Trained Liberty vs. Liberty Training

What is the difference between Trained Liberty and Liberty Training? With the increasing interest in Liberty and Liberty play, I have noticed that there is a distinct difference between what I call Liberty Training or Tricks and Trained Liberty.

 Liberty has been around for some time in many ways shapes or forms. It is used in circuses, entertainment, and even movies and TV. This Liberty constitutes mostly what I call Trained Liberty and tricks at Liberty. It is distinctly different than Liberty training or play. Horses trained in Liberty are taught a lot of their cues in tack and under restraint of some kind as opposed to being at Liberty and free to come and go in the conversation as well as change the agenda if they want to. Liberty taught in round pens or small areas also constitutes the possibility of the horse not having the ability to leave the conversation, change the subject and be free to communicate in a two way conversation.

What Liberty Training looks like to me is a free flowing organic conversation that changes moment by moment. I have no feeling of what my horse "Should" be doing. Only a feeling of enjoying the conversation, and the companionship intertwined with whatever we may be playing with. Take the pressure off. There is a really nice space to train in when we do that. It opens door ways to more interesting, fun training for both horse and person. This does not mean you are not communicating or even communicating quite strongly at times, It just means there is no pressure to achieve a particular outcome or result. Just you saying something, and the horse is allowed to say something. And then you listen to what the horse says. Then you say something back that seems appropriate in that moment.

I have hula hoops in my ring that are on the ground for figure guides and Mercury keeps showing me that he would like to work with the hula hoops when he is at Liberty. He clearly goes over to them and puts his front feet in the hoop. There are 4 and he will proceed to the next one and do the same. I have never taught him this and he offers it as his own idea. I am interested in this game he is showing me that he made up. Stand in the hoops with your front feet. I might then elaborate on this game by adding another piece to it. This to me, is the spirit of the Liberty play. It is free, organic and two way. Even when I am practicing more and more advanced Liberty play, I am always looking for my horses ideas, suggestions and input. I am always pleasantly surprised by what I get. I have a photo series of what to me shows the interaction I desire with my horse at Liberty. It is all spontaneous, co-creative, in the moment and a lot of fun! Happy New Year!
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Playing with Bridless Dressage

Here is another video of my exploration of Bridless Dressage, The Natural Outline and Ground Play with my Liberty Rein. Hope you enjoy it!
http://youtu.be/8r15fCoYkXk
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http://fdhvirtualclinic.com/

Goings on

For those of you who don’t already know, I am in the UK this week for clinics at the New Horse in Motcombe. I’ll be sure to share photos and updates as always.

I am pleased to see that this year’s clinic sold out and that people are really taking a keen interest in not only building stronger bonds with their equine partners, but training their horses in empathetic, fun ways as well.

I finds myself globetrotting yet again to new places and new and familiar equine and human faces. I will be in Kent, WA October 5-7 at Reber Ranch, I am going back to Carterton, NZ for another fun clinic November 30^th-December 2nd, and going to Strath Creek, Victoria, Australia December 8^th-10th. This will be my first visit ever to Australia and I am super excited to meet new horses and their humans and assist them on their journey and bond. I didn’t forget about people on the east coast. I have been to Charlottesville, VA, Schoharie, NY and Plainfield, MA. If you missed those, I have another weekend possibly coming up in Virginia in the fall (check my calendar for dates TBA). I also have a 3 day clinic at Backacresfarm.com (Plainfield, MA) coming up Labor day weekend in September that is about half full now. As always, the broad topic will be Liberty-Line-Mounted, FUN!damentals and Bitless/Liberty riding for those interested. As always, the clinics are shaped by the participants and highly customized to meet the needs of those who attend. If you’re interested in attending a clinic or would like to organize one in your area, contact me or Check my calendar link for details and more info here fdhorsemanship.com

I was thinking a lot this year about what my job is and the true purpose of my work/play. The answer is, I help horses and their people find more joy and fun. No matter what the surface goals or issues may look like. I help people and horses communicate better with each other. Growing up, I worked with a dog trainer who used to say he was an interspecies communicator. I often feel like this is what I do as well. He actually helped me on my path to animal training. Believe it or not I worked with dogs long before horses even though my passion for horses started at a very young age. In the past few years, I added Dog Training back into my services. Dog training clinics anyone?! The interesting thing is I brought a lot of what I call Natural Dogmanship to the horses and Natural Horsemanship to my Dog Training. I find the two species quite similar despite one being prey and one predator. Their social culture is similar because both naturally live in groups. Sometimes I am called upon to help horses and dogs recognize each other as fellow family members for their people. I have to explain to them that people often include many different species in their family when they have a love of animals and that they should look their people to help them all understand each other and feel safe and friendly.

One of the things I bring up in my clinics when I am teaching Connection exercises inspired by Carolyn Resnick is the reason dogs are so bonded and connected to us naturally is because we “Share our Territory” with them all the time. It helps illustrate the importance of the first exercise we do with our horses to develop the same strong bond. For that matter, this exercise strengthens the bond with any species or person. Hope to see you soon at an upcoming clinic. I love meeting all of you in person!

fdhorsemanship.com

One of my favorite UK friends

Soft vs. Light

Here I am working with a Mare that had a tendency to be Braced in her Mind and movement on a Mind and Body softening exercise...

Soft versus light is an interesting comparison that sometimes there is confusion about. Depending on who you talk to you will get different interpretations.

My Interpretation of Light is a horse or a response to a cue that is very sensitive or even reactive or Over-reactive. So there are degrees of lightness that can actually be too light. The horse may over react or move too quickly so the movement or action is too fast and lacks quality and flow. This is for sure desireable in some disciplines but it can cause mis-communications between horse and rider. This can be a horses natural temperament or tendency or they can be taught to be "Lighter" in their responses if they are a bit un-reactive or slow to react.

Softness to me is about Suppleness, flexibility, a calm mind and flow in the horses movement, body, and mind. There is Relaxation, Rhythm, and fluidness between horse and rider whether you are moving at speed or slow. You'll note that I said a calm mind because to me you can not have true "Whole" softness without a calm, trusting, happy, minded horse. You can not manufacture softness with gadgets, bits, and force.

Now let's talk about Light versus Soft in the Rider. A rider can be Light all the time in their communication or very heavy handed figuratively speaking. Using strong cues always "shouting" so to speak at the horse. This will cause a horse to become perhaps no longer Light where he once was. So we want to be careful of training that into a horse and thinking it's their problem not one we created. A person needs to understand the full spectrum of  "Request levels" starting with a whisper and escalating to a firmer (not louder) Conversation and everything in between.

Which leads to Softness in the person. All the same things apply here Suppleness, flexibility, a calm mind and flow in the persons movement, body, and mind. There is Relaxation, Rhythm, and fluidness between horse and person because you are able to effectively mirror the traits you are asking for from your horse. And again without the calm, happy, mind and body, you can not have true "Whole" softness in yourself.

It is always good to ask yourself as the Leader in the relationship between you and your horse, if you can do what you are are asking your horse to do whether it's be Calm, Be Fearless/Courageous, Flexible, Responsive, Energetic or Quiet. Whatever it may be, It starts with us.

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Bitless: Why I do it...

This horse is notoriously heavy on the fore...
now successfully doing Bitless and Bridless collection

In my journey through Horsemanship and Training, I have come to look for better ways to communicate with my horse with equipment and without. The more skilled I have become the less reliant on equipment I have become.
I always used what I'd call "cheap" western Side Pulls from time to time in my training in the past but wasn't into them enough to convert completely. I hadn't found one that compared with my fine english bridle quality. I also was able to ride in halters, leather and rope, but found them a bit sloppy and imprecise for more than a fun hack around some slightly higher level work. Mechanical Hackamores were to me as aggressive if not more then some bits with bicycle chain and wire wrapped with leather in some designs.
When I found the Buckaroo Leather Side Pull and then went on to design the Padded version with John Brand, I had no idea this bridle would become my go to training piece of equipment until I had it in my hand and kept going back to no matter what type of horse I was riding.
I use it on soft horses, heavy strong horses, young horses, jumpers, dressage horses, western horses and more. I don't care if the horse is green or advanced I still use it.
Of course I still use bits because unfortunately, some competitions wont allow you not too, but hopefully that will change soon. I don't feel I need a bit at all though. Give me enough time with a horse and I can get him to ride beautifully in a Side Pull. Let me reiterate "TIME". It took me time to get the heavy pullers riding nicely in the Side Pull but I took that time as opposed to taking the easy way out and going to bigger bits and gadgets. I took the Time to teach them to be more supple, more balanced and strong through proper work and fitness.
Which leads me to another very interesting point. In my conversion of many horses to Bitless for training, I made a discovery about a common problem. Horses opening their mouths during training with the bit. I discovered that mouth opening had more to do will lack of suppleness in the Poll and being on the forehand then it had to do with the bit! How did I find this out? Well while training some known mouth openers with bits, Once I switched them to bitless guess what? When they were struggling with suppleness, unbalanced or both, They opened their mouth with NO BIT. When they were stiff in their body and poll, They opened their mouth regardless of whether they had the bit or not.
What does this mean? To me it means that the Poll and jaw are connected (not a new discovery in training) but why are we working on the jaw when the problem is originating in the Poll and body?
Hence back to why I use a Side Pull bitless bridles and Neck straps (Corderos). They allow me to talk directly to the body parts I need to without interfering with other body parts and possibly even DISTRACTING the horse from the area that needs focus. I'm not saying there are not dental problems and bitting issues that can arise from the mouth, but I am saying you can find out if you try a bitless bridle and in fact it may be the answer to horses with dental and mouth issues. Just like when I want to see if the saddle is compromising the horses desire to perform. I ride him bareback or with a bareback pad. If he rides fine, then I know the saddle is a problem. More oats for thought from yours truly and my two cents. Also, Don't miss an opportunity to get one of these beautiful bitless bridles right now in my Bridle Shop!

Dressage as meditation

What if when we rode it was a meditation practice as well as a ride. Meditation by it's definition is the clear focus on one particular thing. It is the absence of cluttered thought and detachment from the moment. It is total present mindedness and total awareness and respect for the connection between you and the horse the entire time you are together. This is easier said then done for a lot of us so it should be part of a practice for us as much as we practice other things.
Ask yourself if you are with your horse when working together or in your head. Are you obsessing about meaningless perfection details or staying in a slow calm flow even when doing faster exercises. Slowing down is an excellent way to stay in an aware and present state with your horse. Doing relaxing interesting patterns with a focus on the exercises and it end results not the "issues" you feel as you do it. Focusing on your BREATH and keeping it regular and calm is an excellent way not only to meditate in an aware state with you horse but also to connect, relax and calm both of you. Any adjustments you want to make in the horse should be done peacefully, calmly and quietly with a feel for not disturbing the connection. This doesn't mean you can't be firm it just means it's slow, calm and patient with a pause for you both to contemplate afterward for a moment before moving on. When working with a particular Method or school of thought, do not get caught up in the technique above your meditation and connection with your horse. Staying in the moment and flow with your horse will allow you to have great moments together. As a competitive rider, it is important to keep this practice at the top of your priorities if you are going to keep yourself and your horse in a state of happiness in your work together. So take breath and relax the next time you ride and just "be" together whatever you do....Namaste

FDT and Buckaroo Leather Q&A

In case you haven't heard yet, I joined forces with Buckaroo leather after I was so pleased with the custom bitless Sidepulls they made me. If you also haven't heard about the free Tele-conference call sunday Feb 21st at 2 pm EST 11 am PST, please join us. We will be discussing bitless options and answering questions.To participate just call this Conference line # 712 432 3900 and then enter this pass code 379697 when prompted, Q&A starts at 11am PT 2pm EST Hope you can make it!

Me and Mercury Ride Bridless for the first time

Me and Mercury try out Bridless riding for the first time ever. Mercury is a 5 year old Dutch Warmblood I have had since he was a yearling. Bridleless Jumping has been our goal and we are working towards this. To appreciate the magnitude of this trust it must be known that this colt was one of the biggest buckers I have ever started and he is thin skinned, sensitive, Playful and can be spooky and hot! He is also one of the smartest and hardest try-ers I've ever had.
FDT