Ground Work

For session three with Little Bay, Dusty demonstrates how he bits up a young horse to teach them how to follow their nose and move forward with the pull of the bit.

It's session one for Vincent, a yearling stud colt by Duel Smart Rey. Even though the young horse has already been worked with and saddled once prior, Dusty feels its important to reiterate the basics of gound work and joining up prior to moving forward with his training.

It's session two with Vincent. Dusty first talks about how, after being saddled a few times, he begins to saddle and tie his young horses to teach them patience and to think and not take off bucking and playing every time they are saddled. Once ready to work, Dusty goes through his steps of ground work and desensitization to further prepare Vincent for his first ride. He then introduces the bridle with the goal of teaching the young horse lateral flexion and to follow his nose.

Dusty begins this session with Vincent by talking through using lateral flexing to make the young horse think and be soft. He then further desensitizes and prepares the young horse for his first ride by putting weight in the stirrups.

It's day one of ground work for Dory. Dusty's plan for today is to teach the young horse respect and to join up in the round pen.

Session two of ground work for Dory begins with learning to disengage the hip and follow Dusty's hand and direction. He then proceeds to desensitize the young horse by using his leggins and saddle pad prior to saddling the young filly for the first time. Once saddled, Dusty teaches Dory to move our forward and think with the pressure of having a saddle on.

For session three of ground work with Dory, Dusty introduces the bridle. His goal for today is to not only teach lateral flexion, but to also teach the young filly to follow her nose and stay soft and calm.

In this episode of Dory, Dusty emphasizes the importance of teaching a flighty horse to think prior to taking off. He demonstrates the technique he uses to create thought under pressure by using a flag.

It's the last day of ground work for Dory. After laterally tying her around, Dusty lunges the young filly around while she's bitted up in order to keep her soft, keep her shoulder up in the circle, and follow her nose. Once her ground work is done, Dusty prepares Dory for her first ride by putting weight in the stirrups and jumping on her back.

It's session one with Twisted. Having been told that the filly had already been saddled, Dusty evaluates her knowledge and puts his own stamp on her prior training.

After his evaluation in the prior session, Dusty uses the flag to capture Twisted's feet and mind and have her think with added pressure.

For Twisted's last ground work session, Dusty demonstrates a technique he uses to accept pull on the saddle while lunging. He then takes Twisted through his preride groundwork checklist from desensitizing and bridle work to putting weight in the stirrups.

It's session one of ground work for two year old barrel filly Betty Ross. Having already been saddled, Dusty's goal for this session is to work on teaching the young herdbound horse to be less pushy and more independent. He also further teaches Betty Ross to follow her nose and flex with the pull of the rein.

For session one of ground work with The Hottish, Dusty starts right off the bat with an exercise to gain the young filly's attention and make her think. He then continues to work on the filly's focus after talking through saddling while being tied to the fence.