Everyday handling

I think that Freework is a very valuable way to make and build a better relationship with our horses, because it ties together and teaches people how to apply those ever important tenets of intent, communication, timing, empathy and feel. We all know how important it is to apply these things to our “work sessions”, but we spend a great deal of time around our horses that we don’t usually think of as important. During this time we often fail our horses and behave in ways that are at odds with how we want to be as owners and trainers. It is so important to maintain and build on our relationships in our everyday handling, I would even go so far as to say that everyday handling is more important than any single exercise we will do with our horse. Unless we maintain the good things we have started in our Freework, groundwork, or ridden work, those good sessions are just like one good date in an otherwise unfulfilling marriage for our horses.

Allowing a horse in your space

There is whole bunch of information out there about having horses outside your space, saying that they should be outside in order to indicate that they respect you, are willing to cooperate, and for safety. I have horses because I want to enjoy their company and I want them to enjoy mine. I want to be around them, to ride them, to cuddle them, to show them, to take them places, to have adventures, to move stock, to do jobs…and all the other fun things we do with horses. It’s important to me to make it so that the horses are nice enough to be around, so that I feel completely comfortable having them in my personal space. I need to know that my horses are going to respect me, to do the utmost not to hurt me, to be calm, and to think clearly so that we are safe and so that they can be in my personal space and I can enjoy their company properly. I am not saying that this means you want your horse to be “all over you” all the time. You do first need to build a relationship that is safe. That is where conscious, purposeful exercises and training are essential. To learn more about exercises you can try out, examples of Freework sessions, and other parts of my work check out my site 

How to handle hindfeet

If you are training a horse to pick up their feet and pressure and release isn’t working, or is causing a little drama as it sometimes can, try this. It is easy to get caught in the cycle of only handling the back feet when you’re trying to ‘fix’ the problem. 
Something I have found really helpful is to have the horse relax by doing lots of rubbing and hanging out, and then try to create the situation where he cocks his foot on his own. That gives you a good opportunity to handle it in a position where you don’t have to ‘ask’ for him to take the weight off of it. While it is cocked, you can rub the leg, handle the hoof, and eventually move it around a little bit. After doing this the horse is usually way more accepting of other hoof handling as well.

How to bridle a horse

In this video I explain how I bridle my horses and get them ready to work with the kids I teach. After I bridled my pony Zippie she and her mates had a funny little surprise for me. But see yourselves.