Horse Exercises

As I mentioned yesterday, this morning Betty and I worked with Sugar and Morgunn on some groundwork exercises. We're using exercises from a trainer in Tennessee named Larry Whitesell, a gaited horse trainer as opposed to a baited horse trainer. You have to read yesterday's post for this to make sense.

We did four basic exercises from his first DVD. The goal is to build balance and relaxation. First, we flexed their heads holding our hand on their Atlas joint which is the first cervical joint right at the poll. After a few moments they began to relax and lower their head. Second, we asked for them to lower their head by flexing at the Atlas joint while we gently massaged the rein. Third, we circled them around us while pushing the cervical joints along their neck from their poll to their withers. Besides relaxation, this encourages them to engage their hind ends and step forward with their hind legs into our hands. Finally, along the fence we asked them to move forward and back with our hand on their nose. Again, this encourages them to relax and learn how to move into our hands without pushing through with their nose

Here's a short video of parts of our morning. I didn't get video of every exercise and I included some of the desensitization we do every time we work with them. I also included Morgunn's favorite after ride/work exercise. Sugar just walks up to the tack room door waiting for some hay. Also, there is no sound or music - just lazy, I guess.