He was eager, to be sure, but well behaved... almost. In his excitement at the start of the walk he tried to nip my arm, which earned him an immediate response from me- I was carrying my stock whip for just such an occasion. I am happy to say that is the only time I had to use it in that capacity. I had another use for it, which I will get to in a moment.
On the way back, I got to thinking about all the liberty videos and live demos that I have seen, and how they use the whip to indicate direction and elements. I thought it would be a great way to develop partnership and engage his mind and body while I wait for him to get old enough to ride. So as we walked, I held the whip forward and down, when we stopped I brought it across in front of him held level, and to back up I moved it back so it touched his chest. He picked up on it right away, and we practiced these 3 things several times on our walk back to the barn.
Yesterday I worked him again on those principles with some modifications. For stop, I held the whip vertical, and I introduced sidepass by laying it along his side about where the calf of the leg would be. It really helped that Shayla had introduced that to him last summer. At the end of the session which was only about 10 minutes as a snow flurry was moving in, he was moving freely in the indicated direction and for the sidepass I could hold the whip about 6 inches off his side, not touching, and he sidepassed beautifully. I was so happy with his willingness and progress! To take it to the next level, I will do this without using the halter. I'll be sure to get video of that. I'm going to have to look up some liberty training videos to get more ideas.
Drifter, you are a fun horse!
2 comments:
That’s awesome. He’s a stud colt in spring, so that’s saying something! Good for him! The At Liberty work appears to be his thing. You guys have done so much early work—it’s paying off.
Love your hat Drifter, you are a good boy! :)
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