Groundwork and Bonding – Chicken and Egg?

Bonding is the development of a relationship of trust and confidence between a horse and his owner or handler. It comes from countless hours of working with the horse beginning with our earliest foal imprinting lessons (if we were lucky enough to have that opportunity) and continuing throughout the horse’s life. 

Every time you handle the horse, whether it’s to feed him, brush him, doctor him or pick his hooves, you are unconsciously affecting the bonding process. How you affect it, depends upon how well you understand the principles of natural horsemanship and consequently, how well you understand horses.

Bonding with a horse, contrary to what some traditionalist horse trainers believe, is not only possible, but its importance cannot be overestimated.

Groundwork exercises provide an indispensable tool to allow that bonding to occur. 

Without proper bonding the groundwork will be futile and without proper groundwork there will be no bonding. It’s sort of like the chicken and egg quandary. Which came first?

Although some old-fashioned horse trainers scoff at the notion of bonding with a horse, we believe it is an essential part of developing a willing partner in the training process. We look at bonding with the horse in two ways: (1) as an effective training tool and (2) as a way to make horse ownership a more satisfying experience.  

Proper bonding based on the principles of natural horsemanship will allow the horse to accept things that are contrary to his nature. He does that because he has developed trust and confidence in his handler. That’s the whole basis of our training, isn’t it? Without proper bonding, the training process degenerates into one based on fear and submission.

Let’s take a look at this in more detail. 

Every phase of the training process is based on proper bonding and groundwork. Have you ever tried to lead a horse that hasn’t been broke to lead? Yeah, it’s kind of frustrating because the horse does what’s natural to him, i.e.

he pulls back on the lead when he feels pressure. 

He doesn’t know to give to the pressure by moving forward. He doesn’t trust the situation and he resists. Bonding has a very utilitarian purpose, and that is for the horse to learn to trust you enough to accept training. Something as simple as learning to lead requires a certain level of bonding for the horse to trust you enough to give in to your pressure. 

The same thing can be said and demonstrated regarding most other skills that a horse acquires during the groundwork phase of his training. For example, without bonding and the proper groundwork, it is not an easy task to catch a horse in a pasture or large corral. 

Without trust in his handler a horse will turn to his instincts and flee the approaching “predator.” With the benefit of the bonding experience which groundwork provides, a horse overcomes instinct and accepts the approach of a handler or trainer.

When we begin the desensitizing process, we essentially convince the horse that although we are touching him in his most vulnerable places, we will not harm him. When the horse allows us to throw a saddle blanket and then a saddle on his back, he is showing enormous trust and confidence. 

After all, the revulsion and terror that a horse feels when something unknown lands on his back, must be extraordinary. When a horse stands quietly for that first saddling and mounting, he is going against every instinct and every natural tendency he has. But he will do this willingly if the bonding process was successful.

Contrast this with the 19th century cowboy method of physically subduing the horse while a saddle was put on. No wonder you read stories of the Old West where seven year old horses buck regularly when saddled. 

That’s the difference between a horse that was trained through fear-based methods and the horse that went through the bonding process and groundwork exercises and stands quietly while saddled.  Which kind of horse would you prefer?

The most effective way of dealing with training problems in horses is to fall back on bonding and groundwork techniques. Many problems that a horse exhibits in training are a result of incomplete bonding and hurried groundwork. 

Whether it is head tossing or kicking, most solutions to these problems involve going back to basics and addressing bonding issues. For example, kicking problems are often solved by a thorough review of desensitizing techniques. 

This is nothing more than attempting to deepen the trust between man and horse so that the horse will no longer find it necessary to kick. Groundwork takes the fear out of the equation and bonding puts the trust into it.

Proper groundwork throughout the training process minimizes the number of problems that you will encounter with a horse. There’s nothing magical about it, though, and being thorough and patient with your groundwork exercises is no guarantee that you won’t have problems with your horse, but you will have fewer.

Owning a horse that trusts you, willingly cooperates with you and tries to do the right thing is a pleasure. It is a rewarding experience to have a horse trot over to the fence and nicker when you approach rather than to run to the farthest corner of the pasture to avoid contact with you. 

Using groundwork techniques to bond with your horse serves the dual purpose of increasing your success in training as well as building a more meaningful and lasting relationship with the horse.