By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Lindsay Partridge says she loves Liberty horse training because it helps riders get better at understanding themselves, their horse and the language that connects them.
    Speaking on Horse Day on January 7 at Grey Bruce Farmers Week held in Elmwood, Partridge is a return speaker with her wisdom on the horse/human relationship. As founder of Harmony Horsemanship based in the Kawartha Lakes region, she said Liberty training inspires riders to “do more with less” because of the horse’s innate horse sense.
    When you have a halter, lead rope and whip, those tools aren’t bad but sometimes riders hide behind them. “We can get defensive and pull more and we aren't actually learning all of those body language pieces,” said Partridge. 
    Around horses her whole life, Partridge trained horses like everyone else, using pressure to make a horse do what she expected of it. It all changed one day when she struggled to get horses on a trailer and paused to wonder if the frustration for her and the horse was worth it. Around the same time, she met a trainer called Gary Convery who stated: “There are no bad horses, just people without the desire or patience to understand them.” She realized she did want to understand horses better  based on their movements and how her energy and movements affected the horse.
    She met with Convery and became addicted to learning horse language, taking away the tools (bits, spurs, round pens, intimidation, etc), and how to project her leadership using her body and energy to develop mutual respect and understanding. “I don’t think tools are bad, but now I understand how to use a tool for more precise communication instead of taking a tool and using it to add more force to a horse.”
    She provided three secrets to teach your horse to work with you at Liberty with no chasing, whips or ropes. During the process, it will help you develop a better connection with your horse. She had done this program with thousands of students across the globe.
    The three secrets are:
    ● Join up doesn’t need chasing or a round pen
    ● The Hand Touch is key
    ● Focus on draw, not drive.
    “I discovered these all the hard way,”she said. The hard way was to chase the horses until they choose to submit or choose you. The problem with that situation is that there aren’t always paddocks or fences and if you are in an open space, the horse is always looking for a boundary.  It’s better to just make yourself the happy place and the process goes faster.
    Making a horse work hard if they get the answer wrong plays into a horse's emotions. Like human students, horses prefer trainers that are positive and reward them. If you push too hard, you can make a horse anxious, resistant or giving up.
Steps to Joining Up
    With joining up, the idea is to be intriguing, not chasing. First, you need to observe your horse’s energy level and attention span. “You need to watch. Is the horse moving fast or moving slow? I don’t mean is it walking or cantering, I mean its energy.” If the horse is at low energy and you are loud and aggressive, the energy is at a mismatch. If you have a fast-moving horse, you need to move quickly and then you can dial it down.
    If a horse has a quick attention span, you need to move from one thing to the next quickly because their attention span is too short. With multiple sessions, you can build up their attention span. 
    The other thing to observe is “magnets and no-gos” which are areas where the horse wants to go, and where it doesn’t. “If you were on a dating app, would you like to start on a walk at night time in a forest? Whoa…red flags!” You have to start with your horses where you both feel safe. That might be in your pasture, by the gate, so that you are both calm enough to learn.
    After that is established, you choose the best join-up game to try. Harmony Horsemanship games include: mirroring, the quadrants game, owning space, 45 degree angle draw, be interesting and cheek hold. Partridge recommends viewing them online to understand them better. If you pick one and it doesn’t work, choose the next one!  None of these involve chasing slowly because join-up means the horse comes to say “hi”, has a greeting and will follow you.
    Then you start your ABC’s which are the eight possible things a horse can do. These include  up, down, forward, backward, hops, shoulders, neutral (halt or no response) and sideways. If you have a low energy horse, you can start with head down and pick up hooves. If you have a fast, forward horse, you might choose forward and backward so they are entertained with what you are doing. 
    When with a horse, you have to ask yourself if you are a threat or a treat. “You need to be the happy place that your horse wants to go to,” said Partridge. You can use scratches or treats. Remember, though, that scratches take more time than food. “Food is like money. It is quick and universal,” she said. Either way, the idea is that the person is the reward.
Hand Touch is Key
    In some programs, you teach a horse to follow a target but then you have to bring your target with you. “So I use my hand as the target,” she said. Hand with palm down is the target to follow. Hand with palm up is the signal for getting a treat.
    The hand target can also be used to calm a horse down. Excited horses have their heads held high but if your horse will follow the hand, put your hand low to “help diffuse the situation.”
    The hand touch also helps a distractible horse. Each time they look away, you ask for a hand touch to keep the horses connected to you.
    The idea of hand touch is that when they complete a task, they check with their human. “It creates a cycle in their brain,” said Partridge. As you get more developed with your hand touch, you move your hand to get them to follow you and move in circles.
We need more draw not drive
    A draw is anything that asks your horse to come to you. A drive is anything pushing your horse away, especially backing them up or pushing shoulders. “You don’t need to do anything to back them — it can all be done passively when you understand their quadrants and drive lines,” explained Partridge.
    You have to be careful, when first building relationships, that you don’t ask too much. If you keep asking more and more of the horse without rewards, the horse will check out. It takes time to build a bond and relationship until the horse just wants to hang out with you and do things.
    Horses are similar to toddlers, you want them looking at you as their guardian. As they get more confident and experienced, they can go longer without looking at you and the hand.
    When you put your horses away, the last thing needs to be a draw. Whether it's a stall or back to the field, you finish with putting your hand out as a target. It can finish with a touch, then you turn and walk away. So their last experience with you is positive. ◊