Laying Proper Groundwork: The Jog

Jogging is a portion of the groundwork that is sometimes neglected in favor of the more important disciplines, yet in spite of this it is crucially important. At some competitions, especially those that judge for soundness, jogging is an important discipline in its own right. Judges actually prefer to evaluate a horse’s soundness by allowing the animal to jog, and if your animal falls into the hunter breeding class, you will be sorely disappointed if you do not lay this groundwork early on. As a matter of fact, if your horse has to be dragged instead of jogging on its own, the animal presents itself ill at ease and even unsound.

The chain will need to be put over the animal’s nose – for sensitive animals you will want to use the halter’s noseband as a cushioning device – and the whip is supposed to only be utilized for tapping encouragingly on the animal to urge it forward. In now should the shank or the whip be considered paraphernalia of aggression against the horse! While standing to your horse’s left side and slightly ahead of it, you will condition it to listen to your voice command and walk forward. It the horse fails to obey, you reach behind you with the whip to tap the horse encouragingly on its side. After a while the animal will understand that it is to walk beside you at voice command. Pulling the horse forward with the halter and shank are counterproductive, since they are to be guides only. The next step is to teach the animal to trot. A voice command accompanied by a cluck will help the horse to differentiate the voice command for walking. Repeat as often as needed to ensure that the animal will be trained to obey your voice command.