Basic Skills 3.pdf

Basic Skills 3

Quick Reference Guide

Ground skills

Liberty

Skill #1 Yield your horse’s hindquarters, forequarters and cause him to back

up ...................................................................................................................... 2

Yield hindquarters at least 180 degrees ............................................................. 2

Yield forequarters 360 degrees .......................................................................... 4

Cause your horse to backup ............................................................................... 5

Skill #2 Ask your horse to follow you ................................................................. 6

Skill #3 Ask your horse to follow a feel by asking him to trot a figure 8 from the

muzzle ............................................................................................................... 8

Online

Skill #4 Ask your horse to follow your suggestion, cause him to move through a

90 degree maze .................................................................................................. 9

Skill #5 Cause your horse to follow a feel over a 2 foot jump .......................... 10

Cause your horse to follow a suggestion over a 2 foot jump ............................ 11

Riding (using two reins)

Skill #6 Cause your horse to back up 5 metres ................................................ 11

Skill #7 Demonstrate transitions up and down at the walk, trot and canter ..... 12

Skill #8 Ask your horse to face up to a frightening stimulus ............................. 14

Skill #9 Cause your horse to go sideways over a pole ..................................... 15

Skill #10 Demonstrate an emergency dismount from the canter ...................... 16

Basic skills three skill sheet ............................................................................. 17

Ground skills

Liberty

Skill #1 Yield your horse’s hindquarters, forequarters

and cause him to back up

Yield hindquarters at least 180 degrees

We will prepare our horse for liberty

by making sure we can first perform

these skills online, with enough

slack in the rope so that we are

sure our horse is not being

affected by it unintentionally.

We will start by yielding our

horse’s hindquarters. Our

goal here is to have our horse

yield his hindquarters away

from us while keeping the

front foot nearest to us in the

same area that it was before he

started moving his hindquarters.

This is the goal but often the horse

will move his front end until he

understands what it is we want

him to do.

There are some things we need to know before we start that will influence how

the horse responds. As we already know when we bring up our energy and

approach our horse the part on which we focus will move away from us (Drive)

on the other hand if we want a part of the horse not to move away from us we

need to increase the distance between us and that part so as to encourage that

part to move towards us (Draw). Now it is very important to understand this if

we are going to be successful when working horses at liberty (without a line).

This means that we need to be aware of what our own feet are doing at all times,

Are they moving away from the forequarters while moving towards the

hindquarters? (The video shows this in detail.)

Let us start on the horse’s left side facing the rear, level with his withers, with

the rope in our left hand with enough slack in it not to affect the horse. We take

a step to our right so as to cause our horse to turn his head towards us slightly,

then bring up our energy as we walk towards the horse’s hip with our stick

moving up and down in our right hand to cause his hindquarters to move away

from us. We will reward any changes he makes that are moving towards our

goal by stopping and allowing him to think (the goal was to keep the front end

in place while moving the hindquarters at least 180 degrees). The video shows

how to adjust our position to help the horse that feels the need to move his front

end around and has trouble working out how to stand still in front.

Once we can do this we will repeat the process on the other side.

Yield forequarters 360 degrees

The goal is to yield the horse’s forequarters

360 degrees in one flowing manœuver,

whilst his hindquarters

stay in an area no larger than a 1-

metre-diameter circle.

This is the same manœuvre that

we accomplished in Basic

Skills 1 but now we are going

to do it at liberty after

practising with the lead rope on

and slack in it, as before. Let us

start on the horse’s left side

facing his neck with our stick held

in both hands, the handle low enough

to touch our horses shoulder if needed

and the stick held at such an angle that the

other end could touch his nose if required. We will bring up some energy then

use the stick in a rhythmical motion to tip the horse’s nose away from us a little.

If he does not move his feet and follow his nose we would direct our energy

more on his shoulder with the handle of our stick, tapping him with it if

necessary, until he moves, then relax and rub him to a stop with the stick so that

he learns not to be afraid of it. Repeat this until he can be asked to do more

steps each time before you stop.

Build this up to at least 360 degrees without stopping and without him needing

to move his hindquarters out of the imaginary 1metre circle. Repeat this

process on the other side.

Once we have our horse at the point where he can confidently yield his

hindquarters and forequarters with slack in the rope try to repeat these two

manœuvers with the lead rope draped over his back so that you can reach it if

needed. If everything is working for you then you can try it without the halter

and lead but make sure you are in a round yard or other small area that will not

be a problem if he decides to leave.

Cause your horse to backup

The goal here is to cause

your horse to back up in a

straight line away from your

energy without the halter

and lead.

First we will make

sure that this works

the way we have

already learned in

Basic Skills 1 with

the halter and lead on.

If everything is fine

we will try without the

halter. Start at about 12

feet away from the horse and

directly in front of him. Lift

your energy and your arms at the

same time and then use the same rhythmical movement that you have already

learned to use to ask him to take a step backwards. We will try very hard not to

ask too fast and cause him to want to turn his head away and leave us. (If this

happens we would go back on line and sort it out.) Reward him for each try as

before by stopping and letting your energy level drop. Build this up just like

you did on line until you can back up confidently for at least 12 feet.

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