
Liberty: A journey in trust, respect, confidence, and communication
There is so much to be learned out of the saddle. This clinic shows you how to achieve a better connection and understanding of the horse’s natural movement, as well as how to identify underlying tension in your horse. Riders leave the sessions with new tools that they can use at home to school a green horse, relax a horse prior to riding, reduce lameness, improve performance, and (most importantly) transform your equine partnership for the better.
I feel we need to honor the spirit of the horse – their freedom, grace, beauty, generosity, and love and maintain this unbroken spirit at all costs.
Through liberty work, one can explore different leadership styles and skills. This setting allows the horse to choose to seek out and follow a strong leader or to leave if the horse feels abandoned and has to defend itself on its own. Horses are very aware of the different energies that arise from humans –leadership, courage, fear, tension, and domination without compassion. Horses positively respond and seek out Soul Leadership that embraces courage, compassion and connection and move away or disappear inside from fear, tension, and domination.
To be leaders for our horses we need to feel grounded and sure of ourselves. We need to be centered as generous beings that are there to support the horses so that the horses can trust and follow and choose to willingly be in our presence.
Given space to freely roam, the horse does not need to connect with us and is fine and complete without us. He is a horse being a horse. If we want to connect, we need to connect with him. To start this journey to connection, we need to understand how horses interact and connect with each other in natural settings.
Horses in natural settings live in herds and survive as prey animals through bonding with each other. Horses as herd animals work within the hierarchy of dominating or being dominated. In the natural herd there are leaders and followers. There is no middle ground. Each herd has a lead mare and a stallion who work together to keep the herd safe; lead mare in front – and stallion behind. All of the members of the herd willingly follow the leaders with confidence and trust that the leaders will keep them safe. The hierarchy is always changing by successful challenges by lesser stallions and mares to become the new leaders.
Horses as prey animals are very aware of their surroundings and respond quickly to the slightest changes in posture or energy in the lead mare or stallion. For horses to survive, they need to communicate with each other by being acutely in tune with different energies and to accurately remember dangerous situations. This awareness always keeps them in the present current moment and keeps them in connection with the leaders and with each other. By recalling past dangerous scenarios, they can use them to help them be safe in the present moment. These memory scenarios can witnessed in abused horses. Abused horses are constantly on guard to any situation that has brought them pain or fear in the past and openly display behavioral survival actions.
A horse will leave or fend for itself if it feels that there is a lack of leadership. For humans to be safe around these half-ton plus reactive animals, we need to become their leaders. When humans lead through courage, compassion, connection, awareness, and mindfulness, , the horse can develop trust and relax into the secondary role of follower. To successfully become a horse’s leader and to connect through trust, we need to be courageous, compassionate, connected, aware, and mindful leaders – leaders that lead from our souls.
The open herd setting allows the horse to choose to seek out and follow strong leaders or to defend himself if the horse feels abandoned or without leadership.
“At the deepest level, a leader is the symbolic soul of the group. His role is to fulfill the needs of others… The inspired leader’s power base comes not from other people but from her very being, and the path she walks is guided by her own soul. Its hallmarks are creativity, intelligence, organizing power, and love.”
Chopra, Deepak . The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness. Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 2010
Horses are very aware of the different energies that arise from humans –leadership, courage, fear, tension, and domination without compassion. Horses positively respond and seek out Soul Leadership that embraces courage, compassion and connection and move away or disappear inside from fear, tension, and domination.
Through liberty work, we are handed a mirror by our horses and we are given the chance to observe our energies and behaviors and to see how our horses respond.
Liberty work can be dangerous and can result in more separation between us and our horses if fear, anger or domination come into play.
Liberty work should be started with the help of a professional.
Groundwork
Introduction to Groundwork
Conditioning and Schooling the Equine Athlete
For an equine athlete to remain healthy, the horse needs to have its body and mind strengthened and conditioned over a significant period of time. To perform to its highest level of potential, the horse needs to be encouraged into a ‘healthy frame’ or ‘position’ that allows it to develop the necessary muscles for balance and throughness. When these muscles have been developed through a careful and complete conditioning program, the equine athlete will be able to enjoy moving freely without injury for many years. For the horse’s mind to remain healthy and relaxed, the rider needs to approach each new level and exercise with calm and assertive leadership remembering to always bring the horse back to relaxation before moving along the training scale.
When being ridden, the goal is for the horse to regain the body position and balance it has when it is without the rider, and to learn to move easily and without restraint under the rider’s weight. For the horse to be able to obtain this unrestrained way of moving, the horse needs to be in balance. When the horse is in balance, then he can relax and then be able to move without hindrance.
Groundwork and why is is so important
What is groundwork? Dictionary definitions of general groundwork include: essential or fundamental part; preliminary work as a foundation or basis; preparation made beforehand. Equine groundwork is defined as a series of structured exercises performed on the ground with a horse to establish a strong and wide foundation that is used to advance a horse’s education and ability. While keeping the handler in a safe environment, these exercises establish and maintain a healthy leading partnership between the horse and the handler. This training is an essential part of the horse’s conditioning and schooling program.
Karen’s adapted slow, progressive stretching and bending exercises are designed to encourage mental relaxation and increased physical suppleness. Lateral exercises, such as leg yield, encourage the horse to stretch and bend on both sides of his body. This increase in flexibility and suppleness leads to straightness in the horse. Groundwork allows the handler to refine his/her skills and aids. It also allows the horse to find their own balance and throughness without the weight of the rider or the rider’s lack of balance.
Groundwork exercises prepare the horse to perform movements in a healthy and efficient way. This work helps the horse carry the rider while moving unrestrained; therefore the horse stays sound over a long period of time. When the horse is physically and mentally comfortable during the exercises, a positive experience is created for the horse and rider, which leads the horse to welcome such work in the future.
Following classical principles, along with an educated awareness of biomechanically-oriented movements, these exercises develop healthy muscling and increased flexibility. This type of groundwork encourages the horse to balance himself equally on both sides, move straight in both directions while on a line or curve, and carry himself with “lightness and self-carriage”. The exercises can be used to help school a green or young horse, warm-up a mount prior to riding, and confirm lateral movements on the ground before attempting them on horseback.
Groundwork provides the rider a new perspective in seeing how their horse moves and feeling any tensions within the horse. This adds an important dimension to the rider’s understanding of the horse’s body and the suppling, strengthening, and conditioning the horse needs to perform well.
Overview
The handler
- The handler should become relaxed and focused before beginning the exercises
- The handler’s calm and assertive energy helps the horse to relax and stay present
- The handler needs to understand that these exercises require time.