I’m excited to be attending the first Liberty Festival October 21-23, 2022. The festival is hosted by the International Liberty Horse Association and will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park, both of which are based just down the road from my home.
Like every (single) thing in the horse world, there are lots of opinions about what liberty training is and about which training methods are “valid.” When I say I want to do “liberty training,” I mean that I want my horse to have a true choice in whether or not to work/play with me and if he/she chooses me, he/she does so willingly, happily, even joyfully. I’m hoping to learn more about what’s possible with liberty training and get some ideas about where to start. I’m especially excited that the Liberty Festival will feature one of my top influencers, Warwick Schiller of Warwick Schiller Attuned Horsemanship. Knowing that Warwick isn’t a “liberty trainer” per se, I expect that his sessions will emphasize the importance of starting with a calm, relaxed human and a calm, relaxed horse, regardless of the type of training one intends to do.
I have a semi-secret, outlandish life goal to train an OTTB (off track thoroughbred) with liberty methods, enter the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover (which was held last weekend) as an amateur, and WIN in freestyle riding bridleless. If you know me, you know I am MILES away from that goal, but there it is. I said it.
