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age 22 the valley star June 28, 2012
Groundwork,
or
as I refer
to it, GroundPlay,
is a very important
part of
Jim Swanner
being with
horses and handling horses.
Many years I was taught to do
your groundwork. An old saying
I have heard and used with
many of my students, ‘The Better
Your Groundwork, the Less
You Hit the Ground’. This is a
ery true statement. (I will say
this now; Groundwork is NOT
chasing a horse in mindless
circles, lunging).
Groundplay is the most important
part of your horsemanship.
It builds your confidence
and it also builds your horses
HORSE SENSE
Groundwork
confidence in you. It builds
trust and respect from both
sides. It’s a great way to build
the bond and relationship between
you and your horse. But,
you must do it right. You have
to know what you’re doing before
you begin. What a great
number of horse people don’t
understand, from the ground is
a great place to watch your
horse learn. It’s a great place
to watch them begin to think
and understand. You can
watch his body and how he responds
with his thinking. It is
an awesome thing to see a
horse begin to think and understand
us and more importantly,
us the horse.
Learn what to do before you go
and do anything. Don’t assume
The Crist Family
will be singing
Sunday night,
July 1
6:00 p.m.
anything with your horse. Get
some schooling for you before
you try to teach your horse the
wrong things. It’s like studying
before you get behind the
steering wheel of a vehicle to
take your driving test. You have
to know a little something.
On the other hand, groundwork
can be overdone. Sometimes
what we are trying to do takes
only a few seconds or minutes
or it could take a couple of
hours. You have to know when
to stop. If your horse tries in a
positive manner, don’t continue
to ask. Also, once your
horse gets it, don’t ask for it
again, especially during the
present teaching session.
Some owners still drill their
horses too much when it isn’t
necessary and is the wrong
thing to do. The horse is trying
to do what we want and when
he does it we keep asking for it
again the horse begins to think
he did the wrong thing and we
have to spend unnecessary
time getting back to the place
we were a couple hours ago
where if we had stopped, it
would have been a building
by Jim Swanner
block for the next day. But OH
NO, we have to have it one
more time. Stop doing when
the horse tries in a positive
manner.
If you find your horse is not responding
in a positive manner,
if he is not trusting, respectful
and a pleasure to be with, you
may be the cause for the behavior.
Check yourself for your
attitude, knowledge and ego.
Remove yourself and begin to
do what the horse needs, not
us. It took me a bit of time to
understand what this meant.
Once I did understand, everything
began to change for the
horse and me.
Learn for your horses’ sake
and your safety. Learn to enjoy
being with your horse. Become
part of the herd. It will change
your life.
K-I-N Stables
13124 Carter Road
Athens, AL 35611
256-874-6781
Jim@JimSwanner.com
Seven Mile Post Road Church
14435 Seven Mile Post Road
Athens, AL 35611
For directions: 7mpr.org
Free admission