Q: In watching the horses at this year’s USDF Trainers Conference, they all have a clear four-beat walk. Can you talk about how to work with a horse who has a strong lateral walk and how to improve it?

~ 2026 USDF Trainers Conference attendee

Editor’s Note: In a lateral walk, the left hind and left fore or right hind and right fore move together, compressing the rhythm toward a one-two pace. It can be subtle, where the walk appears slightly uneven, or obvious, where the horse is clearly pacing. In the dressage ring, a lateral walk is considered a rhythm fault.

A: “There are different reasons why a horse might amble or pace at the walk, but it mostly has to do with the back and topline. You don’t make a walk better with riding the walk. That’s my opinion,” said clinician Christof Umbach. “I think the best way [to improve the walk] is to improve the suppleness of the back in trot and canter, because there you have the impulsion, and it’s easier to improve the suppleness of the back in a gait with impulsion.

“Some horses have medical issues, like kissing spines or some problems with the neck, and then it’s quite difficult to change that.

During a question-and-answer session at the 2026 Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference, clinicians Christof Umbach and Heike Kemmer offered tips on how to improve a strong lateral walk. ©Alana Harrison

“A good way to improve the walk is to go out in the fields, climbing hills and then also riding hills down,” he continued. “It’s also a very good tool to improve the bend of the haunches. When you train a horse for piaffe, for example, they have no idea what they should do. To ride down the hill, they have to carry weight, and they have to bend their haunches.

“I remember when Monica Theodorescu’s father, George, built a hill at his base in Warendorf [Germany], where it’s very flat, so he could ride his horses up and down to teach them to sit for piaffes.”

Heike Kemmer added, “If you have no hill, if you’re going out into the fields for one hour, after 45 minutes, the horses are more relaxed and working more [over their backs] in the canter. Then you get a better walk. So, go out of the dressage ring. That is sometimes so helpful.”

During the 2026 Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference, clinician Christof Umbach told attendees that riding out in the fields and going up and down hills is a good way to improve a horse’s lateral walk. ©Amy K. Dragoo

For More:

  • To watch all of the training and question-and-answer sessions with Christof Umbach and Heike Kemmer from the 2026 Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference, sign up for Dressage Today+ for only $3.99 a month here. What is Dressage Today+? Click here to learn more about all the benefits you’ll enjoy as a member of Dressage Today+!
  • Meet the participating horse-and-rider teams from this year’s conference here.
  • Learn more about how to correct a lateral walk in dressage here.

About Christof Umbach, Heike Kemmer, and the USDF Trainers Conference

Heike Kemmer and Christof Umbach served as clinicians at the 2026 Adequan®/FEI-Level USDF Trainers Conference. ©Alana Harrison

Designed to provide continuing education for dressage trainers and instructors, the Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference gives participants the opportunity to explore new teaching methods from top clinicians.

This year’s presenters included Heike Kemmer, a 2004 and 2008 Olympic team gold medalist and 2008 individual Olympic bronze medalist, and Christof Umbach, an L4/FEI 5* judge and President of the Ground Jury for the 2026 FEI World Cup Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.