163. Training at Liberty...

Recently i've been starting to do more and more training with Spice at liberty and i'm really enjoying it. Today i lunged her in the round pen with no lunge line and she responded better than she does with the lunge line. I really like the freedom it gives us and feel as though i am really using my body to communicate with her. I'm going to look on you tube for some more inspirational exercises i can do with her and hopefully i'll be able to post a video of what we've been doing on here soon.

158. Training at Liberty...

After watching a video of Jean Francois Pignon - the master of training horses at liberty i decided to do some of my own liberty training with Spice and i am pleased to say she responded brilliantly. First of all, i played 'chase' where i ran away from her and she chased me then i played the same game but the other way round. Using 'whoa', 'walk', 'trot' 'canter' as voice commands. She completely knew what i wanted her to do which makes sense i guess since horses are excellent in understanding ones body language but i was blown away by just how effective i was able to be. I even got her to jump 100% at liberty - something i have never done before. I absolutely love playing these games with Spice and can't wait to do more.

I also rode her again today just for a couple of minutes around the arena and she was once again as good as gold. :)

Her hooves are looking the best they've looked in ages...although she does need them trimming as thanks to the dry weather she has had a couple of small cracks but nothing serious Her next trim is in 5 days time so hopefully my barefoot trimmer will confirm that all is good.

82. Clinton Anderson