Stay grounded
Develop your horse mentally, emotionally and physically with these four groundwork exercises. Paralympic dressage rider Bert Sheffield shows you how
Four groundwork exercises to transform your horse
ILOVE GROUNDWORK — it’s such a wonderful gateway to creating a true bond with your horse. Learn these groundwork basics and you’ll start to build a body language connection between the two of you, plus these exercises will help your horse to learn to relax and focus more on you.
The first two exercises — leading and backing up — are the foundations of everything. They teach your horse how to keep connected with you at a nice distance. He’ll learn better spacial awareness and to take responsibility for his position relative to you. You will learn how to use peripheral vision and your mental energy more.
I find that some people get slightly worried about this new way of leading more remotely and when they feel they’re in a challenging situation they want to go back to leading their horse more closely again. However, I’ve used this method handling
breeding stallions, rearers and general horsey thugs in many difficult situations —and trust me, you’re safer when your horse is at a respectfully agreed distance.
Increasing body awareness
You’ll also learn the two types of yields — hindleg and forehand. These will make a huge difference to your ridden work and also increase your horse’s body awareness and proprioception. Groundwork gives you the opportunity to see how his body functions, which side he finds it easier to bend, which side he finds easier to cross.
The hindleg yields help to lift and stretch the loins and make him more supple through his hips and pelvis, preparing him for turn on the forehand and leg-yield when ridden. The forehand yields help if your horse braces against the bit and gets heavy in front. They help him to become aware that he can lift his shoulders using his thoracic sling muscles.