I got Jackson out to work on side passing
and liberty. I was trying to get a video to
put up. He didn’t do nearly as well today as
he did yesterday, but oh well. We did get
some pretty good videos, I think. Today was
only the third time we worked on side
passing on the ground!
When I work on side passing, I reward all
the little tries. At the beginning, it was
easy for him to move his front end around,
but not so easy for him to move his
hindquarters or to side pass. So early on, I
rewarded when he moved his shoulders over.
Then, as he got pretty good at that, I would
reward when he stepped his hindquarters
over. Then I would reward him when he
stepped both parts over together.
If I was asking him to step over and he
didn’t, I would just stop and pet him and
then start over. I kept it very low energy
and didn’t get upset at all. In the video,
you will see that at one point he leaves to
go lie down. No big deal. To get the
benefits of working at liberty, you must
allow them to make some choices on their own
(Thanks, Romy!). To work with horses at
liberty, you must allow them to leave with
out any negative consequences and then
reward them when they return (the reward
doesn’t have to be food).
We just had fun messing around. His free
lunging wasn’t nearly as good as it was
yesterday, but still had some nice moments.
