Groundwork exercises needed today

little_critter

little_critter

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The lock on the tack room door has broken again and I can't get at my tack - grrr!
I have the school booked at 4pm today and don't want to waste the booking.
What can I do with my horse with a headcoller, leadrope and lunge whip (jumps / poles available too)?
I've never really done groundwork so need some pointers.
 
you can of course lunge in just a headcollar and lunge line, it's a good way of seeing how your horse moves, whether he's evenly free on both reins etc. also, pole work on the lunge, building up to a fence, maybe, as long as he's not the sort that runs off on landing!
a really good in-hand exercise is this, i think it's a Linda Tellington-Jones one, can't remember.
Basically, two l_l shapes, one inverted, the inverted one moved across half-way between the first one, with a gap of about 4' between all the poles (except the 3 making each U shape, those 3 should touch each other at the ends, but not touch the ones in the other U at all), so that you make a 'maze' of straight, 90 degree turn, 90 degree turn, straight, etc etc. i can sketch it in a sec but can't do it on here!
i've found that green horses tend to blunder straight into it and need slowing down so that they realise they have to think about where to put their feet, whereas more experienced horses tend to sum it up as they walk towards it, and then suss it out very quickly. it's a fun Intelligence Test for a horse imho! i lead them through it a few times, making them halt and turn carefully, ideally not kicking or stepping over any poles, just weaving their way through cleverly.
you can also just chuck poles down any how, at angles, on each other etc, and lead the horse through, making him pay attention to where he needs to put his feet. I think LTJ calls that 'pick-up sticks' or something.
of course you can practice your 'join-up', which is a nice way of keeping horses polite and attentive when they're being led... they stop automatically when you do, which is better than needing reminding of manners!
just a few ideas anyway.
 
Sadly lunge line is in the tack room so i only have access to a leadrope, but I can try the maze thing ( I think I get what you're explaining)
 
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