Heather Nelson Liberty Training

34-year-old Icelandic, Kolur, is demonstrating how a couple of cones can increase your likelihood of success in your shoulder-in practice at liberty. The first cone helps the horse develop the bend, much like that first step of riding a 10 metre circle when doing shoulder-in down the long line.
It’s best to keep your approach coming into the first cone more gradual than I show here.

Then lining yourself up for the second cone helps prevent the horse from falling on the inside shoulder or cutting across the diagonal. You can spread the cones out as needed.

I like to use a cavesson target to help my horse know which speed and position I would like him to travel in. I’m also occasionally using an inside leg cue. Kolur understands that if I point at the back of his belly I would like him to keep his hind legs out.

Reward often!

Thanks to Kolur for showing that even old guys can learn new things.

Long reining is a great way to challenge yourself to see if you horse understands your communication at a distance. It’s not as easy to turn or stop for example when you are behind your horse, compared to leading or lunging.

Long reining is a bit of a lost art. When I was starting young horses under saddle I used to spend a few days ground driving. The horse and I spent more time tangled up in the lines than anything else. I was always in a hurry to just get on.

Now I have fancy long lining goals. I would love to one day canter pirouette in long reining. I want to be that person that felt like a fly all tangled in web, turned elegant dancer with the long lines. I have a long way to go.

There are numerous methods to teach haunches-in. In this virtual lesson this mare actually needed to start with something similar to a half pass because she had a good understanding of bringing her shoulders over and her hindquarters just followed. If Chelsea was only to ask for the hindquarters then her mare would fall out the shoulder and lose balance. As she becomes stronger we can phase out the shoulder movement.