A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 5,2001
Ground Training For The Horse And Rider
DR. NANCY DIEHL
Penn State
Assistant Professor
of Equine Science
and
BRIAN EGAN
Extension Assistant,
Horse Program
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Working a horse on the
ground is an important training
aid for both the horse and the
rider. This crosses all disciplines
and expectations for athletic per
formance. It is an exercise with
value of its own, not just a hurdle
to cross on the way to making
the horse ready to ride. The ex
perienced rider should use
ground training as an opportuni
ty to fine tune communication
with the horse, and inexperi
enced riders in particular should
use ground training as an oppor
tunity to improve their comfort
level with their horse and learn
basic training cues.
Ground training really begins
with handling the foal. It is not
critical that the foal be handled
in the first hour or even first days
of life. However, the sooner the
foal is handled touched, hal
tered, led, etc. the more oppor
tunities he will have to learn be
fore going on to more advanced
training. Horses learn very well
by repetition and this is often
easier to accomplish when han
dling is started at a young age.
When the handler begins
working with a weanling, year
ling, or 2-year-old, he or she will
begin to appreciate and use the
horse’s natural “flight zone” as
I W *. -
! I ,)
< : * Lj[ S*
■’ : vf
the basics for much of the later
work. In a broad sense, the flight
zone can be determined by the
distance a horse will allow a per
son to approach before turning
or backing away and leaving.
The more a horse is handled, the
smaller the flight zone becomes.
The biggest mistake a handler
can make is to allow the flight
zone to become too small.
Most horsemen know a “spoil
ed” horse that always wants to
nose, nip, or otherwise pester
when being handled; this is an
noying at best and even danger
ous at worst. It is clearly advan
tageous to preserve the natural
respect a horse has for people,
call it the person’s dominance
over the horse, if you will.
Round pen training is a won
derful way to leam to handle and
train the young horse. The round
pen is not new. It has been in use
for years and years, though more
recently it has been widely mar
keted by popular trainers. The
round pen simply provides a
safe, enclosed area where you
can work a horse without a lead.
In round pen training, the
handler can use his or her body
to control the horse’s speed and
direction of movement, by influ
encing the horse’s flight zone.
For example, when the horse is
circling at the perimeter of the
round pen, the handler can step
ahead of the horse’s trajectory,
entering his flight zone, which
causes the horse to change direc
tion. By making smaller move
ments just in front of or in line
with the horse’s shoulder, the
Thanks
Nel-Ra
on the installation of their new milking facility
Double 12 DeLaval/Blue Diamond G.E.G.L Parallel Parlor, featuring:
• Blue Diamond crowd gate
• Hygenius washing system
handier will be encouraging the
horse to move at a slower or fast
er speed, respectively. Later,
when the horse is worked in
hand, on a lead, similar position
al changes by the handler will re
sult in appropriate responses by
the horse.
Along with controlling the
horse with respect to its flight
zone, the handler will use basic
cues and training procedures
which are simple, classical be
havior modification techniques
such as reward, positive rein
forcement, negative reinforce
ment, and occasionally punish
ment. Positive reinforcement and
reward are very similar in that
the horse gets something it likes,
such as a grain reward, for a cor
rect response. Negative reinforce
ment is different than the image
it creates in fact, it simply
means removing an aversive, an
noying, or unpleasant stimulus
when the horse does what he is
expected to do. At Penn State,
we refer to this as “pressure and
release.” “Pressure” can be in the
form of a physical stimulus, such
as a pull on a lead rope, or a spa
tial stimulus, such as infringing
on the horse’s flight zone.
When the horse responds cor
rectly, such as by stepping for
ward to the pull or pressure on
the lead, the handler immediate
ly relaxes and this is the “re
lease” (or the negative reinforce
ment). Using the spatial pressure
example, when the handler
moves forward towards the
horse, into its flight zone, the
horse should back up. As soon as
& Congratulations to
Farms. Mverstown, PA
4 % "
•/ DeLaval H Universal
Casons
—s Since 1931
I I
• Parlor Advisor detachers
• Lobe 10 hp. vacuum pump w/variable speed drive
the horse takes a step back, the
handler stops moving forward, as
the “release.”
Horses will develop what we
call a “conditioned response” to
various forms of pressure stimuli.
That is, the horse learns to re
spond quicker to subtler forms of
pressure. When working a horse
on the ground, eventually the
handler will just need to move
the hand that is holding the lead
(and not apply any pull or pres
sure at all) and the horse will go
in the desired direction. Another
very common example of a con
ditioned response is the horse
that learns the sequence of pick
ing up his feet during grooming
and seemingly complies so Well
by picking up the next foot be
fore you get to it. When a horse
walks, stops, turns, and even per
forms intricate dressage move
ments under saddle with no ap
parent cues by the handler, it
appears magical, but really it’s
the beautiful crystallization of
positive and negative reinforce
ment and conditioned responses.
For those with a primary focus
on breeding horses, ground train
ing is particularly critical with
stallions. Much of the time when
we are faced with a stallion that
is unruly or unmanageable in the
breeding shed, we find that one
of the core problems is poor
ground manners.
Our first approach to retrain
ing an unruly stallion is estab
lishing impeccable responses to
cues from the handler to stop,
back, and walk forward at a con
trolled pace, outside of the breed
ing context. Once again, we
would use the horse’s natural
flight zone and positive and neg
ative reinforcement principles.
Once back in the breeding shed,
the ultimate positive reinforce
ment is permitting the stallion to
make progress toward the mare
or breeding dummy. This retain
ing process also requires a han
dler who can differentiate be
tween appropriate excitable and
inappropriate unmanageable be
havior for a stallion in the breed
ing shed. Conditioned responses
can also work in our favor when
we have a stallion with a dual ca
reer, e.g. breeding and showing.
Stallions often learn which halter
and lead are used for going to the
breeding shed and which are
used prior to tacking up for a
ride, and will behave according
ly-
At Penn State, we value teach
ing these basic training and
learning principles. We have a
unified teaching program in
equine science that includes
courses in basic and advanced
production and management, se
lection and judging, equine be
havior, equine facilitated thera
py, and handling and training. In
each class, students are learning
some of the important elements
behind the horse’s natural behav
ior and how we can influence
that behavior appropriately,
through training and also
through good husbandry. The
handling and training class dedi
cates nearly the whole semester
to critical ground training tech
niques, which are so clearly of
benefit to both the horse and the
student of all skill levels.
DAIRY EQUIP. DIVISION
Blue Ball, PA 17506
East Of New Holland On Rt. 23
CALL
(717) 354-8030