[CCS] 9 – Liberty lunging

Hi,

In the last lesson, we expanded the turns to 4 cones with the mat in the center and used feeding to the off-side, away for us, to set up the balance for a turn around a cone that is more to the side instead of the one straight ahead.

Now we will systematically build going around a circle of cones in an errorless training progression.

We have built the component ‘actions’ that are pre-requisites to this complex lesson:

• Grown-ups are talking, please don’t interrupt
• Stepping on the mat
• Going out and around a (specific) cone

We have also established cues for these actions, i.e., our behavior.

Here is a list of my cues:

• Folding my arms for “Grown-ups”
• Hand gesture to invite Blondie to go forward
• Walking slightly backward to invite her to the mat

With this repertoire, we can now build liberty lunging.

Lesson 6: Liberty lunging

Before taking your horse from the field, set out a circle of cones.

Here is how I do it:

1. Place a mat in the center
2. Starting from the mat, walk 3 steps in one direction (12 o’clock) and put down a cone right at the tip of your toes
3. Repeat in other directions (6 o’clock, then 3 and 9 o’clock)
4. Repeat the process with another 4 cones at an equal distance

Now get your horse 🐴

To build liberty lunging with Blondie, I was very CONSISTENT and SYSTEMATIC.

You may remember from Email 1 that she initially left the lesson to crib at the fence. However, working systematically, this did not happen anymore during the entire lesson.

This is Lesson 6:

1. Starting from “Grown-ups” on the mat, I send Blondie to go around 1 cone and invite her back to the mat, click/treat.
2. Then I send her out, go around the 1st cone, stay on the circle until she passes the 2nd cone, then I invite her (with an obvious gesture) to the mat.
3. The next time, I wait until she has passed the third cone before returning to the mat.
4. I continue in this manner, always adding 1 cone before returning to the center until she has completed a whole circle.
5. I change the position of the cones making the circle a little bigger (4 steps from the mat).
6. Repeat steps 1 to 4.
7. I change the position of the cones making the circle a little bigger (5 steps from the mat).
8. Repeat steps 1 to 4.

Being so systematic allowed Blondie to progress through the lesson quickly, and I did not lose her once. Quite impressive 😎
I also like that this progression automatically builds the cues to send her out, stay out and come back in. All of which you need for liberty lunging.

See for yourself.

The following steps are to fade out the cones and the mat and rely entirely on your cues that have evolved out of the progress, and you get liberty lunging without any props. That is truly magical.

There are, of course, many more ways to build liberty lunging. With Graya, I have used a small circle of cones with four mats on the circle line. Then I have gradually expanded the circle and then gradually faded out the mats. That also worked. But I find Blondie’s progression more elegant.
Choose the one you prefer, or both, and enjoy exploring liberty lunging.

I would love to hear from you if you tried it with your horse.

Enjoy,
Michaela