Liberty
The goal of Liberty Training is to develop a true connection between trainer and horse, based on how horses interact and communicate with each other within the herd.
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A horse is at liberty when he is free of tack and, therefore, free to leave the lesson at as and when he wants to. Any time is a good time to begin liberty training. Young horses who are not physically mature enough to be ridden, retirees, injured or insecure horses, as well as perfectly sound and fit horses enjoy this type of learning and interaction.
During Liberty Training you work with a horse that is free in an arena or in his field. You don´t hold the horse, but you give him the freedom to leave the session when he feels the need to.
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This enables the horse to not feel any form of physical pressure or force. Because the main goal of Liberty Training is to build strong bond with your horse, for a real connection between you and your horse to arise, and that can only occur when the horse feels free to express himself.
As people often train horses too fast without there being an opportunity to really get to know one another or build the foundation for a good relationship. When you take your time to work with your horse at liberty, play into your horse’s natural behaviour and do all of this in a kind and friendly way, you will really connect and eventually feel the deep bond needed to enjoy pleasant problem free training sessions that are extremely beneficial to both trainer and horse.
Horses need the opportunity to become curious about “their human”. Trust and friendship grows from there.
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At liberty we also establish hierarchy and develop our leadership skills. If the horse notices that you can lead him in a grounded, calm and assertive way his trust in you will grow. Liberty Training is a first step to partnership and natural leadership.
Goals
The goals of the exercises of Liberty Training are:
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To develop a clear two-way communication with the horse
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To develop a deep connection with the horse, but also to maintain this bond or to rebuild and re-establish this bond.
Liberty Exercises
Exercise One : Bonding Time
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Horses are herd animals and forge strong bonds with the other horses in their herd. By regularly being a part of your horse’s group, a herd feeling grows.
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Because of Bonding Time, horses become more curious and will look for contact with the human on their own initiative, and naturally, that is what you want : that the horse looks for contact himself, instead of the human always having to approach the horse.
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After a while, a stronger sense of belonging grows. Your horse doesn’t see you as someone who always wants something from him, but as someone who is regularly present in a not invasive way. The horse will start to appreciate the company of his trainer. This exercise is the foundation for everything you will ever want to do with the horse! Without enough Bonding Time, your relationship with your horse will never reach its full potential!
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This exercise can be done in an arena or in the horse's field. You can separate your horse from the other horses if needed. To accomplish Bonding Time all you have to do is sit on a chair, or on the ground, and just do nothing! You are just supposed to be together with your horse in the same space. You ignore the horse, which means that you don’t move to him, look at him all the time, or keep hoping that the horse comes to you. He will do so in his own time.
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This exercise should be done for about ten minutes, ideally at the beginning of every training session.
Exercise Two : Greet and Go
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Once you've spent enough time on Bonding Time, your horse should regularly come to you to seek out contact. At this point, it’s time to start with the second exercise, Greet and Go
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With Greet and Go, you turn things around : The human now takes initiative and approaches the horse.
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The objective of this exercise is to build up trust. In this exercise, you move and walk towards the horse, which can signal to many horses: “Now something is going to happen" "I will have to do something" or "Go through something…”
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But with Greet and Go, we show the horse that the human doesn’t always seek out contact because something has to happen (i.e. putting on a head collar, a hard schooling session, grooming, or simply petting. Not all horses like being stroked all the time)
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The horse also learns that the human shows respect for his emotions and boundaries. It’s very important that you learn how to see subtle changes in your horse’s body language to be able to show this kind of respect.
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Just like with all other exercises from Liberty Training, I advise practising in a large space so that the horse can move away if he wants to.
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First, take your time for Bonding Time. At a certain moment, when the horse is eating grass somewhere or is looking around, you calmly step towards him. Always be aware of the boundaries your horse is setting at any given moment. When you arrive at the horse, you invite him for contact, letting the horse smell your hand. Then you just go away.
Don’t worry if the horse doesn’t really want to make contact. By repeating this exercise regularly, it will happen eventually. The horse needs to be given the freedom to take steps in his own time if you want to establish a true connection.
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Together with Bonding Time, this exercise will make horses more curious and more people-orientated. Even if your horse is already curious and people-oriented, this can still be a valuable exercise because you will learn to recognise your horse’s boundaries, thus allowing a deeper form of communication to grow.
Exercise Three : Greet an Groom
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The third exercise is the exercise Greet and Groom
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Horses who are friends regularly scratch and rub each other lovingly with their teeth and lips. Research has already shown that calming substances are released and the heart rate of horses drops during grooming. So the third connection exercise consists of imitating this loving scratching and rubbing.
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The first objective is to check if your horses trusts you enough to let you touch him. Sometimes the bond appears to be very good after doing the first two exercises, but as soon as the human brings his hand up to the body of the horse, the horse becomes fearful, frightened or defensive.
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When a horse lets himself be touched and groomed without any problems, you can start to look for his favourite spots to be groomed. This all sends the horse the message that we are his friend and partner.
Sometimes it might be the case that your horse simply does not feel like grooming, and leaves when you try to initiate it. Try not to take it personally, and allow your horse the freedom to express his opinions.
You can build up this exercise in the same way as Greet and Go. That means : first take your time for Bonding Time, and after that you calmly step towards the horse. If you can meet your horse, try to groom your horse briefly. And after that you step away again.
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If the horse signals that you are going too far, don’t try to go further. You are supposed to show respect to the horse by not forcing your touch on him. Turn around and step away again.
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The goal is that after a while you are able to “groom” your horse and that your he enjoys it!
Exercise Four : Your Spot, My Spot
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The fourth exercise is called Your Spot, My Spot The horse that leaves his spot when another horse drives him from it shows himself at that moment as lower ranked. The horse that drives another horse to take that spot shows himself as being higher ranked at that moment.
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In this exercise we take the spot where the horse is standing.
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Through this exercise we tell the horse that we can show ourselves as being higher ranked when we need to (do not confuse this with leadership!). It is important that a horse will want to give his spot or move over for his trainer. This gets you more respect from the horse, as far as your personal space is concerned and it is also safer to work with a horse that moves away from you if you ask to.
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By doing this exercise we learn how to be assertive but still friendly.
At first, you always do this exercise in a large space, like a field or arena, so that the horse can walk away if he feels the need to. With some horses, you need to present yourself as very assertive, and then the horse may feel the need to take a lot of distance. If they have space to take this distance, they will not feel pressured.
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Step in the direction of the horse confidently and by using the intention, focus, energy and body language you will communicate to the horse that you want to take his place.
You basically tell the horse: “I want to stand in your spot, so I want you to go away and move to another spot”. Then you effectively stand still on that spot so his spot has now become your spot. You have shown yourself as higher ranked at this moment, and the horse has shown himself as lower ranked by making space for you.
Exercise Five : Easy Herding
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During the fifth connection exercise, also known as Easy Herding you create a deep herd feeling with your horse while working on your dominance and your qualities as a leader.
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The primary objective is to spark a connection by driving the horse in an amicable way and indicating the direction to go into at the same time. From birth on, a foal is taught to react on the body language of his mother and all other members of the herd, and he finds it normal to be driven by them. The foal knows from an early age that he should stay between the aids of the herd if he wants to feel safe and secure.
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A horse remembers and recognises this. Horses see everybody who drives them in an assertive figure, but most of all a friendly way as a part of their group. So by doing Easy Herding, we establish a stronger herd feeling.
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At the same time we also work on our dominance because we drive the horse forward. We show ourselves as a leader by giving direction while staying calm and confident.
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Like the previous exercises, Easy Herding is done in a large field or arena, so that the horse can walk away from you if it wants to because you (might have) used too much pressure. You wouldn’t do this on purpose, but it can still happen if you don’t know a horse very well yet and are still learning to respond to each others’ body language.
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It’s not a problem if you used too much pressure (if it was with a positive intent!!) and the horse felt the need to move away from you. Because if the horse can move away and take it's distance without you running after it, the horse learns that there is nothing wrong. Be sure not to chase the horse like a predator would do or another horse that wanted to attack.
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During Easy Herding you ask the horse to step and you walk after the horse behind it. You don’t ask the horse to trot even if some horses will do it on their own accord.
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If you can, let the horse walk for a few minutes while you follow, then you ask the horse to change direction. You can do this in an active or a passive way. You can also invite the horse to slow down and halt.
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It's not important to always succeed, and it may be difficult when you first begin this exercise. By spending a few minutes on this every day, you will progress because the horse will become more focused on you, even as you walk behind him. When the horse starts to react to your subtle hints, you know that the connection is strengthening.
Exercise Six : Liberty Leading
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When it happens spontaneously, then it is up to you to accept it and freely guide the horse as long as he feels like it. When the horse decides to leave again, then that is ok. Later you can also actively ask your horse to let you lead it, so then the initiative comes from you.
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When a horse follows you, without you holding it, and without you being able to prevent it walking away, it means that the horse enjoys spending time with you and in that moment also follows your lead. Then you can decide the speed and direction, and the horse will stay with you and adapt his speed and direction to you. By doing this exercise, you learn to show yourself as a confident leader.
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That’s why it is very smart to take your time before a training session and work towards Liberty Leading. When your horse lets himself be lead by you, he is really saying: “Yes, I want to be with you and yes, I want to follow your directions”. If that does not happen, it is better to keep working on it than to just start training. Of course, this requires a different way of thinking from what most people have been taught.
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Often the connection exercises Bonding Time and Greet and Go are very good exercises to do to get your horse in the right mood and spark the right connection to get him to spontaneously let you lead him while he’s free. But for some horses, it can also be necessary to Greet and Groom or to more actively work on Your Spot, My Spot or Easy Herding
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These last two exercises encourage your horse to become more alert and put more attention on you. Especially for horses that are distracted quickly or tend towards dominant behaviour, these two exercises seem to work really well if they are applied with the right intention, assertive but still friendly!
However, you can also actively ask the horse to come with you and follow your lead by standing next to the horse and then asking the horse to come with you when you leave.
Exercise Seven : Spontaneous Circling
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Spontaneous Circling is an exercise that sprouts from the preceding six exercises. Spontaneous Circling is a lot of fun to do, but not a precondition to start Groundwork.
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Spontaneous Circling requires a strong connection that you can obtain by doing the preceding exercises. So don’t think that if your horse does not spontaneously start circling around you it means that you don’t have a strong bond with your horse yet.
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This exercise does not really have an objective. If it happens, it is very cool and fun, and you feel very connected to the horse, especially if it happens spontaneously. However, you can also work towards it and invite the horse to circle around you with body language. That also gives a grand sense of connection, because to do it you really need to be connected and communicate well.
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If it happens spontaneously, you notice that the horse walks or trots around you (or maybe even gallops) while you step in a small circle or maybe just rotate around your axis. Your horse is active, looks at you, wants to move and still be around you. Maybe he is challenging you to play, head high, tail in the air, snorting through his nostrils… Or maybe your horse is actually very relaxed, shows a convex top-line, good-looking lateral bending, tail moving along with the rhythm of the trot. Whatever it is, however the horse moves, however long or short it lasts, let it happen and don’t try to “hold on to it”. Enjoy this connection!
You can start circling from Liberty Leading in the partner position or from Easy Herding. By using body language you invite the horse to go forward, think ahead, move, and stay with you at the same time, watch you and circle together.
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Your physical expression is very important while doing this!
Spontaneous Circling you do… TOGETHER!
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The word “together” is key here, moving together, and circling together. You, too, move in a very small or slightly larger circle. “Being together” in everything you do is very important and especially with this “exercise” (which is really more of a game than an exercise).
The technique of putting a lot of pressure on the horse when it leaves you until it returns, which is used in some training methods, has nothing to do with Liberty Training. It does have everything to do with fear and intimidation. If you want to build trust between you and your horse, fear, and intimidation is not the way to go.
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Putting pressure on your horse when it wants to go away from you can ensure that your horse becomes anxious and distrustful. Some horses eventually do what is expected, but suffer inside, or will start to behave more like a robot than a horse.
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So never, ever chase a horse that wants to go away from you!