Pets and Their People Blog

Getting their equids to move from a walk to a trot can be frustrating and elusive for many people. Most often, the equid is not offering the trot because the handler is not breaking down the behavior enough or being clear in what they’re asking.

Jumping straight from a walk into a trot is a considerable jump in criteria (what you expect from your learner) when you’re in the early stages of training and developing movement.

Mark and Reinforce for Clear Communication

When you’re working on changing gaits, it isn’t the gait itself that’s important.

The transition from one gait to another should be getting the most attention.

You’ll want to mark and reinforce the very first signs of your equid picking up the pace because once you get the transition solid, the rest is just building up longer duration of the faster gait. To mark the transition, use a clear signal, such as a ‘click’ from a clicker that indicates your equid is offering the behavior you have requested. Then, the reinforcer, such as a treat, will increase the likelihood of that marked behavior being repeated next time you ask.

The Transition from Walk to Faster Walk

Start with your equid’s natural speed at the walk and ask for a faster walk by increasing your speed and raising your energy to indicate that you want to go faster. As soon as your equid offers the slightest shift towards faster movement, mark, stop, and reinforce that behavior.

Now, you’re set up to start again, focusing on the transition to faster movement. 

Once your equid offers the transition to a faster walk as soon as you ask, you can start adding steps before you mark, stop, and reinforce, to build up the duration of your equid maintaining the faster gait.

Remember that this is a movement behavior, so be sure to mark while your equid is in motion and not when they’ve stopped. 

The Transition from Fast Walk to Trot

You’ll follow the same process to get to the trot from the faster walk. Start in the faster walk and increase your speed, raising your energy to indicate that you want to go faster.

As soon as your equid picks up their pace, transitioning into the trot, mark, stop, and reinforce, as demonstrated in the video below (sound on). Note: The click you hear is the marker indicating, “Yes! Good job!” and the treat from the treat pouch is the reinforcer.

I recommend focusing on the transition to the trot for much longer than you did for the faster walk, as you’ll likely want to add a cue to this behavior and you’ll need a consistent and reliable transition to do so.

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About the Author

Michelle Martiya is a certified animal trainer offering virtual coaching services anywhere in the world. She works with all species and specializes in fearful and feral equids. You can contact Michelle through www.equitecer.com, and @equitecer on Facebook and Instagram.