I've had one horse for five, almost six, years now, and we've done *really* well together! However, this is the first time we've been without a riding lesson with my trainer for longer than six months (going on one year now), and I'm running into a problem I have no idea how to deal with.
Sham (my horse) won't give me a flat walk. He does walk, as in it has four beats, but it's almost as quick as his trot, even when I shift my weight down and back and rest my hands along his neck to request him to relax. It takes him two or three laps around the arena to drop to a flat, relaxed walk. He will walk for a few strides after several minutes of cantering, but as soon as he catches his wind again, he starts trying to trot again.

I'm trying changing my riding to give him more heads up time (he gets four to five steps of preparation before we start a maneuver) so he knows that when I request a walk he can relax. I've also tried shifting my weight back further to request a calmer walk, and also staying perfectly stationary in the saddle. I've tried giving him something to do at the walk (he's a *very* busy horse and wants to be doing something every minute), e.g.: requesting his head, or small circles to stretch, but he either falls over himself on the circles, or bulges up his neck and tucks his nose against his chest so he can trot on. I've also tried bumping him in the mouth each time he breaks to the trot, and that works relatively well, but it takes ten to twelve bumps before he relaxes to a flat walk.

We rode eight miles without breaking to the walk the other day, and after I allowed him to walk he was perfectly fine walking calmly for a mile, but it took an hour and a half to get him that worn out, and I don't feel that that's an acceptable compromise ("We'll walk when you're exhausted").
If anyone has anything to try, I'm starting to get exasperated! He's been doing this since July. And yes, he respects my commands and wishes in every other area, our lunging is exemplary as is our ground manners. He's also uber sensitive to all aids because of his background, so harsh movements only agitate him.
Sorry this got so long, I'm trying to get all the information that could be relevant out for people to mull over....
~*Naira*~

Hey! (still thinking over the problem as I type)

I can only give you my solution to that problem which I have had alot in those "go" horses.

After a good warm-up, and I ask for a trot/canter, when I relax my seat and ask for the walk, I expect it to be willingly and smoothly, ON a loose rein with NO half/trotting/pacing/trotting, anything other than a walk.

If I have a horse that is trying to do any of the above after I have asked for the walk and am continuing on a loose rein, immediately after they start into another gait I will do one of two things depending upon how hard-mouthed of a horse I have.

Generally I like to immediately stop, pick up inside or outside rein and draw it back to my leg, I am asking for a circle. Not a forward moving circle, but a very tight turning circle. I sit through this for about 3 circles, stop, relax for 5 secs or so (If your horse is still dancing while you are resting for those 5 seconds, continue to circle until he will stand those 5 seconds) then continue on with the walk. As soon as it comes up again, repeat steps. Disengaging.

I always try to respond to their action within 3 seconds or else it will be hard for the horse to determine why you are punishing.

The other option would be to immediately stop and back 4-6 steps, relax for 5 seconds or so, and continue. If your horse won't relax for 5 seconds, back up some more. The back is not a natural movement for a horse and they don't enjoy it for long.

I generally like to use a simple broken snaffle when dealing with this, and make sure I am in safe footing, also that the horse knows his/her lateral movements well, will give to the bit on each side easily; and backs easily and smoothly without alot of hauling on the reins.

I start out in an arena, then later will move to the trails/shows so on. This has always worked for me. I know I'm not the only person who uses this method. It is also used and taught by Craig Cameron, Pat Parelli, and some other professional horsemen.

Thanks AQHA Breeder! I'm going to ride tomorrow, I'll give those both a try. I did forget to mention that I only ride in a broken snaffle because anything larger can't be trained in, he gets too antsy and starts trying to avoid the bit because he is so sensitive. We've also got our lateral movements, and the small circles and flexibility down, so I'll give that a try tomorrow and see what happens! Thanks for the immediate response! I'll let y'all know how it goes!

Great. Can't wait to hear results. It has always worked for me, years of bumping just didn't fix the problem, only temporarily covered it up.

Ok, so I tried it in the round pen (we have more focus and are less flighty in the round pen) and it worked well! As long as I got on him right away, we were able to drop back to a flat walk quickly compared to all the other attempts I've made! The biggest key will be to see if this works on the track-arena! That's where he gets the most excited and jumpy. I'm going to give him today off, but I'll ride again on Monday and see what happens! I'm excited that it seems like we're able to work though this! Thanks so much AQHA Breeder!!!!
~*Naira*~

Wonderful! Glad to hear it and you are welcome. It will take some time, you might not see drastic results the first try, Patience and Consistancy is your two best virtues here. Just take your time with him, keep it relaxed, do it for several more days in the Arena until he has it fairly solid at the walk. You might later try this to help him regulate his trot and canter.
I have alot of fast-paced Canters in my 4 legged ones. This really works wonders. I ask for trot, ask for canter, and if they do not canter within 1-2 seconds (but continue to trot faster and Faster), I stop, pick up one rein and just circle a bit. Very simple, I even sit like I'm just a couch potato. Let them stand a few seconds, walk....and do it again.

The quicker you reply to his "bad choice" of trotting without command, the quicker he will learn this exercise. This is so you can keep your horse's speed regulated without pulling on the reins at all.

Let me know how things go Monday.

Yeah, so riding Monday didn't happen because the farrier came and he's bare in the back so I wanted to give him a day or two to get use to that. Tuesdays don't work to ride, so I'm going riding in a bit here!
The plan for now is just to ride in the track-arena and do lots of flat walking broken up by some trotting circles and collection/extension, and also some canter departures. He was starting to hesitate on his lead departures after I worked on the flat walk on Saturday, I'm hoping that more space will cure that, if not, we'll be spending lots of time on that today too!
If all that goes really well, the plan is to work on giving his hips and just preparing to work on flying lead changes again. But carriage, speed (slow or fast), and lead departures are the word(s) of the day today! :P
~*Naira*~

Ok, so tonight was not that great. He was kind of strung out, but as far as walking goes, we did well. It only took two reminders coming down from a canter in order to walk flat again.
Now he's falling forward onto his front end and our normal procedure (trot, stop, back and trot, the last two being very quick) was not working to balance him back again. Does anyone else have any suggestions for getting a horse to really balance back on his/her hindquarters?