After my last horse post some people didn’t know I’m a full on centaur and some people were baffled

After my last horse post some people didn’t know I’m a full on centaur and some people were baffled- and rightly so-about how I engage with my horse. I used to talk about “Liberty training” on IG lives and in older videos but I never want to be redundant or boring, so why not do a refresh.

Liberty is a philosophy of horsemanship where we view the horse as an equal, not something to be dominated or “broken.” When we “break” a horse, we break its spirit. Can you ride horses humanely? Sure. I won’t get into all that. It’s all case by case, but most horses are not able to have pride or dignity, and Liberty is all about unlocking the magic and medicine of horses, allowing them to be wild again, to express themselves and behave as they would in a HERd.

My horse was an abused show horse, so it’s taken me years to “un-break” him and to become the person who can drop my ego and expect nothing of him. Our relationship is built on hard won trust…there were many months I just sat with him in his stall, proving that I wasn’t going to force him to do anything he didn’t want to do. Took me forever to realize that when he was obsessing over if I had a treat, I felt used, but then when we went out to the arena, I expected him to nuzzle me and want to ride and I realized I was doing the same thing. We do no treats at all to keep the relationship clear and pure. Great lesson in how often we want love so badly that we settle for being used.

As you can maybe see, even when running or being energetic, he doesn’t come within a foot of me unless invited – this took time of consistently setting clear boundaries for both of our safety,  which took a while because I couldn’t get it through my thick skull that you can’t just hope people or horses guess the right boundary, are guilted into doing the right thing, or take a hint, you have to fairly and consistently enforce it – horses get annoyed if you are inconsistent and sloppy. Horses want you to be regal, not a pushover, and they test you constantly to see if you have self respect and if they are safe with you. Self -respect and power are never loud or forceful, contrary to the nonsense we see online all day.

Maybe I should just explain this video. First thing I do in the arena is walk around the perimeter to check for threats. In this philosophy of horsemanship you are always auditioning to be the ‘”lead mare” or the leader of the HERd, so before riding or connecting or anything, it’s your job to earn the horses trust by letting them know you are vigilant. Also great to show them a water source. Leadership is never forcing a horse to follow you, it’s to behave in a manner worth following. Horses are prey animals. If you bring fear around them (insecurity, being results oriented, being afraid of them, needing a selfie real bad), they assume there’s a literal threat; like a mountain lion or something, and now they need to be on high alert. It’s hard to explain, but just assume they can read your mind and their behavior will make perfect sense.

Once I scan my internal monologue for threats and am able to get present (not always easy or even possible and if I can’t ,we do a walk, a bath, or something else bc my energy is just too dangerous or annoying to my horse), then I can check in with him and see what he wants to do. After a billion scratches on his back (or any part of the body he can’t reach himself), I’ll walk around, run, stretch, be silly – but I do it for me, showing him there are no rules or expectations for his behavior. I’m inviting him to do whatever he wants -- but leading by example, not with pressure -- to be himself, and am completely removing any obligation to even engage with me. Whatever we chase, we chase away, I’m just showing him that it’s possible to play and send energy out and express yourself with no expectations or strings attached. Much more to say but there’s a limit on words I just learned!

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