I’m always looking for stuff to do with my horses to keep us from getting bored with the same old exercises and rides. I have zero experience with liberty work, but yesterday and today I got a wild hair and decided to introduce the idea to my gelding. The video is from today at the end of our second ever “session”. I just followed my instincts as far as “training” him to do what I wanted which was to quietly and politely jump the cavaletti when I asked him to. At first he had no interest in jumping it at all! Then he realized it was an easy ask and with some pressure/release and positive reinforcement he got it pretty quickly! I had no lead or line on him for any of our two short sessions. Anyone else play around with this stuff to keep their show horses interested and build a good relationship on the ground? I am not a follower of Parelli or anything–just messing around a bit.
Maybe this link will work better to video
What fun and what a kind, calm dude. I have a gelding that loves playing games like that, he starts out slow but kinda builds speed and looks over to see what I’m pointing at next. It was a nice way to spend time when I was pregnant and grouchy.
And WOW can I just say how beautiful your arena setting is?! Those trees. So serene and calm.
Also the link shows your name, not sure sure if you’re public with it
thanks it’s ok. I’m pretty transparent flaws and all 
You might really enjoy Kathy Sierra. I just came across her and it was all so compelling. Check out her Youtube channel and here’s a couple podcast interviews too. I just listened to and left me like WOW.
https://www.wehorse.com/en/equestrian-connection-podcast/kathy-sierra
I also found Mustang Maddy a few years ago and find clicker training valuable and fun. Just use hay pellets and they don’t lose their minds focusing on the food reward.
Always valuable to spend time not U/S or training for shows.
IMHO, if you can communicate with a horse from the ground, you’re more than halfway to doing the same mounted 
Sometimes you both need a Fun Thing. 
I’ve been working on improving my Driving mini’s Whoa at liberty.
Yesterday - first time harnessed since Fall - he rewarded me by proving he’d learned it. 
Thank you for these! I will check them out!!
I’ve seen a fair number of people doing this kind of groundwork, and I think it can have tremendous benefits for horses and humans both, especially if either one has any kind of limitation. Horses have profound skills of observation and we are often “training” them at liberty/on the ground without even realizing we are doing it.
I do have a question, though, for people more skilled in this area than I: why does it seem so often you see folks doing liberty/round penning work and the horse has its ears pinned? Or a horse that would never buck/rear under normal circumstances will offer the behavior during ground work? @Trekkie I am not referring at all to your work with your handsome boy! This is really more of a general curiosity I’ve always had.
I am not sure if it’s because they find the groundwork requires more “thought” than undersaddle work? I.e. having to puzzle out what the person wants rather than just responding with muscle memory. Would love to hear others chime in!
I see it a lot with clicker training too. It depends on the situation, but in my experience it could be one of many things: concentration, not fully wanting to do the thing but feeling like they have to to get the reward, wanting to do things but not particularly wanting to do THAT specific thing, frustration such as thinking they aren’t getting the right answer, wanting to do the thing but having a physical limitation (soundness or fitness/strength) that makes it more difficult, and just expressing themselves much like they do in the pasture. Probably others I’m not thinking of at the moment. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just have to take everything into consideration.
Example: my greenie pins his ears for every trot transition, even if it’s his idea. I’ve been doing more lunging to build up his strength and clicker training under saddle to encourage a forward trot and reward him for it, and the ear pinning has been happening less and less. In his case, it’s probably a mix of not particularly wanting to put the effort in to trot, and not being strong enough for an effortless transition.
