Show Help! Liberty and Conditioning needed!

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

I purchased my mini really overweight with really bad hooves 3 months ago. While his hooves, weight, and temperment are good now, my question is how to get rid of his haybelly? I lunge him, round pen him, etc, but he loses weight everywhere else but his belly! He's not in showmanhsip shape.

Also, I plan on showing him in the end of May. There are liberty classes, which i have zero experience in. How would i go about training/showing him in liberty? He already comes on command, yet he's not as "fiesty" as those i see online! To me, it looks like they just stick em in the ring and chase them! Isn't there more to it?

Here's a current pic of Cloudy - a 2006 AMHR/AMHA/PtHA Blue Roan Tobiano 33" stallion! FWF Little WarDance son!

 

[Jetiki]

My experience with liberty is limited, but I don't really train for liberty, I make sure I can catch my horse in any situation and that helps. I'll go out and free lunge in the pasture a time or two, more if I can't catch them easily, get them going with the lunge whip and then relax and catch them, give a treat and turn them loose. I do this on grass, because if I can't catch them out there, I'm not going to catch them in the ring. Once I know I can do that I leave them alone when it comes anything else. You want the horse to act naturally in liberty thats what its all about. You do need to try to get the horse to use the whole ring and not just run around you like they are lunging. Using the whole ring and being able to catch them quickly can place you above a flashier horse that just runs in a circle. Get a good up beat song and have fun with it, but try to match the music to your horse. If your horse likes to gallop more than trot, play to that with your music, My horse trots more than gallops so I play to her strength that way.

Karen

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

liberty is to music? I never knew that! and thank you. I have used Tommie Turvey's liberty methods of training on him. He does trot and canter in a cricle around me free, with only whips as "commands." Would it be sutiable to do that?

 

[Kaitlyn]

Okay so this is not a tried-and-true method, but after doing some research over the winter I started adding--for a number of reasons--a dash of apple cider vinegar to my ponies' feed. I can't say 100% that this was a contributing factor, but I did notice that after about a month or so of the ACV + light conditioning work, their hay bellies have all but disappeared.

 

[cassie]

Okay so this is not a tried-and-true method, but after doing some research over the winter I started adding--for a number of reasons--a dash of apple cider vinegar to my ponies' feed. I can't say 100% that this was a contributing factor, but I did notice that after about a month or so of the ACV + light conditioning work, their hay bellies have all but disappeared.

wow thanks Kailtyn I might try that on my girl as I am trying to get her into show condition!!

hope your gorgeous little man does well in liberty once you get him going! he is lovely!