Electra's first ride

Here is a video of Electra's first ride. She did amazing! Using the Liberty, Line, Mounted progression made our first ride easy and our communication transferred beautifully. I am so proud of her! I'll keep you posted on progress!
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Upcoming events
9/31-10/2 FDH Horsemanship Clinic: Plainfield, MA
11/30-12/2 FDH clinic in New Zealand: at Taralee stables, Carterton, NZ
11/22-11/24- FDH Clinic in Australia Strath Creek, Victoria, Australia
for more info and registration
Calendar:http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!calendar

Electra

Trotting together

I have just gotten in a young lady named Electra who needs to further her education to riding. She is a beautiful Andalusian filly I met at a one day workshop I did locally. I liked her immediately. She had great character and was sweet, smart, playful, and willing. The farm she came from breeds Spanish horses and needed her started for riding so she can be sold. It was really cool that they wanted her started in this way of working with horses.

What I have learned about Electra so far from our Liberty sessions together is that she really wants to connect to her person. She is soft, curious, and seems to like obstacles and jumps a lot! She went right to our barrels, poles and jumps. She goes to them again and again. She also likes playing with the tarp and went right to our bridge and put her foot on it. This tells me that she might like a career in trail classes, versatility, Jumping, Eventing, or just pleasure trail riding. She also looks like she could make a nice dressage horse or western horse. She seem very versatile! I like horses that are versatile. It's fun to be able to have the option to do different fun activities with your horse.

Every time I start a new young horse, It is never the same. I have to blend the needs of the owner and the character of the horse with what I do. So it is never the same with any of them. Imagine if someone came to me and said I don't want to ever have a bridle on this horse but I want to ride. Then I would come up with a completely custom plan and train that way.

With this horse I am using no treats at all. Only scratches and grooming which she loves. I am also using my Liberty Fundamentals exercises and and In Hand work primarily to prepare her for being ridden. I will take her for walks around our neighborhood to help get her fit and used to hacking by walking up some hills before I ask her to carry me.

So far she has been so willing and easy. She is a joy to work with. I will keep you posted on our progress as we go on. If you would like more info on her to purchase, please contact me.
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/
Sign up for http://fdhvirtualclinic.vidmeup.com/
Upcoming events
9/31-10/2 FDH Horsemanship Clinic: Plainfield, MA
11/30-12/2 FDH clinic in New Zealand: at Taralee stables, Carterton, NZ
11/22-11/24- FDH Clinic in Australia Strath Creek, Victoria, Australia
for more info and registration
Calendar:http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/#!calendar

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

Colt starting contests, Mustang Makeovers, and Clinics...

Colts from a contest

This subject has been on my mind a lot lately because it seems to be getting more popular.
People ask me from time to time why I don't enter a colt starting contest. There is now some for women exclusively. My response is "Why what's in it for the horse?"


And though I would love to get a Mustang at some point, He will be started with an attention to his pace and comfort level and no need to be put on display in 90 days to do some amazing feat. I am not against the principle of the Mustang contests. These horses need homes and that is the goal, but I question the entertainment concept and putting them on show. Could there be a less stressfull way to do this? Absolutely. Would it be less glamorous? Probably.

I have watched from the side lines as a horse lover and a professional these colt starting contests. I have not been excited by what I saw. I see horses being started in record times and doing very complex tasks in absurd amounts of time. What impresses me the most? It is not the skill of the Clinician in the arena. As usual it is the huge heart of the horse. Their willingness to let us subject them to whatever our whim is. It is the same thing that awes me everyday I am around them. With that said, it is my personal feeling that I, as a human should not take advantage of the horses generous and willing nature. It is my responsibilty to respect it and handle it with care. They show me again and again their huge heart and desire for connection if only given the time to let it unfold.

My final thought is how Clinicians and horses are increasingly being put in a very tough position when horses are brought to them to be "fixed" in a few hours or one, two or three days. The pressure to deliver results is very high and again falls squarely on the horses nature.

We are obsessed as a culture with speed and how fast we can get things done. Just because I possess the skill to do something very fast does not mean it is the best way for me or the horse. Last time I checked, Horsemanship was not a race it was a skill that took the time to consider the horses well being at all stages no matter what our goals are. Competitve or not.

Just my two cents...
FDT