We offer a limited number of places each week to ensure a personalised experience and meaningful interactions with our beautiful liberty schoolmasters. Whether you’re seeking personal growth, a deeper connection with horses, or simply the joy of being part of a supportive, like-minded community, we have a place for you. Keep reading to discover what we will explore together each week in this transformative Liberty course. Join us once per week (or twice if you wish) with your equine partner—the horse from our herd who has chosen you—supported by our expert coach and warm, welcoming community. Each session includes catching in the paddock, groundwork, liberty training, cool down, aftercare, and plenty of space to build a true partnership. Choose time for YOU and spend time with a horse that chooses you every time.

Learn level 1 and 2 so that you can then specialise in liberty play with dancing with the horse, doing obstacles, tricks, challenge yourself participating in liberty competitions or just continue to explore how deep the relationship between horse and handler can be incorporating boundaries and free will.

You will have already had an assessment so your Horse will be reserved and waiting for you. Be gifted your Personalised grooming kit, pop your belongings safely in one of our lockers and then learn safety around horses, catching a horse, haltering, lading through energy, grooming and connecting. Start setting your boundaries and set the tone for this 10 week course.

Catch your horse, groom, lead with energy and then learn all about friendly games (these games are based on how horses interact naturally with each other, so they feel familiar and fair to the horse - start to speak “horse”), respecting boundaries and how horses communicate using calming signals.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This week we will start to work without the rope should you be ready 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 play at liberty 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.

We will go over everything learnt so far with with ropes and then without, checking in for any discomfort and emotional tension so as to work safely and then check in for lightness and responsiveness with smallest of cues using body language. This will work on the horse’s willingness to listen to instructions and demonstrate the level of trust the horse is willing to give to the handler.

To complete level 2 you will successfully play follow the leader without ropes or whips or treats in walk and trot and halt as well as backup from in front.

At the Australian Liberty Equestrian Academy, we provide the perfect bridge between traditional riding schools and horse ownership. Our courses focus on offering a deep connection with horses based on trust, understanding, and communication. You’ll learn to engage with a horse on the ground, building mutual respect without relying on aids or force. Equip yourself with the skills to understand horse behaviour, read their body language, and communicate with subtlety and intention. Whether or not you ride, these principles are invaluable for future horse ownership. Build a strong foundation to support a horse’s needs, foster their confidence, and form a lasting, meaningful partnership—setting both you and your future horse(s) up for success, trust, and harmony.