4 GROUNDWORK EXERCISES FOR HORSES

Today I'm going to answer the question, what types of groundwork can I do with my horse? I'm going to be covering four different types of groundwork in this video, and hopefully these different types of groundwork are going to give you something to think about, something that maybe you want to work with your horse on, or maybe some stuff you've already done, but just a good reminder, furthering your education and just helping you to stay inspired on your journey of doing groundwork. So without further ado, let's jump into them. The first type of groundwork that you can do with your horse is lunging. There's many different ways that you can lunge your horse. You can lunge him in a bridle, you can lunge him in a cavisson, you can lunge in a rope halter, or you can lunge in a regular halter. And all of these different types of lunging, when done correctly, you have two main benefits. The first benefit is that you're building your horse's wind capacity and the strength over his top line before putting the weight of a rider on him. The second benefit is that you're able to get your horse to a place where he's relaxed and focused before you ride him. So if you take him to a horse show or you're taking him out to ride on a daily basis, he's a little nervous, he's a little tense or distracted, you can take the time to get his focus, get him to a place of calmness before you get on and ride for that day. The second type of groundwork we can do with our horse is in handwork. And handwork is when we're working next to our horse with a bridle on. We can do it with a bitless bridle. We typically have a dressage whip to aid us in this work. And when we do in handwork, we have a couple main benefits. The first one is that it allows us to develop some strength and flexibility with our horse before getting on them. So we're able to develop and teach things like lateral work that are going to help lead us to a better riding experience. The second reason that we do in handwork is it helps to keep us safe. And here you have a video of me taking Meg out to the jump field. This was her first time going out to the jump field. And what I love about doing the in handwork is that I didn't need any equipment on this day. So she was a little bit nervous. And I was able to just do a little bit of in handwork with her, get her focused on me, get her connected and relaxed with me. And then I got on her and had a really successful ride on that day. The third type of groundwork we can do with our horse is long lining. Long lining is when we're driving our horse from the ground, we're standing behind them. And it really has a couple benefits to it. The first one is that it allows our horse to see us from a new perspective. So it's adding some diversity into our work and changing up our work routine and helping our horse to build some confidence seeing us in a new place. The second benefit of long lining is that it allows us to do everything that we do under saddle with our horses. We can walk, trot, in, canter, go straight lines, go lateral work. We have so much ability to change up the work when long lining our horses. The fourth type of groundwork we can do with our horses is liberty work. Liberty work is when we're working with our horse with no lines on him. So he's completely free. And there's something that's so magical and powerful about liberty work. And even to this day, after years of working with horses at Liberty, it's still very moving to me when I work my horse at Liberty and he chooses to stay with me and do what I'm asking to do and have this close connection. Liberty work is something that really helps us to improve our body awareness because we're communicating only through our bodies with our horses. And it really helps us to learn and have to pay attention to our horse's body language because we have to be able to read our horse really well in order to base our responses off of his and have a cohesive and clear communication together. I hope this video gave you some ideas on what types of groundwork you can do with your horse. If you have anything to add to this video, any ways that groundwork has helped you or different types of groundwork you want to share, I'd love to hear from you. You can leave a comment below. If you're interested in this topic and you're just trying to get started or looking for direction, you can go to my website. I have a basic groundwork course there and I go over everything you need to get started with success. So that's it. Keep enjoying your riding and I'll see you in the next video.