Ground training

After a young horse is taught to lead and other basic skills, various tasks can be introduced to the horse as it matures while it is still too young to be ridden. Some schools of training do a great deal of work with young horses during their yearling and two-year-old years to prepare them for riding, others merely reinforce the basic lessons taught to the horse as a foal and simply keep the horse accustomed to the presence of humans. Many times, a young horse did not have all necessary basic skills described above taught to it as a foal and its "adolescent" years are spent learning or re-learning basic lessons.

Several ground training techniques are commonly introduced to a young horse some time after it is a year old, but prior to being ridden. All horses usually have some or all of this ground work done prior to being ridden, though the time spent can range from hours to months. While a foal or yearling can be introduced to a small amount of ground work, a young horse's bones and joints are quite soft and fragile. So, to prevent joint and cartilage injury, intense work, particularly intense work in a confined circle (such as advanced roundpenning or longeing), should wait until the horse is at least two years old. Common ground training techniques include:

• Liberty work, sometimes called free longeing, round pen work or roundpenning, but regardless of terminology, is the process of working a loose horse in a small area (usually a round pen 40-60 feet/15-20 meters in diameter) with the handler holding only a long whip or a rope lariat, teaching the horse to respond to the voice and body language of the handler as he or she asks the horse to move faster or slower, to change direction, and to stop.
• Longeing (Lungeing- UK), pronounced "lungeing", the training of a young horse to move in circles at the end of a long rope or line, usually about 25 to 30 feet long.
• Desensitization, sometimes called Sacking out, the process of introducing a horse to flapping objects such as blankets, teaching the horse to allow itself to be touched by an object and not to fear things that people move about a horse.
• Introduction to a saddle and bridle or harness, without actually getting on the horse or hooking up a cart.
• Ground driving, also called long-lining, teaching a young horse to move forward with a person walking behind it, a precursor to both harness driving and having reins used by a mounted rider.
• Bitting, the process of accustoming a horse to a bit and bridle, sometimes with the addition of side reins that attach to a saddle, harness, or surcingle (a wide leather or nylon band that goes around the horse's barrel) and accustom the horse to the feel of pressure on the bit.

A horse is not ready to be ridden until it is accustomed to all the equipment that it needs to wear and is responsive to basic voice, and usually rein, commands to start, stop, turn and change gaits.

For some disciplines, ground work is also used to develop specific types of muscling as well as to instill certain behaviors. When ground work incorporates both mental and muscular development, it may take considerably longer for the horse to be ready to be ridden, but advocates of these methods maintain that the additional time on the ground allows the horse to advance more quickly or with better manners once under saddle.