When I talk to people in our global HorseClass community, I love to ask, “what is one of the most special moments you have had with a horse?”
Many times, the responses I get are not stories about riding, they are memories of quiet moments together in the field, or early mornings listening to horses munching hay, or hearing a nicker when they step into the barn.
Our relationships with our horses go so much deeper than just time spent riding.
Today, I want to share 4 Fun Things To Do with Your Horse – no riding required!
Whether you want to build a better connection, would love ideas for when you want to see your horse but don’t have time to ride, or just want more ways to enjoy your time together…
Hit play below to learn these simple activities to be a better friend to your horse.
See you in the comments,
Callie
p.s. If you enjoy this video and would love to create a friendship and connect with your horse I would love to have you join our Pure Liberty Course. Click Here to Learn More
12 Responses
Hi Callie,
Do you typically do these at liberty, or not?
Thank you!
Great ideas Callie. The bond you and Noel have is wonderful to see. Thank you!
Hi! Similar to just going for a walk, I like to go for a jog with my horse as part of our preride warmup in the arena. warms me up quickly, too!
Sometimes I sit on a stool in the sunny paddock and my horse stands by me. Sometimes he asks for me to touch a part of him, his eyes close, head low. Wonderful just being together.
What is targeting and when you go for walks do you have your horse on a lead rope?
my 1st horse was a brat,he taught me a lot . always nickered to me.
I had him for 30 years we loved doing barrells. my current horse is much biger and scared if a lot. since I had a stroke in Nov I will need to do a lot of ground work. It will take a while for me to get my strength back. I did a lot of give to the bit work. Not sure how I should be working with him now.
Unfortunately where I live everything is ice right now so not safe to walk in the pastures or take my horse for a walk. It’s too cold to hang out outside with them except for a bit while feeding them. My two horses know “touch” already which is targeting. Hopefully in the spring I can try some walking.
I enjoy taking my mare for walks in the pasture and around the pond we just dug out. Since she was fearful of water crossings on trail rides I was able to use the new pond as a safe, controlled way to get her used to crossing water. I also enjoy just hanging out with her and our 3 donkeys in their pasture.
Thank you a lot for this great video. We enjoy all the four activities you mentioned. Probably my horse loves best the itching game, and I am ever so fond of teaching him tricks. I just have to watch out not to teach him too much mischief.
Some time ago I couldn’t stop laughing, when suddenly my little gelding started doing the Spanish walk to show off in front of a big stallion, who lives in the place, too. I had trained my horse to do it and he found a great opportunity to show, what he had learned.
I loved these ideas. I love watching your horse interact with you. Thank you for sharing.
My mare just wants to eat grass!
I love taking walks in the VT woods with my horses. We now go as a herd either hand walking or ponying. Its so much fun. I also love to create seek and recover missions around the arena or field. Its helps with them understanding and building the “pointing” we often do and expect our horses to understand. ha ha. Through this I taught my OTTB to jump entire courses at liberty just by pointing at each fence I wanted him to go over. Teacher beware, however, I once signaled we were going into the arena from the warm up ring through a narrow opening and he took it upon himself to back up a few steps and jumped the fence, ( we were in hand). He was amazing. So fun! I’m also happy to see your open use of positive reinforcement/ marker/clicker training. It gets such a bad rap. I love it because it is clear communication at its best. My horses become super motivated and the fabled “treat mugger” has never reared its ugly head because I know how powerful this style is and I am never cavalier about when I treat. the other critique of always having to carry a carrot is also false. horses brains move on. my guys, after they are solid in a behavior or “an ask” actually lose interest in stopping for the treat. I think its like if you were to reward a 5th grader to recite the ABCs when they already know how to read. So for somethings I “jackpot” and that makes everyone happy. and then I ask why is it better to carry spurs or a stick rather than a high value treat?