Rainy Day Horsemanship: 50 Exercises to Do with Your Horse When You Can't Ride

Clever ways to improve your horse's performance when groundwork is all you can do.

There are dozens of reasons you might not be able to ride your horse. Weather can have an impact on your riding and training choices, sometimes keeping you out of the saddle, as can an injury to you or your horse, or changes in lifestyle or horsemanship goals. But time not riding does not need to be time wasted, explains trainer and popular instructor Vanessa Bee. As Founder of the International Horse Agility Club, Bee brings to the stable a unique set of skill-building techniques and exercises that anyone can use to better understand how the horse moves and how to influence that movement, resulting in better behavior on the ground, improved performance under saddle, and strengthened connection whenever and however you and your horse interact.

Bee's degree in education and experience as a teacher, as well as a horse trainer and riding instructor, informs the way she presents her easily achievable lessons that you can do right in the barn with limited equipment, including:

• Exercises to help you get to know your horse better.


• Safe handling techniques.


• Specific ways to build a trusting relationship.


• Fun games and ideas for engaging the horse's mind and body.


• Challenges that test willingness, balance, and focus.

With five foundation skills providing a clear place to start, and step-by-step instructions for 50 individual tasks and activities on the ground that not only engage both horse and rider but build toward immense rewards under saddle, this vibrantly illustrated book delivers for riders of all ages and abilities. Whether your goals are better dressage scores or quiet trail rides, or just safe and fulfilling time spent in the company of horses, Rainy Day Horsemanship has the positive steps you can take, starting today, whatever the season, whatever the weather.

Vanessa Bee is the founder of the International Horse Agility Club. With a training facility in England and her own method known as Positive Horsemanship, she specializes in building relationships between the horse and the handler from the ground up. Vanessa has been around horses most of her life, working in racing stables throughout her teens, then driving competitively into her early twenties when she was given an "unridable" racehorse as a wedding present. Very soon Vanessa realized that there had to be a better way than the " bigger stick, bigger bit method" of riding commonly offered, and in the late nineties Vanessa began to read, study, and work with some of the greatest horsemen of the age. She soon discovered that there are as many ways of teaching horsemanship as there are horses and handlers in the world. As a qualified teacher with a degree in education, Vanessa has used her skills to develop a series of courses that teach people of all abilities and experience levels to achieve a positive relationship with their horse. She is the author of The Horse Agility Handbook; 3-Minute Horsemanship; and Over, Under Through: Obstacle Training for Horses.