There are really many good reasons to work the horses in hand.

I would like to tell you when I use work in hand and for what reason

When autumn and thus the rain comes, I can have periods where I only work the horses in walk. The arena can simply get too wet to do much more than walk work. Then I often do work in hand with the horses.

I also work the horses in hand if I'd like to have trained all four horses, but don't have that much time. It's quick to put on a bridle and then go out and get them to work over their back for 4-10 minutes.

Lucky Lady

walk work is extremely important in getting the horse to develop properly. Unfortunately, it is often the walk work that is done least out of, although it should be the gait one initially used most.

Many will experience when they start training their horses according to Art2Ride, that the horse is faster to stretch in trot compared to what it does in walk. So many of us are not working our horses enough in walk to start with, as we really should. I think most of us who train according to Art2Ride have made this mistake.

After 24 hours of constant rain, the arena was today pretty wet. I therefore decided to train the horses only at walk. I love to walk work them, it allows me to work with the details both as to myself and the horses. Today I focused very much on the sense of when I got the correct contact to the horse's mouth. For it is not only a question of how much weight is on the rein, it is more about the sensation it gives when the horse works correctly from behind.