One of the issues for many horse owners/lovers is how to spend enough time with their horses. When I hear myself complaining or feeling guilty, I think it’s time to make a pie chart.

The mare saw the setup – one horse was going to move another horse into another horse and on it would go, a domino effect of movement, right into the little girl standing there watching.
The good boy horse is one who continually does what is asked. For some trainers and owners, this is exactly what they want, a horse that does not offer any challenges. For some good boy or girl horses, life is good enough that there is no need to question too much. For others, they have had their wishes trained out of them.
One thing that new liberty students may find troubling is their horse moving in and out of connection. In the beginning, when the student first gets a connection on the ground, real movement together, it’s very exciting. It feels wonderful. Then the horse decides to break connection and go visit with someone else or another horse. The student looks over at me, crestfallen, as if to say, what do I do now?
Horses generally love an open gate. An open gate even if it’s one they’ve been through before, signifies something different, something to be curious about. Going places. Perhaps the grass tastes different there, or there will be an adventure.
The Liberty Foundations are a forever thing with horses. Just because a horse has been taught them by other horses, for example, it doesn’t mean he or she stops doing them.
Ultimately we all want horses to do something specific with us. In order for that to come about, the horse will do the something best if first brought into relationship.
Continue reading The difference between “doing” and “being” with horses
When there is trouble in the herd – one horse picking on another, or a horse or horses continually picked on by the others, the Liberty Foundations can help.
The horse’s self-image is something that we don’t really talk about because it’s hard to envision the horse looking at himself. I would venture to say the horse sees from the inside out because he feels himself in his skin. His nature is like an orb shining from the inside out from his heart through his skin.
My Valentine’s Day message is: it’s not all “hearts and roses” with horses!
Students may embrace Liberty Foundations and find their horse miraculously comes into relationship. Horse owners are in heaven thinking that they’ve achieved this blissful state with their horse so easily.