Liberty - horse aggressive at trot?

[S1969]

[QUOTE=Abbie.S;8851874]
It demonstrates that the horse A) is paying good enough attention that they notice the speed change, and B) is willing to trot along with you because as far as they are concerned, YOU are still leading THEM, regardless of the absence of a halter.

That’s the big idea. The horse realizes you are a safe place to be, and so they give you complete control of their feet. They recognize they could leave, but they CHOOSE not to. Moving in between gaits and varying speeds of movement is a test of the strength of that choice, as are changes of direction.

That’s a very useful idea that absolutely translates to under saddle work.:yes:[/QUOTE]

OK, if you say so. I have never had a trainer work with their horse this way.

It sounds like my dog obedience class. I often say that riding is easier because we have ways to communicate with our horse that we can’t use with our dogs in the obedience ring.

[Foxtrot_s]

Those NH guys that call it ‘join-up’ is exactly that, the horse follows, or you can put your hand out and he will follow your hand.

[FoxyFilly]

As I said, we are mostly doing “in-hand” work leading up to dressage training. The liberty work is mostly just one more way for me to build and test her obedience, bond with her, and have some fun. I have a very intelligent young horse who loves a challenge, and we’re looking at a whole lot of on-the-ground training time in our future before riding begins in earnest - I have to make sure neither of us gets bored! =) Besides, I am a fan of cross-training/learning in every way, there is nothing wrong with versatility! I am a dressage rider, but does that mean I will never jump or trail ride? Certainly not! Just because I don’t -need- to do something, does not mean we shouldn’t try to learn! It’s all mental stimulation, and I don’t see that this is a bad thing!

[sdlbredfan]

[QUOTE=BeeHoney;8850077]
What is your goal with this horse? If something you are trying to teach is obviously eliciting a bad response, and what you are trying to teach is just a sidebar to an intended career as a riding or performance horse, just stop. Your filly is treating you like a friend to be toyed with instead of respecting you as a leader. When you “trot off” she interprets that as an invitation to play. My advice, step back and reinforce the basics and avoid this particular exercise for a while. In general, if your young horse is starting to treat you like another horse you need to nip that in the bud with some firmness, and you also need to consider whether your young horse simply needs more time in the pasture with other horses to simply grow up a little bit. Sometimes a strict pasture mate can add a little humility back in to a young horse’s attitude.

I’m obviously not a NH person, and here’s why: in all my years of bringing along young horses, I’ve really never seen excessive groundwork (beyond the basics of a proper upbringing) translate to any kind of an advantage under saddle. If you bring a horse up properly–teach it to comfortably accept human touch/grooming, pick up it’s feet, stand tied, lead respectfully, etc. and it has a basic trust and confidence in human beings, that is a GREAT place to start under saddle training. If the horse knows a few voice commands like “whoa” or a cluck, that’s a bonus. “Over handled” young horses often gravitate towards being rude or pushy because very few people applying the handling have the experience and natural authority to keep the young horse from starting to think of and treat humans like other horses.

One last comment, I can’t understand why anyone would ever train a young horse to pivot away from them as some kind of a “skill.” This is completely at odds with teaching a young horse to stand still while being mounted, stand still while being clipped, etc. Standing still and tolerating a distraction or annoyance is a very important skill. Pivoting away from people who are trying to approach/do something = not useful.[/QUOTE]

I agreel