On my HorseSavvy Horsemanship FB group I have put out that I will go through some stages of learning how to work ‘at liberty’ with a horse. This will comprise of a few, hopefully short, but easy to understand YouTube vid’s which will also be on my YouTube HorseSavvy Horsemanship channel so hope everyone can find them.
Here are the first couple of bits and vid’s, not in the best of weather, but they are Winter Liberty Lessons so I expect I’ll be doing some in the snow later on 😉
PRE-REQUISITES for LIBERTY:
<< Here are my first thoughts on pre-requisites for doing liberty.
AND…these are the first few questions that some students asked so I will be going through these on some vid’s >>
WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 1: The first stage of liberty work on is starting online learning your energy/body/voice cues that will be the language you use to communicate at liberty 😉
WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 2: A wee vid on how to progress from online 😉
WINTER LIBERTY LESSON 3: Practise playing at liberty when your horse is ready to interact, this can often be while you’re poo picking the field. Just try it and see how well you’re liberty language is working. Make sure you’re using the same body, hand, voice cues you have established with your online play.
WINTER LIBERTY 4: This was a question from a student….’how to ask a horse to the mounting block?’. This is my first video with S&B doing it (Bella just learning it). I will put up the Liberty sidle to mount later on 😉
WINTER LIBETY 5: This was another question from a student….’how to stop my horse, at liberty, from running off and grazing?’. I use this ‘grazing game’ online first to teach a cue for grazing, on my terms. It doesn’t happen overnight but once the cues are in place and the horse understands they WILL get grazing, or a treat, or a scratch (whatever you choose to treat with) they know they don’t have to grab at grass as you go around. This then helps when going to Liberty as without a halter and rope they know they can just go off.
WINTER LIBERTY 6: This next video is one I always put out when people ask about how I synchronise or connect to a horse. Undemanding time and then mirroring is essential and teaches us that sometimes we need to follow the horse, other times we can ask the horse to follow us but if done often enough you, and others, won’t be able to tell if you are following or leading as the connection is there and synchronised changes of gait, direction and game is something you and your horse just do together 😉
WINTER LIBERTY 7: Liberty Mounting Block. This is continuing mounting block training.
I do this every week at liberty, sometimes more, after breakfast time when most horses are happy to interact and play. The progression has been slow and steady and I often just hang out with Bella (or Stormy) when they’re in the right place teaching them it’s the best place to be calm and to hang out with their feet still. The more I practise calmness at the mounting block the better they will be to mount and wait until I’m ready to move off for a ride 😉
WINTER LIBERTY 8 – Toys in a Bag
The question from one of my students on my FB group (HorseSavvy Horsemanship) was:
“My horse in on a livery yard. How can I take obstacles in a bag into the arena and put them out and take them down quickly so that I don’t waste my booked hour and not move the jumps or dressage stuff other people use”. Here is my answer….
Cone Pattern idea’s from the above video: (shapes from left to right….Straight line, circle, second circle, rectangle)
- Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk