O’Grady Equine

11/04/2025

The big fella Edmond is back in work! After 11 weeks off super happy with how his first few sessions back have been. It might not look like much but when I started working with Ed his flight instincts were that strong I struggled to get him to relax or focus on me for longer than 30 seconds 😅 so the fact he has come back into work with so much more confidence and he’s super happy and focused on what I’m asking of him now is a massive win!

02/04/2025

Meet Filini, he is a greenly broke 5yr old warmblood. Today was his 2nd session. He has had some time off, so we are bringing him back into work and helping his owner Nicki work on his ground manners. He is a big spooky fellow who has a tendency to want to push into your space when he’s worried about things, he also gets distracted very easily, so we are working on some round pen basics and body control from the ground to start with to help him to relax, maintain focus and respect my space!

02/04/2025

Just to let everyone know, recovery from my knee reconstruction is going well, back to riding the older sensible ones while i regain my strenth in the saddle and back doing some lessons and ground work with some youngsters!

This is Stevie, a lovely warmblood yearling i am working with 😌

03/03/2025

“Horses regularly trained with ground work are more relaxed when ridden”

A recent study of dressage horses in Germany that looked at rein length and tension revealed a surprising finding: horses who were regularly trained in ground work/in-hand work had lower heart rates during ridden work than all of the other participating horses. This wasn’t what the researchers were investigating, but it was clear in the results. From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”

So why would it be true that horses who regularly learn via ground work/in-hand work are more relaxed? There are a few possibilities.

1) Horses trained regularly with ground work are more relaxed because their trainers are more relaxed. It’s possible that humans who take the time to teach their horses from the ground are less goal oriented and more concerned with the process. They may be more relaxed in general and foster this same relaxation in their horses. As you are, so is your horse.

2) Horses trained regularly with ground work have trainers who are more educated about a horse’s balance.

Their horses learn to move in correct balance which allows them to be healthy and sound in their bodies and, therefore, more relaxed. Physical balance is emotional balance.

3) Horses trained regularly with ground work understand the trainer’s criteria better. They have mastered the response to an aid before the rider mounts and know the “right answer” already once under saddle. They don’t experience any conflict when the rider asks for a behavior because the neural pathway has already been installed. They are more relaxed about being ridden because it rarely has caused confusion for them.

For us highly visual humans I think that ground work is often a better way to begin exercises because we are much better at seeing our horse doing the right thing than feeling it from the saddle. Often, my feel in the saddle is enhanced by the fact that I have watched my horse perform an exercise over and over in our in-hand work. It feels how it looks. In-hand work is also a good way to teach our horses because our own bodies are often more in balance when we are walking beside our horses. With the ground under our feet we are able to be more relaxed if something goes wrong and less likely to be so busy wrapped up in our own balance that we give our horses conflicting or confusing aids. It’s a good place to figure things out. I am a huge fan of in-hand work.

I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman, Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a c**t in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.

So why were the horses in the study more relaxed? Likely it was a combination of all three factors – a relaxed trainer, better overall balance and clear understanding of criteria.

These are things that matter to your horse, and yes, will allow him to trust you when you ride. Take some time to slow down and work from the ground, learn a bit more about equine balance and teach new things in-hand before asking for them under saddle. You can take your riding to a whole new level and help your horse become more healthy and relaxed in the process.” - from the article by Jen of Spellbound Horses https://spellboundhorses.com/2013/03/07/horses-regularly-trained-with-ground-work-are-more-relaxed-when-ridden/

06/02/2025

⭐️Gordon’s training journey ⭐️

Gordon was sent to me as his owner Isabell had become nervous around him and she was considering having to find him a new home. Gordons ground manners were very bad, if he wasn’t sure of something he had no issues running his handler over to avoid it and when ridden he would plant his feet, rear and refuse to move forward. For this reason Isabell had not ridden him for a long time as she just didn’t have the confidence with him and didn’t want to risk getting hurt. She had sent him to another trainer a few years ago but they also didn’t have any luck in helping with his issues.

I initially started working on Gordon’s ground manners and doing ground work in round pen to build a connection with Gordon and try and suss out where his problems were coming from. After my first ride a week into his training I decided he needed to go back to the very basics on the ground before continuing to ride, although I managed to get him moving and he didn’t get me off it was clear Gordon was very confused about accepting contact and quite offended by any leg aids. If you asked for flexion on either rein he would try and counter flex and lock his head the opposite way and if you applied any leg pressure he would try and plant his feet and if I had let him be any straighter this would have eventuated into a rear. Basically he had learnt he needed to resist & fight all aids from his rider.

We went back to ground work for a few days to help him understand, relax and go forward into bit pressure and become less defensive about leg pressure.

His 2nd ride was so much better than his first, Gordon was relaxed, he was stretching over his back and down into the contact with no naughtiness or defensiveness about my legs. I Love how the video from the first ride to the 2nd shows how effective going back to ground work can be to fix issues under saddle! After a few more rides in the round yard we progressed to the arena and for the next 4 weeks with Gordon we just continued to go over the basics with him, helping him to relax under saddle and look to me/ his rider as a partner to help reassure him when he was unsure of something rather than thinking he had to take matters into his own hands to protect himself which was his go to before!

The last video is his owner Isabell having a ride before he went home, she had two rides on him before leaving and he was a super star, she has now decided to keep him and is confident with the new training techniques I have taught her to continue training Gordon herself!

It’s such a satisfying part of my job seeing owners have successful rides on their horses, I can’t wait to see the continued progress with this partnership!

31/12/2024

⭐️Edmond progress⭐️Fantastic way to end the year getting on this big fella. When i first started working with Edmond he was pretty raw, he had only done some basic level leading education and he hadn’t seen much of the world so his flight response was high! I Have spent 6 weeks building a relationship with Edmond, working on desensitisation, yielding to pressure in different ways and convincing him to trust me and today we had our first ride. Big thanks to Damien and Sandi for being there to support and guide us today for this big step!

18/12/2024

Some more lovely students I’ve had the pleasure of working with lately 🐴🐎💗

16/12/2024

This was chase’s 11th ride yesterday and I am super happy with his progress. He’s going forward nicely into a soft contact, holding flexion, responsive to my seat and lovely and relaxed. Yesterday was pretty windy and he’d had the weekend off so to come out and be this relaxed in the big arena shows what a sensible and willing temperament this guy has!

09/12/2024

🌟Chase 🌟 first ever session with me and his very first ride, what a good boy ☺️ big thanks to his owner Priscilla for doing such a great job at getting chase ready for his first ride!

06/12/2024

30/11/2024

Student progress

Meet Edmond and Oliver, two of my new students in Vic, They have learnt to lunge, had their first bridle, first girth, getting used to lunging with ropes that will soon be long reins, learning about flexion and yielding to pressure, had their first wash, done a bunch desensitisation work & had a little look at their first saddle.. very happy with how they are both progressing!

28/01/2024

Check out this beautiful boy Styx, I have had this lovely boy for 7 weeks and this was his first outing and off property ride with me, after being sat on a handful of times I have had the pleasure of finishing off the starting process with this lovely boy. His owner did such a fantastic job of preparing Styx for being started he’s been an absolute pleasure to work with everyday 💕

14/11/2023

Now this, this is what we are about 🙌🏻👌🏻🫶🏻

CELEBRATE YOUR OWN WINS.

It’s important to run your own race, ride your own class, lope your own warm up and celebrate your own wins. Whether there are 60 or 600 entries, everyone wants to win, but ultimately, everyone has to show up to even be one step closer to winning.

And winning doesn’t look the same for everyone and that is OKAY.

Some days winning is that your horse is sound after months of time off.
Some days winning is that your sick horse perked up and whinnied at you when you walked in the barn.
Some days winning is that you drove yourself to the horse show.
Some days winning is that your horse walked into warm up.
Some days winning is that you left three barrels standing or didn’t go off course.

Rarely ever is “winning” actually WINNING and a lot of wins happen outside of the arena.

Celebrate all of those wins because you worked your tail off and you earned them!

When you treat and rehab a horse for a year and you finally get to haul them to a show, that’s a win, an hard-earned one.

When you finally hit one lead change out of four, that’s a win.

When you make it through the trail course without a DQ, that’s a win.

When your ulcer prone, anxiety ridden SELF, keeps lunch down at the show, that’s a win.

Don’t compare your win to the person who took home the blue ribbon, because you never know, that may be just what they needed to not sell out on their dreams. Congratulate them after you congratulate yourself.

It is so easy to get caught up in the idea of “winning” that we lose sight of our own goals, how far we have come, what we have conquered, and the wins that we let slip by us because they weren’t a declared WIN on paper.

Easier said than done, I know. So in case you haven’t heard it or in case you haven’t told yourself lately,
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WIN!!! ❤️

Tweaked and modified by Jeremy Anglin, full credit to unknown author.