Sylvia Zerbini Grand Liberty Tour

Luann and I watched Sylvia Zerbini give a symposium on working in liberty with horses. It was a two hour event, with the first hour being a liberty performance. During the second hour Sylvia demonstrated how she begins working with horses in liberty.

For me it was eye opening. One of the things that really struck me is that she says that horses remember images. She paints an image of her being a safe place for her horses. When they are being naughty, she chases them away from her. Only when they are good, they are allowed to come to her.

She scratches them on the back as a reward.

Sylvia strongly believes that working horses in liberty helps form a strong bond of trust that carries forward in other work. It makes sense to me.

I think this would be a good thing for me to practice with Trouble. I worked a little in liberty with Trouble today. When I went to catch him, he walked away from me. So I chased him and chased him. Eventually he came to me but then he ran away again. So I chased him some more until he settled. He wouldn't come to me but he went into the corner by the gate and waited for me.

When I took him out of the pasture he was a lot calmer than normal and he was happier. He walked beside me and with energy. It carried over into the ride.

I'll have to keep a log on this and see if there is long term improvement.

Profile of Trouble

I'd like to take profile pictures of Trouble from time-to-time to evaluate our progress in developing muscle. I've been working with him since July.

Trouble's neck and hindquarters are definitely more muscled. That's cool!

Working on Relaxation and Rhythm

It's been a while since I posted. We stepped down Trouble's training program, focusing on rhythm and relaxation. His steps got quicker and quicker. We thought that the issues was his feet were becoming sore from getting too short. But after Trouble got shoes, his stride didn't improve.

So I've spent the last two weeks just working on stretchy walk, trot, and canter. I don't think it's helping much. One trainer that hadn't seen Trouble in a while saw a big improvement, which is heartening. But I'm not feeling him tracking up. I haven't felt any improvement in the last two weeks.

Tricia will be back Monday. It will be interesting to see what she thinks.

It's About The Journey

It struck me last week that Trouble has taught me more about riding well in three months than Casanova did in a year. I had an amazing journey with Casanova, progressing to practicing third level movements from a horse that wouldn't canter without bucking. And in that time I learned the aids for half pass.

With Trouble I learned to ride with more balance (I was very crooked in my first clinic with Cindy) and quieter hands. It's these little subtle changes that make me a better rider. They make my aids more effective.

Excellent Lesson Yesterday

Yes! I had an excellent lesson yesterday. Tricia gave the word for me to start demanding more from Trouble. He needs to start using his back more when cantering and get more round. I know he probably isn't that happy about it but I'm over the moon. Trouble is getting stronger.

Our first schooling show together

Trouble and I attended our first schooling show this past weekend. We competed in Training Level Tests 1 and 2. Tricia and I both wanted Trouble's first show to be fun for him and a positive experience.

Trouble is a nice horse. He did his job and listened well. He has a good heart.

I have all four tests on video from this weekend. The one I'm posting here was Tricia's favorite but it wasn't our highest scoring test.



Trouble was tired by our fourth test and got distracted easily. I had to ride him pretty firm to keep him even a little focused on his job. We scored a 57.5% but it was good enough for 1st place! I think we beat out four other riders.

I would have been proud of him no matter what place we received. He is a smart, honest horse with a lot of potential.

Making Progress in Transitions

Trouble was really well behaved outside today. We spent a lot of time working on trot-canter-trot transitions. He is getting quite good at them, regaining his balance quickly and not throwing his head so high and inverting in the down transition.

He has made some amazing progress in just these few short weeks.