Non horse person lessons

My Dad's a Natural!

When you read the title of this blog, you probably thought I was referring to teaching non-horse people. The fact of the matter is, I was referring to what non-horse people or people who only want relationship with a horse can teach us horse people.

Since this journey with Liberty work started, I still laugh about how I thought I was just learning this work for me and my personal horses. I thought no one would be interested in anything that didn't have to do with our narrow riding/work relationship we have with horses. Boy was I happily wrong. Since then, Not only have people who ride showed up, but a steady stream of Equine Therapists, Animal lovers, and Non-horse people have arrived to learn how to enjoy a different way of being with Horses.

What we can learn from watching the horses interact with these people is, the true meaning of a clear energy. There is no need or agenda only pure connection.

Some of you may have already seen on Facebook the photos of my dad from the Memorial weekend clinic. My parents both participated in the Liberty Class with a Saddlebred named Remy. My mom is an animal person and my dad is a "city boy" who has graciously tolerated his animal loving family. He likes animals now but is not so confident with them. Horses are large animals and if you are not a horse lover, I can very much see how they could seem intimidating. If you don't know how to read them, they can be.

 What I like about my Liberty class is how I use one horse that most everyone doesn't know, even me. I try to get a horse that has no experience with the work (except with other horses!) I want everyone to have to build connection through the exercises in real time and in context. Working with a unknown horse let's us come in with no preexisting patterns that we have with our own horses. Even with this, I see people's patterns with their own horses exposed on the class horse. I can see good patterns and shift ones that need shifting. As each horse works with each person, I see their own unique chemistry evolve. We can learn from watching how one horse interacts with everyone and their good examples.

I had, as usual a group of all different horse people in the class and my parents. My Mom is more comfortable with animals and was able to connect to work with Remy easily in most exercises. She has no agenda except to connect. She doesn't ride. She just loves animals.

My Dad provided a standout lesson for all us horse people. First he wasn't sure he wanted to participate so he just watched. At some point he decided to join the class feeling a bit more confident. He said he could understand what I was explaining. We were working on Leading from Behind and Companion Walking with everyone. It came his turn and he got up and the horse came straight to him and Companion Walked. I wish I had video because what I saw had more to do with energy than beginner's luck. It had to do with my dad's energy being pure and clear. He wanted nothing of Remy he had no agenda and no need for Remy to do anything for him. Remy was instantly attracted to that energy more than any other people in that room. It was the difference in his energy that reminded us horse people of what that energy looks like and what it feels like to a horse. It was powerful for all of us to see.

In the class we are all helping each other learn by our interactions with the horses. I enjoy the different people who are participating in the classes and the lessons they all bring us. The Non horse people lessons are sometimes the most powerful ones!
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Starting Django: The Approach

I thought I would talk a bit about how my approach to Django unfolded as he showed me what would work best for him. For those of you who don't know, I have been keeping a Vlog of his training from Liberty-Line-Mounted in my Classroom.  Django is a 3 year old Friesian that was sent to me for starting under saddle. I did not know anything about him except what his owner described and what I observed from the time he arrived. I of course, started with Carolyn Resnick's Waterhole Rituals which allowed him to shape his training program. 

I observed in the first few exercises that he was friendly, playful, dominant, smart, and very food oriented. He also loved to be groomed. 

After spending some time Sharing Territory and Saying hello, I opted to work with food exercises with him in his paddock for almost a month. He loves food but was not respectful around it. It became a very powerful approach to his focus and progression to all other areas. 

The first food exercise I used is inspired by Carolyn Resnick's Intimacy exercise. Mind you I did not attempt to do any of this until I knew I could reliably move Django slowly and quickly out of my space without food. This is a very important safety precaution. 

I sat on a chair with a pan of food at my feet first asking Django if he could wait to put his nose in to eat. I could see he understood after a time when he stopped trying to go past my hand which was blocking his nose from the bucket. When he showed that pause and focus, I invited him to eat out of the pan. I allowed him to eat and then asked him to wait several times so he got the idea about being close to me with food around. This was a particularly important lesson for him because he was rude and pushy around feeding time. I knew though, that he did this because no one had explained to him that this might be seen as rude. 

The next food exercise I did was Claiming Territory around the food. I showed Django that sometimes he would have to leave where the food was and could not come back to the pan of food until he halted from my body language. Then when he looked at me and halted instead of trying and push past or go around me to get the food, I would get him a handful and feed it to him. This help him learn to focus on me and that the food would come through me sharing it with him. He would not be allowed to help himself until then. This made him want to focus on my requests more. This is very different then using treat rewards at certain times. It is the way horses handle each other around food and leadership. 

Once these exercises were firmly established, I was able to start asking him to yield his body around the food (ie. circle and move sideways prep for natural and liberty lunging). I was also able to ask him to leave the food and eventually walk away with me all over the paddock. The food no longer became a source of focus at all except to occasionally walk back for a reward for good work. 

This work carried into being lead and working around grass and the ability to have the treats in the arena where we have graduated to for our Liberty to Line phase. I'll talk more about how all this helped him with him understand how to be "Lead" or have manners on the lead and stop dragging and barging into people without ever putting him on the lead in the next post. If you'd like to follow his progress, you can subscribe to my classroom here http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!classroom