How do you evaluate a dressage prospect's walk?

Evaluating the walk in a dressage prospect requires specific attention and deliberate assessment because the walk is simultaneously the most important gait to evaluate correctly and the most easily misread — its apparent simplicity conceals the significant quality differences between a naturally excellent walk and a merely acceptable one, and its tendency to be damaged by tension or incorrect training means that an assessment under saddle must be confirmed in relaxed conditions. The evaluator should first observe the walk from the ground at a relaxed pace on a loose rein or completely free in a paddock, watching for the clear four-beat sequence with each footfall distinct and evenly timed — lateral tendencies that approach a pace, in which both legs on the same side move nearly simultaneously, are a significant negative that is very difficult to improve through training. The degree of overtrack — how far the hind foot steps in front of the front foot's print — indicates the walk's natural energy and length; a horse that overstracs by one hoof's length or more is showing excellent natural walk activity. The freedom and swing through the horse's back during the walk — the characteristic lateral sway that indicates a genuinely loose, active back rather than a tense, restricted one — is one of the most important walk qualities to observe because it reveals the horse's natural back activity that training will develop, not create. The walk should also be observed under saddle, both in a working frame and in free walk on a long rein, to assess whether the horse's natural walk is maintained under the rider's weight or changes significantly — a horse whose walk deteriorates substantially when ridden is showing either tension, back soreness, or a responsiveness to rein contact that restricts the natural movement. The walk is given a coefficient of two in many test movements because of its importance and its difficulty to train, making the natural quality of the walk particularly significant in the long-term competitive potential of any dressage prospect.