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26 Groundwork Exercises You Can Start Teaching Your Horse Today

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Groundwork is a great tool. It is something that can be worked on when it is raining, snowing or just plain too hot to ride.

Teach Your Horse to Yield Hindquarters

Yielding hindquarters, in its most basic state, is just your horse moving his hind end away from you with a physical cue on his side. Typically the fingertips are used to press his side just behind where a back cinch might sit on a western saddle.

Think of lunging like a game of Simon says and see if you can keep your horse’s mind occupied. As you get better, see if you can work towards a walk to canter transition or a canter to a walk. See how fast you can get a whoa from a trot or canter.

Teach Your Horse Lunge with Verbal Commands

Teach Your Horse to Backup with Light Pressure

A lot of horses have opposition to backing up. Groundwork can help your horse learn to be more responsive and in tune to your requests.

We talked about yielding hindquarters above, yielding forequarters is another favorite. I typically start with asking just for one or two steps and then building that up to where my horse can do a full circle, very lightly, to either direction

Teach Your Horse to Yield Forequarters