I like to have a good relationship with my horse and therefore like to quote Martin Rütter (a german dog trainer): „Zu Er-ziehung gehört Be-ziehung“, meaning that for a good education a good relationship is essential.
Nothing shows the quality of the relationship better than liberty work. As usual Manjerico is very interested in the happenings. To determine Manjerico‘s distance to me I ask him to move his hindquarters or touch his flank to get him to turn towards me.
I define the direction he moves. The difficulty is to manage this also from a greater distance. To repeatedly get a comfortable closeness I let Manjerico go on the left hand – his left eye is on the inside towards me. Going the other way round, keeping his right eye with me seems far more difficult for him. This is normal as cognitive processes from the right eye to the left side of the brain take a more time assimilate. It helps that Manjerico has already learnt the change of rein on the lunge (videoclip in shop) and can refer to the familiar sequences. For me correct timing is very important, as soon as I notice he has understood my Idea I have to stop my signals to confirm his reaction. Liberty work means to me developing a mutual nonverbal language with my horse.