Groundwork exercises for horses to build trust

to trust you to take the lead and be submissive enough to follow you over the poles without rushing forward and breaking their stride.
Exercise 3 Work up to a shoulderin
The next groundwork for horses step is shoulderin. Horses who havent managed to build that stability in their movement will often kick in towards corners of the arena when ridden. During this exercise you want your horses inside hind leg to step under. In this position you lead and drive the horse at the same time.
Stand on the left side of your horse with the whip on their neck to keep them still. Then remove it.
Click or use your voice to ask your horse to move forwards a step or two with you then indicate you want them to move sideways to their right by lightly tapping the whip against their left side.
Aim for your horse to walk in a forward and sideways movement in which the body bends laterally from neck to tail.
Ask for a few steps of shoulderin then place the whip on their neck to stop them.
Repeat this on the other rein.
This exercise gives your horse the opportunity to learn how to use and strengthen their back muscles. Shoulderin is beneficial to horses because it stretches both sides of the body and by stretching and suppling their topline it gradually makes it physically easier for them to do what you are asking of them.
Remember dont expect too much of your horse too soon. Start by asking for just one or a few steps and rewarding them for each one building up to ask for more steps so that they cover more of the arena.
Groundwork improved our bond
When my exracehorse was returning to work after an injury we quickly got fed up with doing laps of the arena. The few sessions that we did try werent enjoyable for either of us because he was only supposed to be walking and all he wanted to do was whizz around and expel some of the energy he had built up. So I started walking him out inhand instead. He particularly enjoyed this because I usually picked a route with a nice grassy verge he could safely stop and graze for a while. Hacking inhand was much more interesting for him as he had plenty to look at and it was far less stressful for me. So Id say that is a win for both of us!
That time together was transformative wed wander along me chatting him sometimes turning his head to interact with me. It progressed to more formal groundwork in the field and arena walking over poles together around cones anything I could find to make it interesting. I found that groundwork exercises for horses to build trust really do work and do wonder for a persons fitness too.
We still went into the arena on occasion especially when he was able to trot. King actually became much easier to school after this because he was more relaxed in the arena previously he
would be tense and hang for home and take time to settle into a session. Ill confess that the groundwork sloped off when he could be ridden again but we still enjoy it from time to time especially when I havent got a lot of time to fit in some exercise between finishing work and doing the school run