I'm guessing 99% of equestrians have experienced a time when they can't ride their horse, and their horse is bored out of their mind, so you google groundwork exercises, and they all recommend 'teach them to halter nicely!1!1!' and you're like MY HORSE ALREADY HALTERS NICELY FUCK YOU
Sound familiar? (or is it just me LMAO)
But anyways I had to rehab my horse before I was able to ride him, so here are a lot of exercises that I did with him (and still do). And feel free to add your own on!
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Lunging: Ok, a boring obvious one to start off, but still, you can make it fun! Practice teaching them voice commands, getting them moving with limited pressure, reverse directions, and practice recall by calling them into you once youre done lunging. If your horse doesn't want to lunge/keeps coming into the middle without you asking, get after their shoulder
Picking Up Feet: Another obvious one, but so helpful! Make sure your horse is well behaved when asking for all 4 feet. You can also ask them to give their foot with a command without even reaching down to touch their foot if you want to add to the challenge
Lifting a Leg: This one is super fun, and currently something Im teaching my horse. Using a whip and some food (I use alfalfa and bermuda hay), tap their leg gently, when they lift their foot, reward. This can be built off of to teach gaits like piaffe, Spanish walk, etc. Its a great trick to know! Some horses won't understand or pick this up easily, so reward every try (shifting weight off the leg youre tapping, even lifting the foot for 0.001 second lol, it gets better!)
Trailer Loading: Another very useful one. If you have a trailer, this is a great one to teach. Positive reinforcement goes a long way for this, and makes trailer loading practice fun for the horse and a lot safer than just forcing them. I recommend teaching them the command 'Step'
Desensitization: Ok this is sort of obvious, but SO useful and helps a ton once youre in the saddle. Tarps, crossing water, plastic bags, pool noodles, bridges...everything lol. Its so useful.
Backing Up/Coming When Called: I recommend having a lunge whip for this one. Have your horse haltered and on the lead rope, and have them stop next to you, and turn towards them, but stay in your spot. Wiggle the lead rope and ask them to back up without taking a step towards them. If they dont, tap them with the lunge whip. Have them wait backed up from you, and when you want them to, ask them to step up or come towards you. I always ask my horse to touch their nose to my hand and then reward. If they take a step towards you without you asking them to, tap them with the lunge whip.
Lead Nicely: If your horse is pushy or keeps walking when you stop, this is a great one to teach. A horse that doesnt lead nicely is such a pain! What I do is I'll be hand walking my horse and will randomly stop. If he doesnt stop right next to me, Ill back him up. Then repeat. They'll start to get the hang of it and be lovely horses to lead
Step Politely Into Pastures, Stalls, etc.: This one is very useful, and keeps you safe. If your horse pushes past you, or is really hot and acting up because they want to get to their food or friends in the pasture, I recommend backing them up everytime they get pushy, and then go through the gate again until they walk in quietly.
Self Haltering: This one is such a fun thing to teach them! I make sure to reward them every time they put their face towards the halter that I'm holding open. They'll start learning to put their face near it, and as you build on it, put their face in it themselves. Make sure to reward them everytime they try!
Side Stepping: A useful thing that carries over to undersaddle! I always make sure to do it both sides, and I start by pushing with my hand and clucking and saying 'Side', and then you can build on that once they get the hang of the command and movement and gently tap them with a whip to have them move over
Square-Up: Your horse will look so fancy and if you ever do Halter or Showmanship classes at shows, its super handy! Square up is when they stand square with all four feet matched up. They dont get it perfect everytime, but reward every try and if its pretty close thats good too. How I'll teach this is everytime I stop them, back them up until their feet are decently square and say the command 'Square Up!'. Some horses struggle with this more than others but the more you practice it the better.
Yielding Hind and Front Quarters: A lunge whip can be useful for this or swinging your lead rope and clucking. For yielding hind, your horse should keep their front feet moving as little as possible, and turn their hind quarters. And vice versa for yielding front. Make sure their feet cross over each other!
Poles: I love poles omg. So many things you can do with them! Lunge them over them, sidestep over one, raise them slightly for a harder work out, the list goes on! These are super awesome to implement into your training.
Blanketing: Chances are if you live in a place that gets cold, rainy, windy, or snowy, you'll end up blanketing your horse. So its important to get them used to it! I'd recommend putting a halter and lead rope on them and holding it do NOT tie your horse when starting out, they might spook and set back. Start with a tarp so they get used to the sound and feeling without it actually happening. Shake it around, rub it on them, take it on and off, poke around their stomach and butt, etc. Take it on and off their head too! Once they are calm with it, do it with a real blanket :)
Lining Up At the Mounting Block: A very useful thing to teach them, practice lining them up next to the mounting block. If your horse is scared or unsure or just struggling with it, rewarding with food when they are well behaved can help a lot! Practice this a ton, lead them up to it, reward when they do well, and then lead them around to do it again. I would recommend practicing this for a large chunk of time, but 5/10 times every day adds up
Trail Walking: I did SO much of this with my horse lol. Hand walking trails with them is fun, builds their muscles, desensitizes them, and its just good all around. Builds your muscles too! lol
Getting Food Politely: This is a very helpful one to teach that also keeps you safe. I'd recommend starting this with a lead rope or even a lunge whip. Everytime you lead your horse back to their stall and theres food there, send them out (swing the rope and cluck). Mess with their food, and if they take steps towards the food, cluck and swing the rope again. Once they stand off patiently, say 'Ok, Come eat!' or something along those lines. They should walk nicely over, but if they pins ears, charge over, anything like that, send them out again.
Cookie/Carrot Stretches: This builds flexibility and teaches your horse to be supple. I normally use carrots, cookies, or hay and have my horse stretch his neck to both sides, underneath him, and stretch out. Gradually increase the time asked to hold the stretch, and gradually start asking them to bend farther.
Bow: This builds on cookie stretches, I recommend using some sort of food reward and adding a command to it. Stretch their neck underneath them and then gently take a leg and bend it back too, and work your way towards a bow. This takes a lot of trust for your horse, and also requires them to be well muscled.
Laying Down: Theres many ways this can be taught, I personally like to reward them and use very limited force because this requires your horse to trust you a lot. I'll circle my horse in a very small circle and gently pull their head down, and tap the ground with a lunge whip, this sort of works with their natural way or laying down and often they will want to lay down or will lay down! Reward them when they do and be very gentle and give them pats.
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So yeah! Thats the current list, I'm planning on adding more, and feel free to post below exercises that you've done with your horses :)
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