Look Ma! I have a trick pony!

Ground work with your horse can be a blast.
The winter season is upon us up here. As we all know, tack has a lot of little metal pieces that turn your fingers into frozen, useless nubs. Sometimes its nice to just pop on the halter and head to the indoor for some ground work. Maybe even doing a little bareback riding if you are feeling really adventurous.
Now ground work can turn ugly quite quickly. All of a sudden you start to think, "I saw this one guy make his horse lay down" or "Hey! I bet I can get my horse to shake like my dog!"


"Hey look! My giant Percheron can shake hands just like my golden retriever!"
Now imagine this lady wants to sell her horse someday.. Or maybe just has kids over to brush him. Like most times, someone reaches down in front of this horse to grab something and WHAM! A leg/hoof to the face. The horse was just doing what he had been trained to do to get a treat. All I see is something that would be damn annoying to correct.

Why is rearing cool? It's not. Teaching your horse to rear is something alot of novice owners think would be really cool. Its almost impossible to fix, and more likely then not the horse ends up at auction or put down. This following video says that your horse should respect you.. well from her horse's body language, that horse is not respectful at all. Oh by the way.. when you follow this training video remember to wear your "Helmat."

Not all tricks are bad. A lot of them are great for bonding time and fun between you and your horse. Start with getting your horse to respect your space. Once you obtain that, you will be able to move on to other things. If you have a pushy horse, and teach him how to pick things up, or touch things with his feet, you will probably have a monster on your hands.

So WHO you ask, WHO IS a good trainer of tricks/groundwork? For me, that would be Monty Roberts. I think tricks/groundwork should be all about creating a balanced, respectful horse. I'm far from perfect, and my horse can and does get out of line sometimes. With a little groundwork, it helps him to trust me. I am a better leader for him- and isn't that what your horse really is looking for?



This is not the most "fun looking" thing to do. I bet Monty could do most anything with this horse now though, because she is giving him her respect.

Besides, Robert Redford based his character in the movie The Horse Whisperer off of Monty. Hot.

Now, I shall dismount my soap box and just for fun, give you this. I don't know what is better, his mustache, or mom jeans.