Intensive LIBERTY RIDDEN Foundations Course

Day 1: See which horses chooses you. Learn safety around horses, catching a horse, haltering, leading through energy, grooming and connecting.

Day 2: Catch your horse, groom, lead with energy and then learn all about friendly games, respecting boundaries and how horses communicate using calming signals.

Day 3: Build on the previous week by practicing these skills and then moving on to learning yields through rhythmic pressure and how to nurture a relationship with fluid, relaxed and cooperation whilst offering a safe space of predictability with clear communication, movement, connection, positive reinforcement, emotional regulation, biomechanics, balance and empathy.

Day 4: Recap and practice all skills learnt in previous weeks and then learn yields using steady pressure. Learn how to provide an environment of predictability and safety for a horse with clear communication, understanding, positive reinforcement, stress reduction techniques, empowerment, trust, patience, incremental learning, physical and mental relaxation.

Day 5: Practice all skills learnt the previous week and then move on to boundary setting through intention and the use of energy creating a dialogue of pressure and release through minimal cues, respect and communication. This week focuses on mental and emotional training tools for emotional regulation.

Day 6: Practice all the learnings of the last weeks and add in another important piece of the puzzle: How to request cooperation, focus and trust at a distance from a horse. Focusing on how to use a horse’s natural herding instincts to support safety and calm. Explore how your body language supports from a distance and apply the subtle cues that you have been working on across this course. This will be your final week without saddles and you will then graduate to join us on a level 2 the following week.

Day 7: This week we will saddle up and do all our groundwork as well as practice all the other skills that you have learnt. We will now start our checks to see if the horse is ready to be ridden by doing the exercises to gauge whether the horse is calm, focused, and mentally engaged. These will help you identify any physical discomfort or emotional tension. This practice ensures that the horse is ready to work safely and effectively, both on the ground and in the saddle.

Day 8: We will go over everything learnt so far with saddles, check in for any discomfort and emotional tension so as to work safely and then check in for lightness in the reins cues from the ground. This will work on the horse’s willingness to listen to instructions / leadership whilst in the saddle and demonstrate the level of trust the horse is willing to give to the rider. Should everything go well, we will request climbing into the saddle and respect the horse’s yes or no.

Day 9: We will practice all we have learnt and then request to get in the saddle. We will work with you and the horse to make sure that the trust you have built is taken into the saddle. We will work on staying in the moment and work through anything that the horse mirrors. We will then work through the reins aids. Lateral flexion and backward transitions using seat mechanics and core engagement (no kicking or pulling), leveraging biomechnical conditioning to isolate internal posture shifts as the definitive cue preserving force-free responses.

Day 10: Building on previous weeks using hindquarter steady pressure yields under saddle as a critical diagnostic to verify that a rise in core energy reliably prompts a response in the direction requested while also testing the willingness to halt upon release of pressure and associated breathwork demonstrating operational willingness and functional self-regulation.

Should we have time: Walk and stop transitions through breathwork alone completely eliminating the physical kicking or pulling utilising somatic techniques to synchronise kinetic momentum directly to rider's respiratory supporting seamless mutual regulation. Introducing directional turns using body weight aids and pelvic alignment and not relying on the reins whilst building responsiveness and suppleness.

This course will set you up to join one of our ridden groups next term.