How to ride a better collected walk – with advice from Becky Moody
The Olympic medallist explains why collection is about riding forward, not slowing down
When riders are first asked for a collected walk, the instinct is to slow right down. Shorten the reins, sit a little deeper and take the speed off. But a slow walk isn’t a collected walk. Hold your horse back and the steps get flat, the activity disappears and the rhythm starts to suffer.
“A collected pace – it doesn’t matter whether you’re in collected walk, collected trot or collected canter – you’re looking for the same things,” says Becky Moody.
“I think the most common mistake people make when they’re just starting to learn about it is that they think to slow down. The tendency is to ride backwards into collection, instead of making sure that you ride forward into collection.”
And it’s worth getting right. In a lot of tests, the walk movements carry double marks, and a tense or irregular collected walk can drag down the collective marks as well. That’s a lot of marks to leave on the table!
Becky is the 2026 FEI World Cup dressage champion and one of Britain’s leading dressage riders, with more than 30 national titles, an Olympic team bronze and a European team silver medal to her name.
What is collected walk?
Collected walk is one of four walk variations, along with medium, extended walk and free walk. Compared with medium walk, the steps are shorter, higher and more active, because every joint bends more, and ideally the hind feet don’t step beyond the prints of the forefeet.
“You are looking at the hoofprint of the horse’s back foot – it should fall into the hoofprint left by the front foot,” says Becky. “It’s teaching them to take that slightly shorter step, but keep activity.”
In British Dressage tests, collected walk first appears at medium level, the same level as walk pirouettes. That’s no coincidence.
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
“If you’re going to do a good walk pirouette, you have to have a good collected walk,” says Becky.
Know your horse’s walk
How much work your horse’s collected walk needs depends largely on the walk they were born with.
“You would have some horses where you wouldn’t particularly have to work on their collected walk, because they naturally have a shorter, higher-stepping walk,” says Becky. “You might have to work on those horses being able to do a much better free walk or extended walk.
“And then you have a horse that naturally has a big walk, with a lot of overtrack, that might easily score the bigger marks in the extended or the free walk, but then it’s much harder to collect that horse.
“It really depends on your baseline walk as to what you are going to have to do to get a better collected walk.”
Don’t rush it
The walk is the easiest pace to spoil, and it’s at greatest risk in a horse with a big, natural walk.
The usual advice is to wait until your horse can confidently collect in trot and canter before you start collecting the walk.
Push for it too soon, or with too much hand, and you risk damaging the medium and extended walks as well.
What the judges are looking for?
According to judging guidelines, the horse should stay on the bit and move resolutely forward, with the neck raised and arched, the poll as the highest point and a light, steady contact.
The hindlegs should be active and engaged, with good hock action, and the walk should stay marching and energetic. Judges also want to see a clear change of outline when the horse moves from extended walk into collected walk.
The most common ways to lose marks are:
- Not collecting at all. A walk that’s in rhythm but overtracking by three hoofprints or more can’t score more than 5.5, and an overtrack of two hoofprints or more costs marks too. A slight overtrack is accepted if the horse is genuinely collected, especially after a big extended walk.
- Jogging. One or two jog steps put the mark at around 5, and several push it lower.
- Going lateral. When the legs on the same side move forward together, or almost together, the walk becomes a pace, which is a serious fault.
- Resisting the shortening. If the horse fights the contact as you take up the reins after extended walk, the collected walk is usually where the marks come off.
Ride forward into collection
Collection comes from activity, not from the hand. Many riders assume collected walk is slower than medium walk, but the shorter steps mean the tempo actually feels quicker, so your leg has to work harder to keep the energy.
“If you have a really big-striding horse, then it’s trying to teach them to take a shorter stride without losing activity,” says Becky.
Ride the collected walk from your seat and leg, never from the hand.
How collected is collected enough?
For riders new to collection, Becky has a simple test.
“When you are first thinking about collection, all you are thinking about is: can the horse do the movements that are being asked well? Can they stay in balance? Can they stay in rhythm?
“If they are able to do that, then they are in a collected enough pace. Then it becomes about developing the quality of that collection.”
Exercises to improve collected walk
Walk–halt transitions
“Work a lot of transitions – just walk, halt, walk, halt – making sure that it’s neat and tidy and organised, and just developing better control over your walk,” says Becky.
How many transitions does she ride?
“Hundreds,” she says. “I spend my whole life riding transitions.”
Transitions within the walk
Riders often school transitions within trot and canter, but neglect the walk.
“You do have to work on transitions within your walk, so you can demonstrate that you can adjust your walk as well,” says Becky. “You’ve got to work on going collected walk, extended walk, collected walk, just like you work on going collected trot, extended trot, collected trot.”
Start small. Collect for a few steps, then ride forward into medium walk before the steps lose their quality. Build up the time in collection gradually as your horse gets stronger.
Use the transition back from extended walk as a test. If the collected walk that follows is tense or the horse comes off the aids, the extended walk before it probably wasn’t truly on the aids either.
Collected walk in shoulder-in
Riding a few steps of collected walk in shoulder-in or leg-yield helps keep the horse supple through the body.
It can also make it easier for the horse to keep the correct footfall sequence. Go straight again and see whether you can keep the same quality.
Poles
Polework exercises can help keep the walk relaxed and flowing
Walk poles set slightly closer than your horse’s natural stride encourage shorter, higher steps without you having to shorten them with the hand.
Collected walk tips
Don’t waste your walk breaks
“Generally, when you give your horse a walk break, it’s very easy to mentally switch off – you get your phone out, you reply to some messages, whatever,” says Becky.
“But you’ve got to work on the quality of your horse’s walk.”
Give a hot horse a job
Some horses, especially sharper types, start to jog when asked to collect. Telling them not to rarely works.
“With the horses that are hot like that, I would go a little bit into some lateral work,” says Becky. “I would put them into a shoulder-in or a leg-yield, or something that helps them accept the rider’s leg and takes their mind off the fact that they’re getting a little bit bubbly and hot, and makes them think about something productive.
“You don’t want to be sitting there saying ‘don’t jog’, because that’s probably going to make it worse. You want to be sitting there saying, ‘OK, let’s go a little bit shoulder-in,’ because that’s a positive thing that you’re asking them to do, and it helps them to focus.”
The same applies in a test.
“You’re better to lose a mark because you go a little bit into some lateral work but develop the quality of the walk, rather than try to stay perfectly straight and lose the walk.”
Use a circle or halt to settle
Some horses get anxious at a particular moment, such as coming back from extended walk to collected walk.
“I would possibly, in training, ride a small circle – or even, depending on how they react, use the halt, just to say, ‘Decompress till you’re fine’, and then walk again,” says Becky. “You’re trying to make the horse think about you and what you want in a really positive way, rather than getting in their own heads and distracted.”
Ease off at the first sign of a lateral walk
Tension is the usual cause of a lateral walk. If the walk starts to feel side to side rather than four-beat, back off what you’re asking straight away. Soften the contact, loosen the neck or take a few lateral steps, then rebuild.
Keep it short
Collected work is tiring for the horse, so mix short spells of collection with plenty of breaks and variety.
Then ask yourself:
- Is the walk shorter, or just slower?
- Has the activity stayed the same?
- Can your horse do the movements in balance and rhythm?
Ride forward. Keep the march. The collection will follow.
Collected walk troubleshooter
- Your horse slows down rather than collecting: You’re probably holding with the hand. Ride forward into the collection and keep the activity.
- Your horse loses activity: Use walk–halt–walk transitions to sharpen the reaction to your leg without letting the walk get bigger.
- Your horse jogs: Give them a job, such as a little shoulder-in or leg-yield, rather than trying to stop the jog.
- Your horse goes lateral: Usually a sign of tension. Ease off, soften the contact and use lateral work before asking again.
- Your horse resists when you shorten the reins after extended walk: Check the extended walk was truly on the aids, and take up the reins gradually.
- Your horse gets anxious after extended walk: In training, add a small circle or a halt to let them settle before you walk on.
- Your horse has a naturally short, high walk: Collection may come easily, so spend more time improving the free and extended walk.
- Your horse has a big, overtracking walk: Teach them to shorten the stride gradually, without losing activity.
Collected walk: your questions answered
Here are some common questions riders have about riding collected walk.
Collected walk vs medium walk?
Collected walk has shorter, higher and more active steps, with a more raised and arched neck. In medium walk the hind feet step in front of the forefeet prints. In collected walk, ideally, they shouldn’t step beyond them.
How much overtrack is allowed in collected walk?
Ideally none. A slight overtrack is accepted if the horse is clearly collected, but overtracking by two hoofprints or more costs marks, and three or more caps the mark at 5.5.
Should collected walk be slower?
No. The steps get shorter, but the activity should stay the same, and the tempo can even feel quicker. Slowing down is the most common mistake.
What is a lateral walk?
A walk where the legs on the same side move forward together, or almost together, so the clear four-beat rhythm becomes a pace. It most often shows up in collected walk and is usually caused by tension.
Why does my horse jog in collected walk?
Hotter horses often get tense when they’re held. Lateral work, such as shoulder-in or leg-yield, gives them something positive to focus on.
At what level does collected walk appear in tests?
In BD tests, collected walk first appears at medium level, where walk pirouettes are also introduced.
Can every horse collect the walk?
Every horse can improve, but how hard it is depends on their natural walk. Horses with a big, ground-covering walk usually find collection harder than those with a naturally shorter, higher stride.
- For unlimited access to more expert training advice from top riders and coaches, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website
Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).