Let It Be

Sonny and I had a fabulous liberty session today! I didn't have a whole lot of time (what's new?) so I just wanted it to be short, sweet, and successful. I haven't played at liberty very much this summer, if even at all. Well, besides walking him to his paddock and back, but that's about the extent of it!

We went in the big outdoor, which probably wasn't the best place to go, but it was so nice out today I definitely didn't want to be inside. For once I didn't have any plans in my head about what I wanted to do, I just kind of flew by the seat of my pants. I practiced some sideways over me, realizing that the one way is broken. Did some driving game to fix it and it turned out great! Then I played with the difference in going sideways towards me and backwards towards me at a distance. He caught on really quickly!

Everything was going great so I tried circling game. This game has always been hard for us at liberty so I usually avoid it. I get frustrated and he knows it and ends up trotting around the arena and pretending I don't exist. That frustrates me even more and I end up giving up. So today I set myself up for success by standing about 10 feet away from the long side of the fence, so a portion of my circle would be along the rail. I sent him off at the walk and it was perfect! He was doing these perfect circles, maintaing gait, direction, and flexing towards me! Then, when I took a single step back, he came in to me! I was blown away! I played with some changes of direction, a bit of trot, and he was awesome! I was so impressed!

Walking a small circle :). 

So my lesson of the day: Let it be! Of course I should always aim to get my good better and my better, best, but there is no rush. You have to have all of the pieces of the puzzle to see the big picture. There is no point in trying to force things, but rather to figure out what is broken and go from there. It reminds me of back when I started Parelli and was flying through things because Sonny was so smart. Before I knew it we could do level 3 tasks, but did we have a level 3 relationship? Of course not! I was forcing him to do things, there wasn't any communication, I was just demanding things of him like the rest of the un-natural horse world does. I didn't find a level 3 relationship wasn't until I slowed down focused on what was important: the relationship not the tasks. So today was a friendly reminder to just take it slow, go with the flow, and focus on what really matters! :)

Trotting on a circle with a great expression!