Groundwork

Most people have heard of groundwork and a lot of people don’t think it’s important when working with a horse. Here is what they don’t understand…

Groundwork is creating the foundation of a confident and well-behaved horse. When you work your horse from the ground, you are strengthening your relationship with your horse. They respond to your body cues and voice cues. Groundwork isn't just lunging them in the arena before a ride, it's when you are grooming them, cleaning their stall, basically, anything you do when your horse isn't saddled is technically groundwork.

Say your cleaning your horses stall and they are standing where you need to clean, you have to ask your horse to move over so you can continue. Most people make the clucking noise and ask their horse to move either their front end or hind end. This is teaching them to respond to your voice cues and if they don't move right away... you create movement with your body whether it's poking their hip or their shoulder. When you do this, you are teaching your horse how to move and respond to certain body movements/ positions and voice cues.

Horses have exceptional vision, and they like to see you and observe what you are doing. When you are on your horse, they can no longer see you and they rely on your voice cues and body cues like squeezing your legs to move them forward. If you are asking your horse to do a hindquarter turn, the riding cue is to push with your hips and ask them to "back" and to turn whichever direction you want to go. This involves 2-3 body cues and that can be confusing for some horses. If you ask them to do a hindquarter turn from the ground first by touching their hip while you cluck, they will catch on must faster.

Groundwork teaches a horse to pay attention to a person's cues and they learn there is less conflict and confusion when they are more attentive to us.

Groundwork helps to simplify anything you ask of them. When you teach from the ground, you are eliminating any other variables that may cause confusion to the horse. If you try and teach something from the saddle first, there are more variables that horse will have to focus and respond to and that gets overwhelming for them. Take away as much confusion as possible when you are first teaching something to a horse.

I work with a horse named Mr. Ruth, he is a palomino gelding and he’s only 6 years old. The owner told me that he has some behavioral issues like pulling the reins out of the riders’ hands and he tends to crow hop while he’s loping. When I first met this horse, I could see that he was full of energy. I grabbed him from the pasture and led him to the arena where I began lunging him. After about 3 minutes, he threw a tantrum, he tried to pull the line from my hands and turned his hind end to me. I immediately brought him to a stop and made him back up almost the entire length of the arena. Then I sent him out again in the other direction. Not surprising to me, he didn’t try it again.

Mr. Ruth wanted to be the boss. I had to correct him and show him that he and I were a team, and he couldn’t overpower me. The owner was impressed by my assertiveness with him and I told her that he knows how to push buttons and get people to give up. He wanted to make people frustrated so they would put him back in his pasture an he wouldn’t have to do any work. After I did that groundwork session, I decided I wanted to see what he does when someone is riding him, so I saddled him up and rode him around the arena He spooked once and again, there was an immediate correction to his behavior. After he calmed down, I brought him up to a trot and he was fine, a little fresh but I expected that. 10 minutes pass and I saw and felt him relax so, I decided to take it up a notch and ask for a lope. He loped off perfect and after a few laps, I switched directions, he did not like that. He bolted and tried to bump me against the fence rail. Again, I backed him all the way to where he decided he was going to bolt.

I thought about this horse all week and made a plan for the next time I went out to work him. For the first week that I worked with him, I didn’t ride him. I only did ground work because being as young as he is, he never fully understood cues. We focused on the basics for a week straight, the next time I went out to see him, I did ground work and then rode him and he was a totally different horse, he didn’t try to bolt, he didn’t give me attitude. It was incredible.

People don’t understand how important groundwork is… you are literally building a bond with a horse an strengthening your relationship with them.