Groundwork & Liberty
Groundwork
The foundation of your relationship with your horse starts on the ground and our training program reflects that. Groundwork is often misunderstood and is both a misused and underused tool in the process of creating a terrific equine partner. Groundwork is something we use with all of our horses before we work with the saddle. Our goals in basic groundwork can be summed up into to a few main topics: personal space, forward and backwards motion, front feet control, hind feet control and relaxation. When these things come together, we have a respectful and agreeable horse who is safer to be around and whose transition to saddled work will be both safer, easier and smoother. All of those principles are essential to great riding and being with proper groundwork. Our 40′ round pen is the arena in which all of our groundwork lessons and clinics take place.
Liberty
While Groundwork focuses on movements and training while connected to the horse via lead line and is used to create a solid foundation for the following steps of training. Liberty Work takes that to a whole new level! Our Liberty Work training and Clinics focus on training where we are not connected to the horse in any way….No halter and no lead line. Liberty demonstrations almost look like magic, and they are often talked about as “horse whispering.” Evan and his horse Vegas have presented Liberty Obstacle demonstrations throughout South Florida and they are always a crowd favorite. This type of work will continue to strengthen your communication with your horse and allow you to work by interacting with your horse using subtle differences in your position and body language. The Liberty portion of our groundwork can only be started after your horse is comfortable with the basics of ground work on the longline. Liberty Work is a very fun and rewarding thing to learn with your horse, and it can also be done with horses who can not be ridden and with people who wish to interact with horses who can not or do not wish to ride.
