ABOUT GROUND WORK

There are many different ideas about ground work. There are the horse whisperers who use body language and eye contact. Closely related are the round-penners who believe that horses are afraid of humans because we are predators and the horse is prey, and then they chase the horse around in circles until he gives up. Others see ground work as lunging the horse until he’s tired before getting on and riding. Rarely will dressage people use ground work, even though the word ‘dressage’ literally means ‘training’.

Ground work is a way of training horses without having to use fear or force. It develops a process of two-way communication where the horse quickly learns to trust the trainer. With this trust comes respect, and when you have these three things (communication, trust and respect), you can do anything. Trust and respect inevitably flow from thoughtful communication.

RISK-FREE

Because this method teaches the horse to understand what we say, it is never necessary to punish or to use any kind of physical mistreatment. He learns to do things like walk, stop, canter etc without being banged in the mouth by insensitive hands, or kicked with spurs — the whole learning experience is pleasant for him.

On the ground you operate from a position of greater control and safety to rehearse what the horse will be asked to do once you are in the saddle. You are better able to observe the horse in action while on the ground and has a view of the horse's balance and movement not seen from the saddle. You are also in a close and intimate situation with the horse, creating a strong connection that accelerates progress.

When you have established the basics on the ground you are then able to teach him anything quickly and effortlessly. This means that he can learn on the ground something you want him to understand when you are actually riding him. For example, you can, in a few minutes, teach him how to do shoulder-in on the ground. It is quite easy to then transfer that lesson to under-saddle. Similarly, if your horse understands the word Slow because you have taught it to him on the ground, this is a great advantage when riding and teaching movements that involve collection.

I believe that it is always better to control the horse’s mind rather than his body. When you control his mind then you always have his body, but the opposite is not always true. When his brain is engaged he moves beyond his instinctive responses and becomes active, rather than simply re-active. Science has shown that when an animal’s brain is stimulated through the learning process, its capacity for learning increases, so it gets smarter and smarter.

CHUNKING

Much of the training of a horse consists of knowing how to chunk things down into the smallest possible steps. Otherwise we would just throw on a saddle and bridle and leap on to an unbroken horse. Because we know that this will not be productive, we have to break down the process.
The best trainers are the ones who put in the most links. This is also the quickest way to train because there is no re-training to be done, and it’s the re-training that takes the most time.

The first steps

Ground work begins with establishing a bond with the horse, and the best way of doing this is to use food. Once the horse recognises that you are pleasant and may feed him good stuff, then you need to create respect, ensuring that he knows that you are the boss.

The nest step is to lead him, having him walking forward when you walk, and stopping when you stop. Att he same time you will introduce him to the verbal cues 'walk on' and 'whoa'.

When the horse understands that you are his friend and his boss, and responds to your voice cues when leading, then lunging schooling can start.

LUNGING

Lunging teaches the horse to walk, halt, trot and (later) canter on verbal requests. It is the tool for obtaining immediate responses, and provides a foundation for bending, transitions, lateral work and collection that will be done under saddle.

CLOSE LUNGING

The reason for starting with the short line is that there are no options for the horse except to walk around you; it is easy for you to touch him with a dressage whip, and he will not be inclined to follow you. In this way you begin as you mean to go on, with him paying attention and moving in the direction you want.

If we start on a long rein there are many opportunities for the horse to do something other than what you want, and then we have to go back and correct these actions.

Bending
Schooling your horse on a short line is one of the best ways to encourage bending, but it requires subtle use of the inside rein. The horse is never pulled towards you—the bend is encouraged by using discreet half halts.

REGULAR LUNGING

In this lesson we will expect the horse to be able to move out of his comfort zone and away from the security of working close to you. Now it’s time to work in the big round yard if you have one. If not, it’s always possible to create a defined area that is clearly the place where you work — witches’ hats, barrels, electric tape, whatever you can manage.

Transitions

Transitions are an essential part of training a horse because they are the main way of getting the horse to bring his hind legs further under his body, rounding his back, tipping his pelvis and flexing those joints. This is all necessary to improve his balance, suppleness and collection.
When the transitions are done in random order, sometimes close together, sometimes further apart, the additional valuable benefit is that the horse becomes more alert, with his brain engaged, so that he can make the changes when requested.

LONG REINING

This is also known as double-lunging, where the trainer uses both inside and outside lines in the same way as he would use reins when riding. It’s an excellent way to teach horses to really accept the outside rein without interference from the weight of a rider.

Lateral work

This schooling begins with Leg yielding, where the horse is taught to move away from the flap of the outside rein.
Shoulder-in and Travers can be taught using the wall, the placement of the trainer, the position of both reins and half halts with the outside rein.

IN HAND WORK

In-hand work also uses two reins, but the trainer works very close to the horse. This is especially effective when teaching piaffe, passage and other highly collected movements.

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