Firstly as a human I have very many faults, the most annoying one is that I’m impatient, I like things to happen quickly and waiting isn’t really an option. This is incredibly unhelpful when you want to work with multiple horses at Liberty! Impatient & Liberty aren’t two words than belong in the same sentence. I knew I needed to find a way to slow myself down and give Comet a way to think more and spook less! (Comet is my most Spooky Connie) I was teaching Louis (the cat) to come with my dogs for walks and he would enjoy sitting on the ponies in the arena if I was riding at home.
One day I thought I know what I’m going to do I am going to take Louis for a ride in the wilderness and let the animals go at a pace they were ALL comfortable with, straight away that ruled out trotting (to bouncy), bareback also isn’t possible with Louis unless walking but getting on with a cat and rucksack isn’t practical….so out came the saddle for walk and canter rides! Before I had even set off I had already changed my set up and thought process as I wanted to make sure Louis had a nice time.
We set off for our first ride. I went about 10 mins and Louis started to shout, my first thought was oh no he hates it….I got off, he jumped out the rucksack and wandered off a few meters into the grass had a pee and then came running back! In the mean time Comet and Albert were just grazing, I hadn’t even thought about them being at Liberty I was so focused on not loosing the cat! We carried on our ride and after another 10 or 15mins he started to shout again, I was thinking this is no good, what’s wrong now?! I got down, he jumped out and was still shouting at me…food! I fed him, this time again the ponies just grazed, if you’ve got cats you’ll know they don’t do much in a hurry so I just sat down and chilled while he ate before we set off again! Next he wanted to walk for a bit, have a drink and finally after several more stops a ride that was supposed to take just 45mins ended up taking nearly two hours! BUT during that time Comet hadn’t spooked once, he and Albert were perfect at liberty and I had never felt more at one with my animals and the nature around me. I now regularly take Louis just for fun and because he loves coming, but the lesson I learnt by being aware off all the animals needs and not being to intense about the riding has made Comet into one of my best liberty horses ever.
If you ever see any of my posts with the cat or the tea pot (does same thing as taking the cat), you know I’m trying to make it more my nature to slow down, take my time, enjoy the scenery and let the horses have time to enjoy our shared experience so that they can be more confident at Liberty. Emx