Canter Calmly & Liberty | Lily Blog

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Welcome to my post, Chilli Beans!

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Ah yay! Finally doing another Lily blog! It's been overdue haha. I've been doing a lot of lesson reviews and I just felt we needed some more Lily :joy: . So sit back and relax as we dive into today's blog :relieved: :clap: .

Hug the pony

I unfortunately couldn't my canter videos because they are very big :sob: . I've been struggling for long time but I just decided to post it now. We got one short video do that's something :joy: .

So I arrived down at the barn and tacked up the pony. She was chilled as usual so that was all fine. I decided to not lunge her today because she's usually fine and not fresh most of the time. I wanted to work on getting her relaxed in the trot and have an adjustable trot. So that I can get a more adjustable and collected canter. I warm her up and get her to leg yield off both my legs which she does easily. She was able to keep the trot at a pretty nice pace and I didn't need much leg. I then set to work on the canter.

The canter is...kinda all over the place. Lately we've been having yuck transitions and she's literally been trying to gallop away when we get into canter. She becomes hard and won't listen to my half halts. I half halt and release, but she'll stay at the same pace if not faster. You might just think, "oh just let her canter and she'll tire herself out". Yeah nah, that won't work. Lily gets very stressed out the faster she goes, even though she's the one going fast. As she goes faster and faster, she starts cross cantering/becoming disunited in the canter. She won't change front leads, but she'll do the back. That is something I definitely don't want so I can't just let her canter on.

When she gets to that stage the only way you can get her to stop is by doing a smaller circle of canter. I do put in some smaller circles when she gets fast, but she just goes fast again when we go back out. Her brain just gets fuzzy and all she wants to do is gallop away. She pulls herself with her front legs and doesn't work from behind, something I don't want as well. So let's talk through what I do to get her calm and collected.

I always start off getting her nice and calm in sitting trot. People sometimes just go, rising trot then sit and push right into canter. But when you sit, does your horse become tense? Do they lift their head and hollow through their back? Do they fast trot before doing into canter? It's likely they do. So I take it back to sitting trot and make sure they are going in a nice rhythm and aren't tense or nervous. Even if I'm posting, I go into sitting trot for a bit and don't ask for canter. I want the horse to continue to trot at the same speed and not be tense, even if I am now sitting. Try it out with your horse, if you move into sitting from posting, can you feel any differences? Don't just push them into canter when they are tense and not working nicely, otherwise you'll end up with a bad transition and a bad canter.

When the trot is nice, I can now ask for canter. With Lily, it's best to ask quietly for canter. If I chase her into it, she just gets stressed and will gallop away. I will sit back and slide my outside leg slightly back. I need to to not lean forward, in or out. I need to stay center and balanced for her to execute a good transition. When she slips into a canter, I sit back more. I really glue my butt to the saddle and put my weight back. I tighten my core as well. All these signs ask her to sit back and collect. I then and only then will use a bit of rein to do a half halt.

I find the using my seat works tons better than leaning forward and just using hands. It's crazy how much of a difference it makes. If I just use hands, Lily won't listen and she'll just go faster. I need to use a combination of things to let her to listen. While I'm cantering and thinking, "sit back, engage, sit back, engage".

Once, on another day, Lily was zooming in the canter again. I was trying to lean back but clearly wasn't trying hard enough. I became stronger with my hands and tried to get her to slow down. But I didn't give her any release and she eventually kicked out/gave a tiny buck out of frustration. At the time, I was frustrated too and blamed her for being ignorant and bucking. But when I had time to think, it was clear what went wrong. I used too much rein and just sat there doing the same thing. Why should I expect a different result if I keep doing the same thing? I didn't even put a circle in. Lily bucked because she had no release and was getting stressed. That day I learnt a lot. It was a bad day, the worst. I made a lot of mistakes, but I now know I need to do things differently. Add circles, use seat, lean back, only use a small amount of rein. Those things would make a big difference.

Now, back to today. The first canter we had was speedy so I had to put in a circle and then go back to trot. She was getting hot and stressy so I stayed in trot for awhile and did some sitting trot. The next canter I made a point of sitting back in the transition, and she slipped into it beautifully. Not hollowing, no fast trotting. I then leant back and put my weight back. I tightened my core and really asked her to slow down and collect. I added in a small rein squeeze just to top it off, but in no way was rein my main tool. What do you know, she collected and slowed down for me. I let her go a few more strides and then went back to trot. I gave her lots of pats. It's better to just do a few good strides, rather than to keep going and get lots of average ones.

It's hard work for her to sit back and use her hindquarters to power forward, rather than pull herself with her front legs. So I don't expect her to canter for ages and be collected. She doesn't have much bum muscle so that's okay. I cantered the other rein and she was nice and collected, but she did break into trot before I asked. That's okay, it's better than running off and getting stressy. It's hard for her so I understand. I cantered again and it was great. The transitions were great and so was the canter so I was very happy with her. I definitely know what to do know and she'll get there. I cool her off and then untacked, ending on a good note.

Liberty

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We ain't done just yet, I also did some liberty that day after the ride. It's something that is important to me because your relationship isn't just riding and work, it's freedom and fun time as well. I want Lily to enjoy my company, just like I enjoy hers. So what better way to do that than liberty?

Don't confuse liberty with trick training. Liberty is where the horse is free to leave the session at anytime. No ropes, no force, I don't even put a halter on at times. The horse has the opportunity to chose if they want to be with you or not. They aren't punished if they leave or disconnect from you. It's their choice and their's alone. I use liberty when working on the ground, but I'm not good enough to do it riding haha.

My dad be shook :joy: :joy:

Also this is the shorter video where she didn't take as long to go over the poles. The longer vids are too big to to my phone lol

So I set up some random raised poles and waited for Lily to decide to me if she wished. She was nibbling on hay for a bit so I just chilled and waited. Soon enough, she became curious and went to me. I gave her some scratches and she sniffed the poles, and then she started to bite them :joy: :joy: . I then walked off and she followed me so I decided to see if she'd go over the poles with me, and she did. She went over the first, but stopped at the second lol. I went over and encouraged her to follow me, but no force of course. She had the final say in the end. She took her time checking the pole out and I just waited for her.

That's the thing about liberty, you can't force them to do what you want, you just gotta let them choose. Sometimes they'll say nope, and ditch you. I've been ditched plenty of times lmao. But the incredible thing that happens is when they choose to be with you out of their own free will. When they chose to follow you because they want to. Suddenly, you have a partner that is willing. That does things not out of fear of being punished, but out of their free will. Now that is something special.

Eventually Lily decides to come over the pole and she stops beside me. I praise her and give her neck scratches (she loves those lmao). I walk around and she decides to me. A piece of hay was laying on the ground and she decided to go eat that :joy: . So she disconnected and I walked off and waited for her to again. Sure enough, she walked right over to me again. I mean, she has the choice to do whatever she likes, but she decides to follow me. When I stop, she stops and so forth.

Something I also do is get her to trot around me. Like she lunges around me but with no ropes or anything. To cue for it, I crouch slightly and move my hand slowly. That and that alone is enough to send her into a trot. No clicking, no big movements, just body language. When I turn in slightly, she knows that she can come into me and make the circle smaller. Such tiny tiny details, but she picks up on them crystal clear every time. I've learnt to play around a lot more with my body language at liberty. Horses are such sensitive creatures that you don't even need to make a sound or apply pressure to get them to do something.

Well, I think that's it for today. This kinda turned out longer than I thought :joy: :joy: . Hopefully you'll take some time to read through it all haha. Overall today was a great day spent with my heart horse. Lily is incredible and I can't describe how much I love her :heart: .

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Catch you later!

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