Groundwork P5: Using Mats & Pedestals

Gymnastic Groundwork Part 5 of 6: Using Mats & Pedestals.
By using mats and pedestals we can work on despooking and continue building body awareness using clicker training.
Teaching your horse to stand on different surfaces builds their awareness of foot placement is a great way to improve body awareness and confidence.
Using soft mats and surfaces means that your horse has to use their little stabilising muscles and you can really see their body working to stay balanced even at halt. Just stand on your bed and you’ll know exactly what it feels like as your body makes constant tiny adjustments to keep you balanced on your mattress!
Low pedestals are also oneof my favourite exercises to build confidence and body awareness as the horse learns to step on and off it with all 4 feet.
There is often anxiety around these objects to start with so there is some vaulable despooking training in these exercises, too. I’ve done a lot of this with Rowan as she used to be terrified of anything around her feet, and you can see she still has one spook in this session as we work at her current threshold.
I train all of this using a marker (clicker training) and rewards to reinforce my horse. I’m looking at the emotional piece, too, so that the training is soft, calm and builds trust and communication between horse and handler as well.
Watch the full Gymnastic Groundwork Demo series here:
Part 1: Getting started with In-Hand work: Leading and Connection
• Groundwork P1: Leading...
Part 2: How to start lateral flexions and shoulders & quarters over
• Groundwork P2: Lateral...
Part 3: Teaching lateral movements
• Groundwork P3: Teachin...
Part 4: Introducing pole exercises for confidence, body awareness and strength
• Groundwork P4: Introdu...
Part 6: Lunging around a round pen, Teaching voice cues and collection with clicker training
• Groundwork P6: Lunging...
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[@jennymartens8485]

how did you build your low pedestal? is it just a pallet with something on top?

[@ConnectionTraining]

It's a hardwood pallet, with a wooden board on top to reinforce it, then stable mat or carpet on top to make sure it's not slippy :-)