Worthwhile Equestrian

At Worthwhile Equestrian, the foundation of every horse begins with groundwork. While most owners believe that they have an understanding of groundwork, I have found that there are some basic skills that can always be improved upon for clarity and safety. It has been my experience that many owners seek out groundwork when there is a problem in their horse life. My goal is to encourage owners of any level to learn groundwork as a way to prevent problems in other areas!

In recent years, leading a horse appropriately has become very important to me. When I go to other facilities and see people interacting with their horses, I have been surprised to notice how many people actually pull their horses and think that is leading. In my program, the goal is to have a horse lead at my shoulder without pressure on the lead rope. This builds into being able to send a horse over, under, and through things in level 2.

I heard a great explanation of the bubble the other day. I have always been very aware of keeping my personal space bubble with horses and love this explanation. The bubble is the space where I can communicate with or correct my horse, opposed to having them crowding me and having to fend them off. Making a correction in the space between you provides more clarity to a horse than having to correct them with physical touch. 

When horses are continually inching and creeping their way into your space, I've found it generally comes from a lack of self-regulation and/or insecurity. While there are some horses who might be labeled as pushy, more often than not, these horses haven't been taught to stay in their own space and regulate. A horse that cannot stand in it's own space for a couple of minutes and just "be" is a horse who is emotionally unsettled. 

In Level 1, we will use a variety of exercises and tools to explore these common habits. The goal is to expand upon the basic horse management skills and see how each of these items affects the bigger picture. Trailer loading issues have poor leading as the root cause. Creeping horses need self-regulation on the ground or they will often jig under saddle. Using a halter, lead rope and some form of stick (carrot stick, dressage whip, or any other variety) we will help the horses direct their body in beneficial ways, claim our space, and teach our horses how to truly lead. While these skills may seem only appropriate for beginners or green horses, I assure you I have seen professionals with horses needing work in some of these areas. In my program, there is no limit to how well you can learn to execute something and the goal is to always improve the communication between horses and owners!

A short demo will be used at the beginning of the clinic with one of the Worthwhile Equestrian horses who is incredibly smart, sensitive and reactive. A comparison will be made with another Worthwhile Equestrian horse who, while more advanced in training, shows how a less sensitive and reactive horse will respond to the same questions. It is beneficial to know which end of the spectrum your horse is on to understand their needs better!