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Try this exercise to encourage your horse to engage his hindleg from the ground

Martha Terry Martha Terry

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    • Teaching your horse cues from the ground can show them what you are looking for, as well as improving suppleness, core strength and coordination. This groundwork exercise is useful for helping the horse understand how to engage the hindleg, and for developing suppleness.

    Aims

    • step the inside hindleg under and through
    • lift the core and engage the back
    • release tension and relax your horse

    The setup

    You need:

    • Usual bridle, without reins (or twisted and secured inside the throat-lash) or training halter or lunging cavesson
    • Lunge line or long rope (like this one)
    • Schooling whip

    No setup required: you can do this in an arena, in a field or even just outside the stable if you have sufficient space.

    Diagram of handler and horse doing groundwork exercise

    The horse should pivot around you, similar to doing a turn about the forehand, stepping the hindleg forward and under the body.

    How to do the exercise

    If you are using a bridle. attach the lunge line or rope to the opposite bit ring to whichever side you are working from, and thread the line through the inside bit ring. For a halter the rope will be underneath the horse’s jaw. On a lunge cavesson, have the rope or line attached to the central ring on the front of the nose.

    1. Turn your horse around you, in walk, almost as if lungeing on a 2m circle. Bring the line towards you and point the whip slightly behind the girth.
    2. You are asking your horse to bend through the body, pivoting around you with his front legs on pretty much the same spot, and stepping underneath the belly with his inside hind leg.
    3. Gently maintain your ask until the horse takes the correct forward and under step with the hindleg that is closest to you while softing through their body.
    4. Allow the horse to rest for a moment before asking again.
    5. You can repeat this three or four times on each rein, gradually building up the number of steps.

    Tips and troubleshooting

    1. Your horse avoids the step under

    It’s easier for your horse just to walk around in a circle rather than stepping under and through, but that step underneath the belly is key as that is when they lift their core and soften through the back.

    2. Good foundations

    Just like ridden lateral work, this exercise helps them soften and become more supple. But sometimes when you’re riding them they don’t understand what they’re asking, so this can be a useful first step.

    3. Pre-ride softness

    This is a great warm-up exercise to do before riding, especially if your horse is sharp, as it encourages him to soften. You can also do it tacked up, just secure the stirrups so they don’t bang on your horse’s flanks.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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