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

Teaching your horse cues from the ground shows the horse exactly what you expect, as well as improving suppleness, core strength and coordination. This groundwork exercise is useful for helping the horse understand how to engage the hindleg, or 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
• 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.

The horse should pivot around you, doing a turn on the forehand and stepping the hindleg underneath.

How to do the exercise

1. 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.
2. Turn your horse around you, in walk, almost as if lungeing on a 2m circle. Bring the line towards you and point behind the girth with the whip.
3. 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 leg.
4. Do three full turns before letting the horse relax.
5. You can repeat this three or four times on each rein.

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 really important as it makes them lift the 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 is 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

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.