So you’ve been told to “do some groundwork to gain your horse’s trust”. But no one has actually told you what to do other than spinning him around in tight little circles…

But here’s the thing: tight circles, backing horses up, moving horse’s shoulders and hindquarters over doesn’t create trust. Sure, it might create blind obedience and quick responses from the horse, but it doesn’t create the trust and partnership you’re looking for. And chance’s are, if you want more trust with your horse and you’ve been told to use groundwork to help that, you might even be dealing with a few behavioural issues too…

By only focusing on the exercise, e.g. moving the hindquarters over, you’ve created an obedient pattern of movement, but your horse doesn’t necessarily trust you any more than he did before you started your session.

But you know what does create trust? Using groundwork/movement to influence how the horse feels.

Let’s take moving the hindquarters as the example: If all you do is swing a rope at the hindquarters, get him to step across and through 5-8 strides, then you release the pressure, step back say “good boy” and give him a rub on the neck – all you’ve done is taught him move away from pressure. And moving away from pressure doesn’t create trust.

Instead, as you step into the space near you’r horse’s hindquarters, he is able to offer a single step, shift his weight onto the other hind. then you reward and pause. This teaches him:

1. that thinking and processing your body movements is actually the goal.
2. that you will see his shift in movement, his attempt in the right direction, and that you are aware of his communication.
3. that you are not greedy with your requests
4. that you are someone to trust because you can listen

Does this reward, pause and listen phase mean you’ll only ever ask for a single step or a moment of the weight shifting? Of course not. But the thing is, you build up to the communication and responses of 5-8 steps. You are no longer starting and demanding perfection and completion in your first interaction. Instead, you are focused on how the horse learns, how he responds and how you communicate. This is what creates trust.

Are there specific movements that can speed up this process of trust building?

Absolutely!

I love to ask my horses to follow my hand and feel, move their hindquarters, move their shoulders and back up. These 4 skills ask for varied movement in the horses bodies and refines our communication, working on physical and mental relaxation.

There is SO much more to groundwork than simply spinning a horse in a tight circle hoping he will ‘cross his back legs’ and suddenly trust you. It’s about the communication between the horse and the human, how the horse feels throughout the training dn his willingness to try. Those are the ways that groundwork creates and builds trust.

If you’d like to learn how to use groundwork to really create trust and safety, then click the link below to access my full training library of videos that step you through my kindness focused methods to create real results. My training not only guides you through how to create the partnership you’re dreaming of, but also transform problem behaviours without having to use force, punishment or dominance.

I promise you, that prioritising your horse’s emotional state through groundwork will always be beneficial in creating trust and the results will be seen in the physical shift of your horse too.

Maddy

Got a question? Don’t forget, you can submit your own question to askmaddy@whitfordequestrian.com for the chance to be featured in the weekly blog.