Groundwork Basics 

In order to walk, you first need to crawl. Babies who do not crawl end up with specific, seemingly unrelated challenges later in life. The same holds true for training your horse. We will call groundwork “elementary school”. Under saddle is “middle school”. Too many horses are trying to do middle school work without the foundation of an elementary school education!  It's like trying to learn algebra without first learning how to add and subtract! 

The most simple premise of groundwork is that the horse MUST believe that you are capable of providing the security and safety of the herd. Otherwise, he will look for it elsewhere. This is what I call trust and respect. 

We can establish some trust by always providing the basic needs that the horse gets from the herd in the wild: CONSISTENT food, shelter and safety. These are non-negotiable and so in-depth that they require another months “tips” to discuss in detail! 

As for the respect portion, it begins by ALWAYS implementing the “space” rule: 

THE HORSE IS NEVER ALLOWED TO INVADE YOUR SPACE, BUT YOU ARE ALLOWED TO INVADE HIS SPACE. 

If you observe a mare with her foal, she communicates in a variety of ways. One very obvious way is that she “nudges” (invades the space of) or “pushes” her baby into an action (applies pressure, gets a response). At no time have I ever witnessed a mare “pull” her foal. Yet the first thing we do is halter a horse and pull by the lead (encouraging him to invade our space)! This creates resistance and encourages “nosing out”, which can be a major obstacle to collection later in life. Begin by re-thinking HOW you lead your horse so that it results in respect! 

Rather than pulling on a rope to get forward motion (which encourages a horse to move on the forehand, versus the haunch AND encourages him to invade your space) we will choose an appropriate voice cue (WALK) and WALK INTO our horse’s shoulder/neck area. This “nudges” the horse into motion, takes the weight OFF the forehand and encourages the horse to move in a language he understands. In addition, we are applying pressure to the same area that the rein will later touch, encouraging a response that directly relates to riding. I choose to teach groundwork that DIRECTLY relates to cues/aids for riding. This way the horse is well prepared for future saddle time. As the horse learns the verbal cue (and to watch YOU) he will not always need the “nudge” to walk off on a loose lead. 

Once I have walked off, I will prevent problems such as pushiness or dragging from occurring by again walking into the horse’s shoulder/neck area when he is going faster or slower than my speed. In addition, I stand tall and confident. I do not “peek” back at my horse to see if he’s there, I EXPECT him to work and pay attention to keep at MY pace. This results in a horse that pays attention and tries to please. 

I will stop often, using similar techniques: Voice cue first (WHOA), followed by a tall, confident, square stop of my body. If the horse makes a bad choice and invades my space, I will move him back to a whoa OUT of my space and in the same spot where the cue was first given. This results in a horse that stops under saddle in ONE step versus FIVE steps. I have not used any pulling to stop him, rather my voice and body sent a clear message in his language. This directly relates to a heavy, confident seat to stop correctly while riding and preparative voice cues under saddle. If space invading becomes an issue, I simply hold my lead rope and use gentle “vibrational” contact to get movement away, in addition to confidently moving into his space. This is a difficult concept to explain, so instead try this experiment: 

Ask your friend to stand in front of you and extend their arm.

Hold their hand firmly and pull toward you (DON’T YANK or hurt the person!)

Note their response (typically they “brace” against you and prepare to pull back: resistance)

Next, in the same position, grasp their hand again but this time use gentle vibrations to encourage the person to move toward you.

Note the response. Typically the person WILLINGLY steps off without resistance. 

This is the only way I use to encourage a horse to give to “pulls” versus teaching resistant behavior. It is not a “flipping” or “popping” of the rope, no visible cue is seen, it is done on contact with very small, consistent vibrations. 

Every time you lead your horse you are teaching him SOMETHING. Rather than teach bad behaviors (resistance, nosing out etc….) use this time to reinforce GOOD habits that will benefit you both when under saddle. 
NOTE: This topic has been simplified GREATLY in order to provide a brief summary of what groundwork entails and how it can help or hinder your horses responses under saddle. Hosting a GROUND WORK clinic at your home, barn or club is an excellent way of gaining a better understanding of the benefits of groundwork!