When the old horse was led out past the barn, the younger one lifted his head in curiosity and sniffed the air. Something was not right, or perhaps it was. The old horse had been wobbling, fragile, his skin becoming paper thin and hanging on his bony frame like ghostly fabric. His heart was missing beats, and there was not much natural timing left in him. He was not able to eat much, and so therefore the younger horse would eat all he left. The younger horse had watched and felt old horses become distant and other-worldly before they passed on. He knew, the moment the old horse hit the ground, his heart suddenly stilled, that he was gone, and his pain was a thing of the recent past.
Recently liberty presentations have been a part of national competitions, such as the Extreme Mustang Makeover and just this past weekend, the American Horsewoman’s Challenge (AHC). These events require trainers to train a horse within a prescribed space of time.
Walking with your horse deepens the bond between human and the horse in a special way. Once you’ve brought your horse through the other practices*, liberty walking with your horse without a lead rope or any tack at all has a different energy to it. From there you can really assess your horse’s energy and how she changes and drops away from you, while at the same time you can feel her “glue.” The more you encourage walking side by side the better the horse gets at walking with you, and it is something you can enjoy together.
In the first day of a clinic, I like to be able to bring some horses along to this point. It’s great because people can really feel the connection then, and learn not to get hurt feelings if the horse drops off. Also when first starting out, we may only get a couple of steps of a walk together, but we can build on that until we have more of a commitment from the horse.
It is also the beginning of the dance. Some horses really like to dance with people and once they know this piece, it is fairly easy to transition to the dance. The next step we take is to send the horse off when she drifts off from us and draw her back. Although this might appear like natural horsemanship, the climate is very different because it’s being done in a small arena, not in a round pen. The horse has lots of room to escape your influence.
Many people think this is just what horses will do with you anyway, but they are referring to a horse following along behind you like a dog. Walking side by side with your horse, as though you are with a friend, is the way we do this, like taking a pleasant walk. This way the horse begins to feel you as another herd member, and will stop and sniff or nibble something, while you wait. This is what horses do together in the wild. They mirror each other’s motions, walk, sniff, drink, graze together. This practice teaches us to be patient, and at the same time to see what’s important to the horse. If the horse seems to be ignoring you, you can move away and find something interesting to engage your attention. The horse may come over to see what you’re doing.
If the horse doesn’t do this, not to worry. The attention to this practice will increase the connection between you over time. You can also move to another practice if the connection wavers, or introduce another interesting element.
What is the importance of this? You might ask. You can build in stops, gait changes, turns, circles, backing up, and head lifts to this walk with your horse. You can move up to a trot or canter together. You can begin to feel if the horse pushes at you or has no interest. You can get the distance you want between you and your horse, a comfortable, companionable distance. What brings them back when they leave? Is it the same or different each time? It teaches you to really track their energy and your own and to know them so much better. If your energy is off, the horse will not want to walk with you. How do you learn to pay attention to your own emotions and what you present?
Teaching what the “glue” feels like.
This walk is the precursor to being able to draw your horse to you, not the way they come in the round pen where they really don’t have many choices, but how they may come from across a corral or even a big field. In a bigger space horses know they have the freedom to just leave you. Their eyes become wide when they realize that you want them to be themselves, and also offer a huge space in which to do it. Then, the idea of connecting up becomes even more intriguing.
At the upcoming Weekend Liberty Clinic, we will have many opportunities to explore this ritual with our horses.
Services: Bodywork (Ortho-Bionomy for people, Equine Ortho-Bionomy): private sessions, tutorials, phone consultations, Horse & Rider sessions, distance healing communication and gift certificates
Liberty Coaching: clinics, mini-clinics, workshops, private and semi-private sessions, tutorials, consultations: by appointment: 505.501.2478 or emailing susansmith@orthohorse.info Scheduling now. Contact me for details.
October 7:Liberty Foundations Online classes – beginning and advanced – offered by Susan Smith (October 7-beginning), four calls, and Ruella Yates (October 7-advanced), Horses at Liberty Online and Spirit Horse Ranch Online. PayPal button available on my website homepage and on the Events page. Contact me for other payment arrangements.
December 13-14 – Horses at Liberty Weekend Clinic, DeLand, Florida – Bring your Horse into Deep Working Connection with Liberty Horsemanship. Instructor: Susan Smith. Contact Anne Daimler tdaimler@cfl.rr.com (386-822-4564) Susan at susansmith@orthohorse.info (505-983-2128 or cell 505-501-2478) 9:00-4:30 p.m.
Susan is a member of the Independent Liberty Trainers Network. libertytrainersnetwork.com/
Last year, my older gelding Khami, at 24, was diagnosed with Cushings. This is common for older horses these days. But there are many things that can be done to maintain the health of an older horse so that his organs and other body parts function well, in spite of the aging process.
I ask this question because it is a part of the whole perspective about experiencing Liberty Horsemanship with your horse — the getting-to-know-you part that’s so important.
The herd grazes on the high desert plains, snatching mouthfuls of grasses if there are any. When they are thirsty, they are generally thirsty as a group, because the water hole may be some distance from where they are grazing.
Horses and their honesty, which sometimes translates to their inability to be polite, is energetically one of the things that differentiates horses from people and also from dogs. With horses, mostly what you see is what you get. But it takes time to know what you are looking at.
Patches with his owner, Ariana, when we first brought him home, August, 2011.
One of the hardest things to do is to undo what we have known forever. What we have invested in as “the truth.” When you study with a particular trainer, you run the risk of becoming tunnel visioned, only seeing the way of that trainer, no one else, or no one else who might disagree with that trainer.
Since the world of horsemanship is somewhat dominated by “Natural Horsemanship” mentality, that is the acceptable way of doing things for many. It’s relatively easy to learn with all its steps – do this, then this, then this. For those people who are not intuitively driven, this is perfect. They can just follow a bunch of steps and come out the other end, hopefully intact.
The horsemen from whom this cookie cutter approach derived did not use a cookie cutter approach, and were
Cherokee learns that the bond with humans can be open.
intuitive horsemen. They brought horsemanship out of the rough-and-ready stage into considering the horse, which was a huge step for mankind. This is not to be belittled in any way. Some of what I learned in this camp I still use today, but I am viewing it through a different lens, so I am doing things differently.
Horses do not operate in a series of steps. Where some of these step-by-step techniques may work well in a very wooden way, they are also being imposed on a horse rather than allowing the horse to make decisions for herself within the process. We want the horse to think about it, then see how it fits. Just like we would not enjoy having people impose their will on us, neither does the horse.
Certainly this step-driven form of horsemanship is very popular and horses do get trained that way. But look at their eyes. Look at how they feel being run around in a round pen, how they are so thankful to be let into the center of the pen. There is no escape, this is not liberty training, this is the predator pushing the prey animal out to the perimeter of a cage until he gets the desired result. The recognition of your leadership can be achieved in a more humane way, with more connection between the two of you, and not this “man over beast” mentality. Although 90% of horses can be trained successfully that way (and we’re not sure how ‘successful’ that training is), there is another 10% who are looking for something more, a deeper connection. Actually, the more I experience true liberty work, the more I believe the percentage of horses seeking this from humans is greater than these percentages show.
Susan working with Willow
We have a greater population of unwanted horses than ever before, leading to more horses ending up in shelters and terrible circumstances. Those that find loving homes afterwards require a lot of special care, among these things are emotional support which the Liberty Foundations can give. There are also many more high performance horses who are being pushed beyond their mental capacity, due to high expectations of winning great sums of money and other ego-driven desires. These horses often have mental breakdowns and lose their interest in performing because it is fraught with expectation and cruelty in their minds. These are horses who will flourish with this gentle approach.
There are many other types of horses that will benefit, in fact, all horses will benefit greatly. I just listed some of the situations that create tension and stress for horses, where they cannot respond to the traditional types of training in many cases. Release to pressure is the last thing they need.
I think it’s also hard to undo this type of training because it comes with popular icons and popular sayings that people enjoy repeating. It also is difficult to undo because you have invested in the jacket, the saddle, the bridle, the t-shirt, whatever. You have bought the whole ball of wax: hook, line and sinker. The trouble with this is that every human makes mistakes. Every human who wants to find a better way does so their own way, but it isn’t necessarily your way. You might do better to explore who you are and what it is you want in a training perspective, what fits you, rather than taking the party line.
Gracie looking out into the rain, with Lisa
Personally I don’t want to study things that lock me into a particular perspective because my perspective needs to be free to grow and change with my knowledge. What I learned in teaching the last clinic is enormously helpful to my overall perspective: knowledge about what horses want, how to give them that, how people’s energy stands in their own way. The clinic is conducted by what the horse needs next, not by a series of steps. Of course, I had some knowledge before I went into it, but when I was there and feeling it all, new awareness filled me that I’m so grateful for.
We are not born knowing everything. When we cling to the knowledge we have invested in as if some one were trying to wrench life itself away from us, then we will have trouble learning new things. The new things I’m learning today are quite removed from what I learned three years ago, and I’m so grateful for that. I’m not doing things quite “the way I was taught.”
The best way to learn new things is to come to new studies with a “beginners’ mind.” Then everything is fresh and there is less desire to compare it to the old way. Perhaps you would have had a faster response from a horse if the horse was being trained in the round pen. You could go out and “break” ten colts a day, like in the old days. But is that necessary today? I don’t think that kind of economy exists in today’s world. Yet we continue to train horses this way.
There is always something good to be taken from all we learn. It’s not necessary to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but instead be a discerning consumer of information. What does your horse look like when being round penned? Do you care or do you just want him to do what you want? Do you feel your relationship with that horse has grown stronger, or has he just succumbed to your wishes? Acquiescence isn’t the beginning of a relationship.
A lot of what we think is success with horses revolves around our own egos. In contrast, what we are doing with liberty training is working with the horse right where she is. We are not expecting anything. We are not involving our egos. The shift to this kind of thinking, or being, can be very difficult for some people. People are goal oriented. Not going in with some agenda can be upsetting for some. But the lack of agenda can really pay off in the long run, when the horse has had an opportunity to be known and paid attention to in a real way.
This new way of thinking or being is a paradigm shift. We are overcoming a lifetime of horsemanship, and in so doing, picking out the parts that resonate and still work, and being ready to discard what doesn’t fit. We are also artfully blending the whole of our knowledge into a fabric that will ultimately serve the horse and allow a door to relationship, which is where all of our unity with horses begins.
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(copyright: Susan Smith, OrthoHorse)
Services: Bodywork (Ortho-Bionomy for people, Equine Ortho-Bionomy): private sessions, tutorials, phone consultations, distance healing communication and gift certificates
Liberty Coaching: clinics, mini-clinics, workshops, private and semi-private sessions, tutorials, consultations: by appointment: 505.501.2478 or emailing susansmith@orthohorse.infoSpring Lessons – semi-private, private and small group sessions. Scheduling now. Contact me for details.
If you want to host a clinic in your area, contact me to make arrangements. Prices will vary according to location and travel. susansmith@orthohorse.info 505-501-2478
Do you have questions or difficulties riding on the trail with your horse? What would you like to know to make your ride more enjoyable?
Trail riding is not just about “controlling” your horse, it is about establishing a “centaur relationship” that can carry you through all kinds of challenges.
Come learn from a seasoned endurance rider the following tips:
Trail etiquette
How to be safe
How to get your horse ready for a trail ride
What to bring with you
Training
When we ask a horse to listen to us when we’re on a trail with other horses, we’re asking her to engage with us instead of with the other horses and the distractions that can occur on the trail. In this way, trail riding exposes what is not working in the arena and it exposes where your relationship with your horse needs strengthening. Find out some similarities between liberty training and trail riding.
In this clinic we will talk first about preparation and then work on some ways to manage situations on the trail, while in the saddle. We will take a short trail ride.
Bring:
• Snacks
• Water for you and your horse
• Hay if you want it
• Helmet
• Tack (saddle & some sort of horse headgear required)
This clinic is full but there is a waiting list. Please get on it! Contact me for enrollment & liability forms and Payment information. PayPal & checks accepted.
Combining cumulative knowledge from over 18 years of endurance riding, Liberty Horsemanship and Ortho-Bionomy bodywork practice, Susan Smith brings a unique perspective to getting a horse and rider ready for the trail – in mind, body and spirit.
Liberty Foundation work is destined to deepen your trail experience.
Contact Susan Smith@ susansmith@orthohorse.info or 505-501-2478.
September 27-28 – Spirit Horse Ranch Two-Day Liberty Foundations Clinic, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Engaging the Hearts and Minds of Horses. Susan Smith and Ruella Yates, co-teaching. Contact me or Ruella at 405-771-4274 (ruella@libertyfoundations.com)
So many horses that come into my purview in the past year have been rescue horses, more than ever before. It is a sign of our times that so many horses are desperately in need of homes. Fortunately, the ones I have met recently have been at my clinics and are in my Equine Ortho-Bionomy practice, and have found loving homes.
