days, because Melody loves fast.   I have only trailered out once since I got Rosie. The weather has just been terrible. I am planning a weeklong camp out in September, and my plan is for Cyd to ride this horse. I would like to work on her walk a little before I do that to Cyd.   Although honestly she has the smoothest rack I’ve ever ridden including the lovely mare I bought from Cyd.   I’m also thinking if she gets ridden  every day for a week things will smooth out.

[stablemind]

I'll bet her walk has no more roll than Babe's. If so, it's what I'm used to.

[KysaSD]

 Went for a 4 1/2 mile ride this morning on Miss Rosie. I did get her to lower her head and bring in her nose and that helps a lot.  And because we were riding with Jodi who is not as fast, We did lots of serpentines. That might help with her walk, but mostly it helps the two of us to work on leg signals. The previous night I was noticing how little rein I ever use on Savanna just my legs to tell her which direction to go.   So Rosie and I practiced that too, and that actually smooth out her walk as well. Mostly I suppose we just need to get used to each other.

[Walkin45]

Pretty horse!

[fargos handmaiden]

Love her deep color.

[KysaSD]

And I should report that after a whole summer of lots of walking, it did smooth out. 

Something I thought about.....had not really put together.  It took Rosie basically all summer to become used to her new situation and really relax with us.  And now that she is relaxed, all the time, trusts her new situation, her walk is smoother.  I do wonder if some of it was just her inner tension from being moved.

[zipeddodah]

Tension can certainly make any gait more rough. If they're not ok mentally they can tense up through their whole body. When they get tense the head comes up and the jaw gets tense. That affects the neck, back and really the whole body. A tense back can lead to pacing among other things. Relaxation is key. Causing them to lower their head helps them relax. Flexing the neck or twirling the head....whatever you want to call it, causes those jaw muscles to release and allows the horse to lower it's head. Eventually this becomes a cue to the horse to relax when he becomes worried. That's really useful when the horse finds itself in new surroundings....or next to a small bunch of sheep!

[ponymare]

I find this interesting. Sunny doesn't do the camel walk. But he actual gaits better sometimes when he's a little nervous! David and I have both noticed that. I wonder what that means. He's not a head shaker but he does have a nice head carriage. His dam is double bred Ebony Masterpiece but his sire comes from an athletic sport horse NSSHA background. Both lines go back to Midnight Sun. He trots in the pasture unlike Gabe but he's more surefooted than G.

[NoBite]

I find this interesting. Sunny doesn't do the camel walk. But he actual gaits better sometimes when he's a little nervous! David and I have both noticed that. I wonder what that means. He's not a head shaker but he does have a nice head carriage. His dam is double bred Ebony Masterpiece but his sire comes from an athletic sport horse NSSHA background. Both lines go back to Midnight Sun. He trots in the pasture unlike Gabe but he's more surefooted than G.

This reminds me of a funny story with my KMSH, Star, many years ago. We were spending a week at Midwest Trail Ride in Indiana. Star and I went out by ourselves for a short ride one afternoon. I decided to take a little trail that I assumed was a cut-through trail to the main trail back to camp. Wrong! It was a trail cut by a landowner with property adjacent to the camp. I ended up in a backyard, which was occupied by a large dog! So, we turned around and the dog encouraged us to beat heels away! The next five minutes were the smoothest, nicest rack Star gave me all week!