Learn the Basics of Liberty Work

I believe anyone can do liberty with their horse. In fact, I don’t just believe it, I KNOW you can! Like a lot of you, I’d seen trainers perform incredible liberty routines. When I looked at my horse and the relationship I had with him, the thought that I could do liberty work without a rope was beyond imagining. He didn’t listen. In fact, at times, I could barely ride him let alone work with him freely! I loved watching it, but liberty work, I believed, was magic performed by magicians. When I rescued Spanky, my thinking changed. He was naughty, overweight, and top-of-the-food-chain aggressive. Getting him to do anything was like moving a couch. He needed a job. From the first time I’d seen a liberty performance, it had lodged in my mind as something I’d like to try. While I didn’t consciously believe I could do it, my subconscious still thought, “Well, maybe one day.” Over the years I’d been working on how to have a better relationship with my horse — getting instruction when I’d get stuck and doing a lot of learning and practicing on my own. With spoiled Spanky on my hands, I thought, well… he’s small, why not give liberty a try with him! Did it go well immediately? Nope. It took me an entire

winter just to teach him how to canter. I made mistake after mistake. Each year he got better and I got better too. We got better together. I learned the first lesson of liberty work: patience. So here’s why I know you can do liberty with your horse ... Because I know from experience you don’t need magic and you don’t need special talent. Here’s what you do need. Patience. You need patience with yourself and with your horse. You also need persistence, hard work, willingness to fail and imagination. Yes, imagination. I know, I know. I can hear you now. “Right, Francesca, we’ve heard it all before. ‘You can do anything if you just put your mind to it!’ I have been putting my mind to it and my horse isn’t any closer to bowing on command.” Just hold on. You might not need magic, but everyone needs help to know where to start. I have some tips to get you the right path. First, it’s important to understand that everyone and every horse can do liberty but, as with any sport, don’t expect every horse to be a top-level liberty horse. It’s not fair to expect your 18 hand draft horse to do liberty with the nimbleness of an Arabian. Next, you must be able to disengage your horse’s

hip and move their shoulders. If you’re not sure how to do that, find a great groundwork clinician. (I’m taking clinic bookings for 2020 or can give you trainer recommendations if I’m not coming to your area.) Once you have hip and shoulder control, here are a few liberty exercises to start with. Have your horse catch you. Start in a small area and instead of standing at the gate or using treats, walk into the enclosure and go to the other side. Does your horse stand at the gate or does he follow you? Is he curious? Does he come to the other side? Test it out. If your horse is stalled, see if you can disengage his hip and put his halter on facing away from the door. It’s the number one thing I hear: “I don’t need liberty. My horse comes to the gate.” Change up the routine and see what happens. You leave your horse, your horse doesn’t leave you. When you turn your horse out, don’t just take the halter off and slap her on the behind or let her spin and run off. Instead, walk her in and disengage the hip a couple of times. Then pet her, take the halter off, and step away. You be the one to walk away. If you have a horse that starts to pull away when you go to remove the halter, turn him in a couple of circles. Ask him to give at the poll. Then remove the halter and step away. Work on getting him out of the habit of trying to leave you. Ground tying. Work on ground tying after you’ve ridden and your horse is tired. Grab a piece of wood or a cone – something that might look like an anchor to the horse. Drop the lead rope and step away. If he walks toward you, back him up and put him back on his “anchor.”

Drop the lead rope again and repeat. Eventually you’ll get a good ground tie. Just because he’s loose doesn’t mean he has to wander around. Grooming and tacking up time is another great opportunity to practice ground tying. Make sure your surroundings are safe and then instead of using cross ties, hold right at the end of the lead rope and see if you can work around your horse without him moving. A lot of folks tell me, “I just don’t have time to work on groundwork and liberty.” You catch, groom, tack up, and put your horse away every time you ride, right? You’re working on the fundamentals of liberty every time you handle your horse. It’s about developing a better relationship with your horse and you do that in every interaction with them. Start in a small area. My preference is a 40- to 60-foot square pen (as opposed to a round pen). When your horse doesn’t yet understand the basics, a large area just encourages them to run off. What you’re teaching them is they get a ton of release from running off and their release if very far away from you. If you only have access to a large arena, you could put some barriers up like a rope fence with stakes. Or just put a longer lead rope on your horse. Wait to work on liberty until after you’ve ridden. Until you both have the basics, trying to do liberty with an extremely fresh horse can be frustrating to you and your horse. What about treats? Treats do have a place in liberty training but you must use them strategically. I use treats as a reward for doing what I’ve asked, not as a means for getting a

horse to do it. Take a nervous horse, for example. Say you’ve gotten that horse to step up onto a bridge. Giving them a treat after they’re up on the bridge can be very effective in slowing their brain down in the moment and reinforcing the task. Another example is when I’m teaching the sit up. When the horse is half up, I’ll use a treat to get their curiosity in staying in that position. Right when they think they want to jump up, oh, there’s an alfalfa cube. Treats can be a tricky topic. The key is in

understanding you’re not using them to coerce a horse into doing something – it’s only after they’ve done the task. I prefer not to use them at all with a pushy horse at first but I am a believer that with certain horses in certain situation, treats can be a benefit. If I could leave you with one idea, it’d be this: it’s great to suck at something. That phrase is actually the title of one of my favorite books. What it means is that at least you’re trying something new! You could be at home, really killing it at sitting on the couch ... but you’re not! Don’t expect it to come easy. You have to work for it, especially when you first start. Liberty is hard. It’s a journey. And you’ll probably suck at it at first. I did. In my first public performance with Spanky, he ran off and gave me the hoof as he sailed by at top speed! Too often, talent is confused with hard work. What will make you successful with liberty is being open

and willing and humble. So get out there and take that mental lead rope off! And when it doesn’t go as planned — remember: It’s better to try and fail than sit on the couch and succeed. Contact Francesca Carson on Facebook or Francesca@dallyandspanky.com. She is currently booking for events and clinics 2020. Don’t forget to purchase The Great Adventures of Dally and Spanky story book and receive free stickers! Dally and Spanky also have a movie you don’t want to miss. Check them out on instagram at @ dallyandspanky.

I believe anyone can do liberty with their horse. In fact, I don’t just believe it, I KNOW you can!

Like a lot of you, I’d seen trainers perform incredible liberty routines. When I looked at my horse and the relationship I had with him, the thought that I could do liberty work without a rope was beyond imagining. He didn’t listen. In fact, at times, I could barely ride him let alone work with him freely!

I loved watching it, but liberty work, I believed, was magic performed by magicians.

When I rescued Spanky, my thinking changed. He was naughty, overweight, and top-of-the-food-chain aggressive. Getting him to do anything was like moving a couch. He needed a job.

From the first time I’d seen a liberty performance, it had lodged in my mind as something I’d like to try. While I didn’t consciously believe I could do it, my subconscious still thought, “Well, maybe one day.”

Over the years I’d been working on how to have a better relationship with my horse — getting instruction when I’d get stuck and doing a lot of learning and practicing on my own. With spoiled Spanky on my hands, I thought, well… he’s small, why not give liberty a try with him!

Did it go well immediately? Nope. It took me an entire

winter just to teach him how to canter. I made mistake after mistake. Each year he got better and I got better too. We got better together. I learned the first lesson of liberty work: patience.

So here’s why I know you can do liberty with your horse ... Because I know from experience you don’t need magic and you don’t need special talent.

Here’s what you do need. Patience. You need patience with yourself and with your horse. You also need persistence, hard work, willingness to fail and imagination. Yes, imagination.

I know, I know. I can hear you now. “Right, Francesca, we’ve heard it all before. ‘You can do anything if you just put your mind to it!’ I have been putting my mind to it and my horse isn’t any closer to bowing on command.”

Just hold on. You might not need magic, but everyone needs help to know where to start. I have some tips to get you the right path.

First, it’s important to understand that everyone and every horse can do liberty but, as with any sport, don’t expect every horse to be a top-level liberty horse. It’s not fair to expect your 18 hand draft horse to do liberty with the nimbleness of an Arabian.

Next, you must be able to disengage your horse’s

hip and move their shoulders. If you’re not sure how to do that, find a great groundwork clinician. (I’m taking clinic bookings for 2020 or can give you trainer recommendations if I’m not coming to your area.)

Once you have hip and shoulder control, here are a few liberty exercises to start with.

Have your horse catch you.

Start in a small area and instead of standing at the gate or using treats, walk into the enclosure and go to the other side. Does your horse stand at the gate or does he follow you? Is he curious? Does he come to the other side? Test it out. If your horse is stalled, see if you can disengage his hip and put his halter on facing away from the door. It’s the number one thing I hear: “I don’t need liberty. My horse comes to the gate.” Change up the routine and see what happens.

You leave your horse, your horse doesn’t leave you.

When you turn your horse out, don’t just take the halter off and slap her on the behind or let her spin and run off. Instead, walk her in and disengage the hip a couple of times. Then pet her, take the halter off, and step away. You be the one to walk away. If you have a horse that starts to pull away when you go to remove the halter, turn him in a couple of circles. Ask him to give at the poll. Then remove the halter and step away. Work on getting him out of the habit of trying to leave you.

Ground tying.

Work on ground tying after you’ve ridden and your horse is tired. Grab a piece of wood or a cone – something that might look like an anchor to the horse. Drop the lead rope and step away. If he walks toward you, back him up and put him back on his “anchor.”

Drop the lead rope again and repeat. Eventually you’ll get a good ground tie. Just because he’s loose doesn’t mean he has to wander around.

Grooming and tacking up time is another great opportunity to practice ground tying. Make sure your surroundings are safe and then instead of using cross ties, hold right at the end of the lead rope and see if you can work around your horse without him moving.

A lot of folks tell me, “I just don’t have time to work on groundwork and liberty.” You catch, groom, tack up, and put your horse away every time you ride, right? You’re working on the fundamentals of liberty every time you handle your horse. It’s about developing a better relationship with your horse and you do that in every interaction with them.

Start in a small area.

My preference is a 40- to 60-foot square pen (as opposed to a round pen). When your horse doesn’t yet understand the basics, a large area just encourages them to run off. What you’re teaching them is they get a ton of release from running off and their release if very far away from you. If you only have access to a large arena, you could put some barriers up like a rope fence with stakes. Or just put a longer lead rope on your horse.

Wait to work on liberty until after you’ve ridden.

Until you both have the basics, trying to do liberty with an extremely fresh horse can be frustrating to you and your horse.

What about treats?

Treats do have a place in liberty training but you must use them strategically. I use treats as a reward for doing what I’ve asked, not as a means for getting a

horse to do it.

Take a nervous horse, for example. Say you’ve gotten that horse to step up onto a bridge. Giving them a treat after they’re up on the bridge can be very effective in slowing their brain down in the moment and reinforcing the task.

Another example is when I’m teaching the sit up. When the horse is half up, I’ll use a treat to get their curiosity in staying in that position. Right when they think they want to jump up, oh, there’s an alfalfa cube.

Treats can be a tricky topic. The key is in understanding you’re not using them to coerce a horse into doing something – it’s only after they’ve done the task. I prefer not to use them at all with a pushy horse at first but I am a believer that with certain horses in certain situation, treats can be a benefit.

If I could leave you with one idea, it’d be this: it’s great to suck at something. That phrase is actually the title of one of my favorite books. What it means is that at least you’re trying something new! You could be at home, really killing it at sitting on the couch ... but you’re not! Don’t expect it to come easy. You have to work for it, especially when you first start.

Liberty is hard. It’s a journey. And you’ll probably suck at it at first. I did. In my first public performance with Spanky, he ran off and gave me the hoof as he sailed by at top speed!

Too often, talent is confused with hard work. What will make you successful with liberty is being open

and willing and humble. So get out there and take that mental lead rope off! And when it doesn’t go as planned — remember: It’s better to try and fail than sit on the couch and succeed.

Contact Francesca Carson on Facebook or Francesca@dallyandspanky.com.

She is currently booking for events and clinics 2020. Don’t forget to purchase The Great Adventures of Dally and Spanky story book and receive free stickers! Dally and Spanky also have a movie you don’t want to miss. Check them out on instagram at @ dallyandspanky.