Correct Principles at Liberty

I like this picture because it shows how her placement is at a very specific angle to her horse, behind the wither line, influencing 2nd and 3rd positions on her horses body. The only thing that would help is if she stood taller and felt where her shoulders were, so would her horse. She is slightly on her forehand in her body.

It is super fun to play at Liberty with our horses but some people criticize certain types of Liberty for reinforcing bad bio-mechanics and or habits in the horse. I prefer to put my Liberty into categories. First there is Connection building Liberty with no real emphasis on technical "seed planting" as I call it. The emphasis would be on being with your horse more and doing less. As I start to angle toward technical "seed planting", I have Beginner level of Liberty Fun!damentals , Intermediate level (Geometry, Bio-Mechanics and Impulsion) and an Advanced level ( (Collection and lateral work).

In order to bring this Connection building style of Liberty Training to your practice, You have to think about what you would like from your horse when you are riding. More importantly you have to come into your body and feel the riding body language in you. I am constantly reminding people to not try to get their horse to do something. The idea is to get them to feel something that your are doing and connect to it. Horses are SO symbiotic with us it is astounding to me. Yet we are so unaware sometimes of how we are influencing for good or bad. At Liberty we have a communication level that can be both free and technical simultaneously. In really playful moments, I find it fun see how much I can get Mercury to Mirror me. I watch him studying me with a quizzical look as if to say "What's this about?" Then he tries to do it!

My challenge for this week is for you to really get into your body when you are with your horse. Every inch of it. Your head to toes. Especially hips and shoulder and feet. Breath deeply while you are working/playing and keep reminding yourself if you get too focused on what your horse should be doing. Get back into your own movements. It will really help your riding if you feel into some of you riding habits on the ground. I see people do exactly the same posture and communicating on the ground that they do when they are riding. I can see exactly how a person rides just like I can see exactly how a horse rides when I play at liberty with him. You can practice this at Liberty, on Line or Mounted. Just stay present in your body.

It takes a good understanding of what we want to communicate to our horses to become more clear and coherent. Many times when we get it right, our horse says "well why didn't you say so?" "I am happy to do that!"

In my clinics, I find that just helping people focus on coming into their bodies, slowing down, and communicating clearer breaks through a lot of the "issues" they come with simply, gracefully and eloquently.
In 2014 I will be offering more intensives on all these areas as well as how to move it to dancing In Hand and Line Work to Super fun Mounted success! Dates to be announced. Thanks to Natalie Bourchier Photography (http://www.nataliebourchierphotography.co.uk) for the beautiful photo.
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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

Bonnita Roy Clinic (The Horses at Alderlore) part 2

This weekend was the second clinic with Bonnita Roy. We had a larger group and some new horses. There was some good x factors this time. ICE SLIDING on the roof of the indoor made for some pretty interesting and hard work because the horses startled easily and that made them jumpy at first. But that being said we all did our parts to work through it (those of us who didn't have horses that were a bit too intimidating to the owners to work with). Bonnie took over with the horses the owners were a bit afraid of to show them that they were only reflecting the peoples fears back to them and if they could reflect back to horse calm soft energy, (easier said then done for some) The horse would soon follow. She worked with some particulary challenging horses and they transformed to calm and soft by the end of her time with them. Key points she made was it is important to see the horse in the moment just as he is. Not come into any interactions with projections like that horse is dominant or spooky or shy. I particularly resonated with this because as professional trainers, we learn to make quick evaluations of horse and humans and in that aspect can (even when we try to be neutral) project and actually create and attract the very behavior we are trying to change. I see it all the time with horses. The horse changes based on who is handling them for better or worse.

Some of us were in the second group having completed our first Dance class. The next phase was liberty. Last time we worked with the Cordero. It was interesting after reflection that the energy of the people was so mixed and there was a 50/50 split between people who were scared and people who were able to maintain calmness. My personal horse Mercury was in rare form and came in with huge energy. Now normally he is a goof and very playful but this day he was off the charts! What a display (I wish I had video of that)! It took a while to get him to focus but we were able to get a little progress eventually. I felt that being the sensitive horse he is, He was picking up on all the mixed up energy, I was too.
I got to work with one of her personal horses after him who was a little calmer and I could practice my dancing position a bit better. That was good because after a few days of feeling like I had 2 left feet, It soaked it in and on tuesday, when we were all by our lonesome in the arena, Mercury and I had our first "Dance"...with ice crashing and all....