08/05/2026
Liberty Work in All Colors:
The Moment you realize she’s not attached to the second horse, but he’s doing the pattern at Liberty🥹❤️
My wonderful student has literally Never worked with, or handled the horse in Pink, Stetson. Stetson’s mom spent the entire winter working on foundational skills, like strengthening, rebalancing, tweaking his diet, and most importantly teaching this guy how to learn and love working with people. At this point, he can pick up new skills astonishingly fast! He can learn and he’s motivated too- the magic combination.
Stetson recently became best friends with Pony. He had been watching the little guy’s lesson very frustrated in previous weeks and this occasion he insisted he come in the ring too. I’ve learned enough over the years to honor his kind of request 😆
So I figured he’d hang out with me, eat corner hay, or bug my student’s mom. But NO!
He went straight into formation and proceeded to work at liberty with Pony on his own. She wasn’t even doing traditional positive reinforcement in this class. Stetson Never practiced any of this with Pony or my student, but has watched me do pairs with my crew frequently.
My student however, has been working hard at her skills for years. She can rate her energy, pick up body cues quickly, and shape conversations with a variety of horses. She flowed into this double conversation between her, pony, and Stetson effortlessly. 🥹
How long did Stetson work with them- the whole class until I ultimately had to catch him so Pony could trot. Stetson was so proud of himself. I was proud of all of them- the ponies, my student, and Stetson’s mom!
This is how horse stuff can feel with lots of hard work behind the scenes - magic🪄🦄
