While riding is a fantastic way to de-stress while building a bond with your horse, the definition of good horsemanship is expanding to encompass activities that regard horses as more than just riding partners. Not only is groundwork a vital part of good horsemanship, it’s also the key to forming a stronger connection between you and your horse, resulting in a happy, healthy, stress-free partnership that allows you to get the most out of your time at the barn.
“The horse community is learning and developing and growing so much, and it’s also learning that working with horses is not all about riding anymore,” says registered Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) practitioner and Veterinary Technician Mélyssa Léveillé. “There’s a lot of showing, and that’s great, but people are now asking how they can do more. How can we connect with horses more?”
Léveillé first became interested in how to use EAL to connect to her own horses at the beginning of the pandemic, when her struggles with post-partum depression and anxiety left her feeling alone and discouraged. Working with and learning about horses allowed her to manage her stress, regain confidence, and rediscover her own well-being. She learned how powerful a healthy partnership with horses can be. “The horses,” she says, “Are our biggest teachers. [They] can help anyone who’s willing to try.”
Bending your horse around a line of cones can help you stay in the present moment with your horse. (Charlie Fiset photo)
Realizing there was both a huge demand and a lack of resources for people in need of interactive therapies in her own community, she opened her EAL practice at her barn Earthside Acres in Earlton, Ontario in 2021. Since then, she has worked with special needs children and children on the spectrum, as well as adults suffering anxiety, trauma, post-partum depression, and mental illness. She recently received a Desjardins GoodSpark Grant to help achieve her goal of branching out into working with local elementary schools.
Léveillé believes groundwork is so important because it forms a bond of trust that is the result of both horses and humans remaining emotionally balanced and focused on the present moment.
“People often forget that you can’t just jump on a horse and learn. Horses have a blind spot on their back, so before riding you have to be able to create and build a relationship with trust. I always start with safety. Even just to lead a horse, they have to trust you. If they don’t, then it’s a safety issue.”
Léveillé offered her best tips on how to use groundwork exercises to build a partnership with your horse that will help manage stress, build confidence, and promote communication.
1. Work Through a Maze
Think you can lead your horse through anything? Try taking them smoothly through a few tricky turns in a maze made from ground poles (see image above). The object is to strengthen your communication and partnership skills while maintaining a calm, responsive connection — even when horse inevitably steps outside of the lines.
Thinking creatively to solve problems and focusing on small, achievable goals are great ways to shift your focus from stressed-out thought patterns, Léveillé says.
“Horses are sentient, and they feel emotions very deeply. They stop paying attention when you’re no longer engaged in the activity. If you’re anxious and stressed, your horse will be too. As you calm down, your horse calms down because horses are naturally very grounding.”
If it seems too easy after your first try, try going through backwards!
2. Try an Obstacle Course
It’s important to remember that your partnership with your horse isn’t just about maintaining a calm connection, but also about you occupying a healthy leadership role.
“In your relationship, there can only be one leader,” says Léveillé. “If you’re not occupying this leadership role, the horse will take over that role.”
An obstacle course is an excellent way to test leadership skills. Try including a series of ground poles ending in a bridge or a makeshift gate you can create by tying a lead-rope across two jump standards. Aim to successfully walk over the poles and open the gate at the end without allowing your horse to become the dominant member of the partnership.
Adding a row of cones to weave through before or after with transitions between walking, trotting, and halting, also allows you to further practice harmonious leadership. Avoid pushing or pulling your horse through the cones in favour of visualizing the transitions and pre-emptively planning your way through.
The key to this kind of pro-active leadership, Léveillé says, is regulating your emotions and staying present in the moment by consciously and consistently choosing to assume the leadership role.
Add a gate to your obstacle course as a final test of your consistent leadership skills. (Charlie Fiset photo)
“Horses are very sensitive. They can feel human emotions, and they’re very present, so they remind you to remain more present in the moment. They need to have these instincts to stay alive in the wild. When working with horses, you have to regulate your own emotions, and learn to be confident.”
Accepting imperfection on the road to learning new skills is also an integral part of de-stressing. Instead of practicing the obstacle course as though someone is sitting in a judge’s box on the side of the arena, focus on remaining positive and proactive throughout the entire obstacle course without letting your emotions of success or defeat affect you.
3. Liberty Work
Liberty training strengthens partnership and communication with your horse because it relies on paying attention to subtle cues of your horse’s natural communication through body language. As a bonus, ridden communication is often improved as a result.
Liberty training can help develop healthy boundaries between you and your horse, because horses are free to respond to aids and requests without the restrictions of halters or bridles.
“Horses teach trust and respect just as much as we teach them,” says Léveillé. “They teach us how to set healthy boundaries.”
If you’re not used to liberty training, you don’t have to worry about doing complicated lateral work or practicing tricks. “Start by working on how to move your horse away from you, towards you, or from side to side,” says Léveillé.
With a halter on, first try asking your horse to respond to simple commands, such as yielding to the pressure of your hand, or moving their head and neck in the direction you ask. Then progress to walking and halting without verbal cues, first on the lead, and then off.
If you’re more confident with liberty training, Léveillé says to practice things like having your horse move sideways in a circle around you, or practice moving him or her to line up perfectly with the mounting block or a gate.
4. Non-Verbal Day
In her 12-week EAL curriculum, Léveillé always includes a ‘non-verbal day.’ “We work with hand signals. It’s about trust and active listening and effective leadership skills.”
Having a “non-verbal” day where you focus completely on non-verbal commands with your horse is a great way to learn to pay closer attention to signs and signals your horse may be giving you. In the wild, horses often depend on near-silent communication methods to avoid predators, so physical cues are their first choice for communication.
Not only will you notice more of your horse’s behaviour, but you will also notice how speaking is affecting your partnership. Non-verbal communication also helps prepare you for the show-ring, where verbal commands are often against the rules.
5. End with Grazing
After your hard work on the ground, a little grazing goes a long way to say “thank you” to your horse. It’s also a great way to test how effective your communication and leadership has been throughout your session.
Even when grazing, you should always be in charge, while keeping in mind that judicious leadership and communication with horses is always a give-and-take and never about putting your needs and wants completely over your horse’s. Understanding and appreciating horses’ wants and needs is one of the best things horses can teach us, Léveillé says.
“We often [graze the horses] at the end of the obstacles, and this is a big treat. I teach my clients that because we ask horses to do things for us, we need to do something they like to do in return, even if we don’t feel like we always have the time.”
