It can be incredibly useful before you ride an exercise to get the lay of the land by walking the whole exercise on the ground. It's a common practice when memorizing dressage tests, but can be just as helpful when schooling. It lets you concentrate on what needs to happen through each phase of the exercise, to think about where the transitions are and where the hard parts may be for you or your horse so you can have more success in riding it.
Walk each movement of the exercise as if you're the horse; if there is a shoulder-in, put yourself into a shoulder-in angle and feel the crossing of the inside hind leg and the required rotation of your body to achieve that. Walking the exercise allows you to clarify what you need to do with your pelvis—do you rotate it? If so, in what direction?—before adding the horse to the equation. It helps you understand the weight shifts required through the exercise and determine which hind leg is the more supporting one and which is the more pushing one. Walking the exercise helps you know what you have to do to maintain your own balance so you're able to help balance your horse when riding the exercise. It will help you understand what it should feel like for you in the saddle, as well as understand how your horse has to navigate the movements asked of him.
Tip: Walk it before you ride it [+ VIDEO]
