Liberty Challenges – Horse Savvy

Liberty Challenge 11 (2018)

Published on April 17, 2018

First Agility course this year (2018).

Arranged it in a serpentine pattern.

Tasks:

Front foot or feet into hula hoop or on a mat. Just looking for a foot connection.
Under a flapping curtain. Looking for relaxation and bravery.
Labyrinth. Here I’m looking for flexibility, straightness and specific foot falls.
Jump. Looking for a nice transition walk/trot/walk.
Halt between barrels. Great to have synchronised halt and not worried about squeeze.
Trot weave. Connection from the side and for horse to be more independent than just following.
Tarp. This can be where you transition, or do a turn, anything .
Transitions: between tarp and log transitions and into sidepass here.
Sidle over log. Looking to be specific with feet here.
Trot through flag corridor. Can be any ‘spooky/flappy’ things really. Just looking for calmness and bravery.
Trot poles. Hoping horse has some bounce in it’s trot and for it to look where it’s going.
Pedestal. Looking for happiness to stand on something with a bit of height in it. If you don’t have a pedestal you can start with a carpet or a reinforced pallet.

Liberty Video with me and Solly (missed putting tarp down #7)

Shelley – HorseSavvy

Liberty Challenge 10

Published on November 22, 2017

Lots of fun can be had doing Agility with your horse. I find it helps with communication spook busting, finding a smooth connection, transitions and having fun, which is the most important thing.

This month I put just a few simple things together for a 9 obstacle course and did it at liberty then with long reins and finally ridden, you can start this online if your starting out and there are many ways to keep these 9 obstacles interesting, here are some ideas:

~ Online ~ at Liberty ~ Long Rein ~ Ridden bitless ~ Ridden with neck rein/cordeo ~ done in walk, trot or canter ~ done in obstacle order or in reverse order ~ juggle the order about ~ Choose to do completely different things with each obstacle ~

Here are some video’s from LC10.

Long Reining w/Solly

Ridden bitless

Liberty Challenge 10

Published on June 26, 2016

Beginners: start online in walk then trot
Intermediates: go to neck rope in walk or trot
Advanced: work at liberty in walk, trot or canter
Fun: try riding it (w/t/c)

Challenges Online/Liberty/Ridden:

Front feet & back feet in hulahoops (or walk over)
Trot over poles on tarp
Trot/canter through scary corridor
Jump
Trot through weave pattern
Transitions through narrow corridor (walk in/halt/backup/trot out)
Walk/trot over bottle bank
Walk/trot fig 8
Walk/trot through curtain
Trot through arch or jump hoop jump
Sidepass over or near an obstacle
Walk through water feature
Ground tie (immobility/halt) and extreme familiarisation with objects around horse

Liberty with Solly

Ridden with Solly

Tips:
Try and test all the obstacles to make sure you and your horse know what to do at each one, make sure you reward for the slightest try and as you advance you do more with each obstacle, either stay longer, transitions or all at a higher gait throughout.

Once you know what to do with each obstacle then put them together as smoothly as possible as a course (if online then keeping a ‘smile’ in the rope as much as you can).

Set it up the best way for your area so it doesn’t need to be in this order or this shape.

Do not push your horse through or over things, accept what he gives you and teach him more as you go along. Repeat as often as you can for a horse that is a slow learner and make sure you mix it up often for a horse that gets bored quickly.

Remember it’s supposed to be fun….for you AND your horse 🙂