I loaned Fancy to a good friend who lives in Mississippi. Fancy is having a wonderful life with her. She will stay till June when Beth will ride her in the Missouri Fox Trotter Spring Show.
In the meantime, I have Tenor at home to ride. When Fancy was home, I only wanted to ride her. I occasionally forced myself to ride Tenor, but not often. Sharon took turns riding him and Sonny, but she loves Sonny the most. Poor Tenor!
A couple of days ago, I made the decision to start using Tenor to pass Level 4 Liberty and Level 4 Online. Online is the hardest of all the Levels, so we are going to start with Liberty.
I made a copy of the Mandatory Level Four Liberty tasks and so far have completed two Liberty days. What a dream Tenor is. This will get Tenor and I bonded and provide something for both of us to do, rather than me reading and him eating.
Tenor has been trained to do Liberty Level 4. His last had experience with his former owner a couple years ago with reading and following the human body cues. The previous owner and I have the same body cues, but of course there are some differences and heck, it’s been two years. Tenor has just had the surprise revelation that I know how to speak body language to him! On day two, he knows my language is serious and he put effort into running his circles today.
I had to get the halter and rope on him, to give him the signal to stop running a circle. My carrot stick and body language were not enough. But with the halter and rope speaking to him, he understood.
Tenor gets a lot of love and rubs when he is able to understand and obey my body language. Of course he enjoys that a bunch. I shut his partner, Sonny in the stall today so Sonny wouldn’t disappear and make Tenor worry. He followed me back to the stall where both her and Tenor got treats. Yesterday, Tenor almost followed me back to the stall from the round pen, but then he took off at a gallop to find Sonny.
Here is the checklist and X’s for completion for Day Two
Level Four “Liberty” – Open Area and Round Pen
Friendly Game Checklist
o Horse comes positively to you at trot or canter.
ox Extreme Zone 4 and 5. (body and tail)
Porcupine Game Checklist
xo Lead backwards by tail, make turns.
Driving Game Checklist
o Exuberant draw.
xo Draw backwards from Zone 5 (tail)
ox Close range 360°s.
YO YO Game (Backup and Come to) Checklist
o Transitions: halt to canter
o Transitions: walk to canter.
Note: This is where we had to use the halter and rope for him to understand my transition requests.
Circling Game Checklist
xx 10 – 20 laps.
o Change of direction at canter with flying change (left and right).
x Single spin slow.
x Circle close, walk or trot.
o Change of direction at walk.
o Backwards half a lap.
Sideways Game Checklist
x Sideways towards.
x Sideways from Zone 1 (Head)
Squeeze Game Checklist
o Trailer load at walk or trot.
x Stop halfway over barrel jump and Sideways Towards
Seven Games at Liberty
o Games 4, 5, 6 and 7 with obstacles.