In this lesson, we look at how to get more play and expression from your horse at liberty, especially with horses that are more introverted by nature.

Mia demonstrates how you can be more provocative and bring your own energy up to encourage your horse to engage, become curious, and start offeri...

It is really easy with saddling to blow through thresholds without noticing, particularly with introverted horses. This is actually one of the most common things we see with horses coming in for training with both young horses that have either been backed or begun the process, and also with more ...

Using a cone for focus, Mia starts schooling the clock-face pattern from the saddle and reverse clock-face which is essentially a pirouette, with the added difficulty of starting it bridleless!

Mia shares a typical schooling session with Boogie, bridleless. This session contains valuable insight into how she is training Boogie totally without a bridle for more of a carrying posture and collection, including how she balances that with the release into a stretch when he starts to fatigue....

Sneak a peak into our bridleless clinics and learn some of the theory and principles behind how we teach bridleless riding.

Sneak a peak into our bridleless clinics. On the second morning we rounded up day one and discussed all things vertical flexion, including the dreaded going behind the vertical! Many people assume bridleless horses going behind the vertical must mean they have been trained that way with a bridle,...

Sneak a peak into the theory shared in our bridleless clinics. The question box is a fantastic pattern not just for having your horse connect to you when riding without a bridle, but great preparation when riding with the bridle. Even if you never ride bridleless, this pattern can help you find t...

The next step after preparing a young horse for a rider is the first few steps with the rider on board. This is a crucial stage of young horse starting and in this horse's case, a few of his thresholds may have previously been blown through. Mia talks through all the steps and her top tips for ho...

Zeppy's first training session at The Heart Of Horsemanship revealed just how over aroused he could get around touch. It became clear just how many of his thresholds had probably been crossed when starting him in his ridden career, so Mia took things right back to basics on the ground to start bu...

Positive reinforcement is a great tool to engage your horse in seeking and build connection to a task, particularly if they are a scanner or easily disconnect because of external distractions.

Serena is in the process of building a liberty and bridleless pair. Once you've taught your horse mirror me from the saddle, this is how we go about keeping their connection and mind with us and how to teach them to find and seek their place in the pair when they inevitably leave.

Getting really clear bridleless stops is simple when you separate, isolate and recombine all the different ways in which you can ask your horse to stop. Not only useful for riding without reins, these can all be used when riding with a bridle too!

Learn how to create lateral flexion without a bridle or reins.

This is how we go about introducing a new horse to ponying. Loki is a young horse that Serena wants to introduce to working at liberty with Silas, so finding his place next to him is an important first step as well as being a valuable step in a young horse's introduction to riding.

Yielding the shoulders and hind end in motion is a valuable exercise for young or more dominant horses that may come into our space on a circle. It can also help when we progress to liberty work for controlling the size and shape of our circles.

Mia demonstrates how to safely begin leg handling in the stable with Zeppy and further discovers where he struggles to share space with humans, leading to over arousal behaviours.

This video covers:
- leg handling positions and flexion for safety
- discussion on horses natural play drive when pi...

Mia demonstrates and talks about thresholds in training and what to do when you approach one.

Training horse Zeppy has his first official session at HoH HQ. Mia goers over how to put in a block or barrier into the space to establish boundaries, whilst not offending the horse.