3 Exercises for Confidence with your Horse

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Three Groundwork Exercises to Give You Confidence with your Horse

Having confidence with your horse can come down to many things, but being in control on the ground with them is one of the first places you can start and sets you up to have control everywhere else with them. If you’re in control, they relax.

Today’s video gives you three exercises to start you off with your groundwork control and give you confidence with them.

How to lead your horse properly.
How to get your horse to bend properly.
How to get your horse to lower their head.

These exercises seem simple but they go a long way in helping you to
Getting control of your horse
Getting respect of your horse and,
Getting your horse to relax
These exercises will teach you to ask for and receive gentle submission from your horse that will allow them to be confident with you and in turn give you more confidence with them. Here’s some points to remember when executing these exercises with your horse, but be sure to watch the video as there’s a lot more detail in there!

To lead properly you need them to be
Walking between their head and shoulder
Not dragging
Stopping when you stop

To get them bending and yielding the hindquarters you want to
Walk them in a circle around you
Keep inside bend
Shorten the rein and bring your hand up to the saddle
Ask for them to yield while in that flexed position before releasing the rein.

To get your horse to lower their head on command you need to
Place your hand on their poll
Apply gentle pressure downward
Release the pressure when they lower their head

Watch the video, where I go into much more detail on each exercise, while working with Claire, a horse who’d been with several trainers before coming to me and used to just run over the top of me! These exercises have helped me turn her into the calm horse you see in the video!