Groundwork exercises for horses to build trust

need to use your voice to indicate that youd like the horse to start going forward with you. In a state of complete relaxation horses prefer to follow a leader so put yourself in front.
If your horse tries to pass you or is pulling hard remain calm and ask them to whoa. Use your body language and voice to make it very clear to your horse what you are asking them to do. With consistency they will work it out. When you want to make a turn simply turn and walk that way yourself.
Keep changing the rein
In this groundwork exercise you need to keep on changing direction. This means doing lots of circles and half loops of different sizes changing the rein across the centre line and diagonals and in both directions. Add in any other figures you can think of such as a serpentine.
The purpose of all this is to bring your horses focus of attention on to you. If the track stays the same either round the outside of your schooling area or a neverending circle your horse will get bored and their mind will wander.
Think of this groundwork exercise as being scribbling for horses. Like a small child with a pen who cant draw yet you simply wander around in a random way. Dont do more than half a side of your arena long or short without making a change of some sort.
Groundwork exercises Relax your hands
You should find that after a while your hand starts sliding down the reins almost by itself. Whats happening is that you and your horse are starting to feel comfortable with each other. Your horse is beginning to understand this game and finding it easy. Theres nothing for them to worry about. You on the other hand are thinking about the next move and where youre going and are no longer worrying about your horse. This is the best way for you to be with and work with your horse.
How long it takes for you to get to this state depends entirely on your horse and their level of nervousness or anxiety. You may come to it within a few minutes or it may take longer but sliding your hand down the rein is part of the goal. However long it takes stay with it until you feel that your horse is starting to relax and follow you about.
Groundwork for horses halt
By now you should be neither pulling your horse along nor holding them back. Theyre simply there behind you. When the horse seems to have got the idea and is settled enough come to a standstill and show by example that you want them to halt. Use a voice command too to reinforce the idea. Try the word stand for example or you can use any word you like the key is to use it consistently.
Horses dont find it easy to stop for no apparent reason it goes against their basic instinct which tells them to keep moving for most of the time.