Bridleless Rides!

Pixie during our first bridleless ride

Pixie and I hit a milestone in our partnership that I thought was still so far away...we rode bridleless for the first time on 2/11/2014 :) She was outstanding for the whole ride. She listened to all my cues without a second thought. I did have the neck rope on and our next goal will be to ride without that, but for now this is awesome. Yesterday we were able to enjoy two more amazing bridleless rides in the arena. Once without other horses and one with another horse in the arena.

In August of 2010 when I set out on this journey of finding another way to train I knew that one day I wanted to ride bridleless. I wanted to find a partnership so trusting I didn't need equipment. There have been many bumps in the road that lead us to here. And I can't say I never doubted myself and didn't go back to traditional methods, because I did. But every time I went back I never saw the end results I wanted. Did I see immediate results, sometimes, but they were never there without the aid of equipment. Take for example my getting collection in a bit. She can do it, yes, but its not real. It's forced because the bit causes pain, she is in no way offering the behavior because she wants to work with me as a partner. Thankfully Pixie is an amazing teacher and forgives me for all my inconsistencies. She showed me that slow and steady is by far the best way to go! I can't remember the last time I rode her in a bit, and I hung up my spurs well over a year ago! I could not have ever rode bridleless though without all my liberty ground work. We fine tuned our ground work so much that she watches my every move, and she is always rewarded for watching me and working with me. It is the same in our riding. I reward her every time she makes the choice to pay attention to me instead of the distractions. I could correct her for trying to go see another horse, going to gate, etc... or what I do instead is go back to a cue I know she won't ignore and reward her for doing it. Such as stopping. My cue is a deep breath. So yesterday when she wanted to ignore my leg cue for turning because she wanted to go see the new horse in the arena, I cued her to stop so I could reward for the correct behavior. After getting the reward for stopping she was focused on me again, so we could proceed with our ride without argument over going to see the horse.

When discussing my ride with friends the comment was made "wow, you really do trust that horse" and while it is true I do trust her, but more than that I trust my training. I have worked countless hours over the last few years fine tuning our trust in each other.