Ground work: Train Your Horse to Move Their Hind-End Copy
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to teach your horse to respect your personal space. Horses are big creatures, and it can be potentially dangerous if your horse doesn’t respect your personal bubble.
A horse that disregards your space will crowd you, run their shoulder into you, step on your feet, and have no regard for where their body is in relation to yours. By teaching your horse to move their hind-end and front-end away from pressure, you are instructing your horse to have respect for you and to realize where their body is positioned.
Not only will this exercise reassure your authority in the relationship, but it will also teach your horse how to do a turn on the haunches, and a turn on the forehand. Turn on the haunches is when your horse will pivot their body around the haunches. What this means is the hind-legs will stay planted while the horse moves its front legs one in front of the other, circling around the haunches.
Likewise, turn on the forehand is when the horse’s front legs stay planted while its hind-legs cross one over the over, circling around the front legs.
Both of these exercises are considered to be more advanced when it comes to riding. In order for the horse to do these exercises, they must be using their bodies correctly. Having your horse move off of their hind-end and front-end makes your horse think about how to use its body properly.
The goal is to be able to cue your horse to move their body over by applying pressure to either the hind-end area or the shoulder area. The response that you want from your horse is for them to 1) step away from you or the pressure, and 2) cross whichever leg they’re stepping away with over the other leg.
Technique
First, start with moving the hind-end. Remember back in the exercise 
where you taught your horse to flex? You applied pressure by taking up the lead rope to behind the horse’s shoulder. You may have noticed that when you did this, your horse swung their hind-end the opposite way trying to bring their neck around.
Moving the hind-end is the same concept. Start by standing at your horse’s head, facing towards their hind end. Take up the slack in the lead rope by lifting your hand up towards the withers and walk assertively towards the horse’s hind-end. The horse should respond to the pressure by swinging their hind-end the opposite way, stepping one leg in front of the other.
If the horse refuses to budge, you can use the end of the lead in your other hand or the lunge whip to get them to step over. Remember, don’t hit the horse with the whip; instead, either point it at their hip or wave it by the hind-leg closest to you.
As soon as the horse steps it’s hind leg away from you, release the pressure and praise them.
To move the front-end, stand a few feet in front of your horse, facing each other. You’ll have the lead rope in one hand and the lunge whip in the other. If you want your horse to move their front-end to the left, hold the rope in the left hand, and if you want the horse to move their front-end to the right, hold the lead rope in the right hand.
Since you are standing in front of your horse, it would be wrong of them to step forward into your personal space. Your goal is to have them move their shoulders over, crossing their front legs in front of one another so that when they stop, you should now be facing their side. If they do happen to walk into your personal space, ask them to back up.
To do this, whichever hand has the rope, point in the direction that you want them to move their shoulders over to. This will give them a signal as to which way to go. Then, wave your lunge whip towards the opposite shoulder, the one that needs to step away first. As soon as the horse steps away from the pressure by crossing their front leg over the other, release the pressure and praise them.In the beginning, the horse may step away but might not cross their front legs over. If this is the case, move assertively towards the side your the horse you want to step away as you wave the lead rope. This will encourage the horse further to step away out of your bubble.
Result
Your horse will now have a new-found respect for your personal space and you’ll easily be able to move their body over if need be. Teaching your horse to move their hind-end and front-end on the ground will greatly impact your ride in the saddle.
In the saddle, you should now have control of both your horse’s front-end and back-end. To ask them to move each end over is the same concept as the one used on the ground.
To move the hind-end, bring the one rein to your hip on the side that you want them to move away from. Put your lower leg behind the birth and give a squeeze. You should feel your horse swing their hind-end over.
To move the front-end under saddle, lay the rein on your horse’s neck on the side you want them to move away from. Open the opposite rein so the horse has something to move into. Apply pressure with your lower leg at the point of the girth. You should feel the front-end pivot around the hind-end.
When practiced enough, you can put these two movements together to teach your horse to side pass or leg yield. Training your horse to move their hind-end and front-end is the first step in teaching your horse lateral movements.