Ground Work versus Riding....What to Do?

There's been some talk about ground work on the internet here lately. mugwump chronicles in Rant-orama and Ranto-rama 2
posted one of her pet peeves which appears to be people talking ground work instead of actually riding. I think underneath it all there is a very good sentiment there, ground work in and of itself will never break a horse to ride. The only thing that will do that is being on that horse's back.

The hard part, I think, is that many people tend to over simplify. I don't mean that just in regards to ground work and riding, but in pretty much everything. It's easier to pull a thread and make something out of it, than learn what is really behind the whole story.

Part of that is human nature. It's impossible for most to take everything in all in one sitting. It takes time to learn and learning is a process that never really stops. That is certainly the case with horses.

So when people see what the Parelli's, the Lyons, "the horse whisperers" of the world can do, it's easy to think those experts have all the answers. The next step is to think we can too if we can just get that horse hooked on....... because that's how we want it to be.

The problem is that just isn't reality. Getting a horse "hooked on" is only one step in a process. If you don't know the other steps, you're in for one helluva ride.

Is this the fault of ground work? Nope Or the messenger? Nope there either. The problem lies with us........we, humans, and our understanding. It's the way we took it in and the way we chose to use it. To complicate the matter each of us is different and so is our understanding. The solution is going to be as different as the people and their knowledge. AND it's going to be complicated...........because horses are complicated.

Now, I don't mean that every little step will be complicated.......that's the last thing I would say. Many times the solution to a problem can be quite simple......but only if you have the understanding to make it simple in the first place. THAT is what makes the Parelli's, the Lyons, "the horse whisperers" of the world so successful. They make something complicated LOOK simple. They open a door in our understanding that we didn't have before and we take it from there and run when we have little to no understanding of the foundation it was built on.

Whether or not we run right out and push that horse around the round pen or we take what we learned and keep looking for new doors for it to open in our relationship with our horse is totally up to us. Many will never get past that first understanding because they want it to be that simple. Others will make gains but get stuck in the belief their guru of horsemanship has all the answers. And still others will keep looking for information where ever they can find it including their horse.

How much or how little ground work a person does with a horse will never be the bottom line in how well a horse is trained. The quality of the training will be directly related to the understanding of the horse held by the person doing the training and their application of that knowledge and the horse's ability to process it.

I've know successful trainers who swear by a lot of ground work and others who aren't comfortable with ground work at all. Both types produced successful horses because it wasn't just the ground work or just the riding that produced the result in the horse. It was what the horse learned that was important.

Each trainer may have built on a different foundation but the horse was able to "get" what it was supposed to learn and the building was successful. And when it's all said and done, that's what matters. The horse must understand what we're asking. Without that it doesn't matter whether we did it in the saddle or on the ground. It'll all be useless.

So for me, I do some of both depending on the horse. I've spent many hours of ground work on one horse and practically none on another. I love to ride and that's what I want to do, but sometimes I find I need to get off that horse and do some more ground work. The horse decides which way it'll be.

That's one of the most important lessons I've learned with horses. I need to listen to what they have to say, make my decisions from there, and then things will be fine. We'll get things figured out sooner or later.

That leads to the other important lesson I learned about horses, that is I am never going to know everything there is to know about them no matter how hard I try. Anybody who tells you otherwise is a fool.......and if you believe them guess what that makes you. I think the last part of this lesson I learned from Harvey Jacobs, and I think he's right! LOL




Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY