Cowboy is a great example of a horse who 

During my recent Liberty and Connection clinic at Willow Tree Equestrian Center in Bangor, Michigan I went over the "magic" 45-degree angle and what that means for "draw" and "drive" with your horse.

One of the participants pointed out that drive could be referred to as "advance" and draw as "retreat," and we had a little conversation about that as well. Are you drawing your horse to you by allowing them to advance toward you giving them space to approach. Do you give your horse time to think, and are you willing to walk away from your horse to give them space? Remember, distance makes the heart grow fonder :-)

In this session with Dyana (and Freja) I work with Dyana for her first time in one of the paddocks. She has been turned out in other pastures at the farm but never in this paddock.

As always, I begin with observation taking careful note of her "magnets" in the space. In this case the gate is a big magnet for her and Freja, so I later use that to my advantage by placing myself at the gate as a wise place to connect with her. Then we move into connection on the line utilizing the Harmony Horsemanship Calm Connection exercises Square and S-Pattern. After establishing some connection we move to confidence by moving farther away from Freja into a corner of the paddock where they did not venture at all on their own. We then up the confidence factor by introducing small stretches of trotting in hand for the first time.

Per usual, Dyana handles everything very well. Since I always strive to end each session with some sort of connection exercise, I actually choose to take off her halter to let her reconnect with Freja and then see if I am able to re-establish our connection in an area of the paddock away from the gate. Success!

I decided not to edit this video so that you could see my full session with Moon. The main takeaway I hope you gather from this video is the importance of softening your horse through bending and direction changes to achieve connection, relaxation and focus.

You can soften your horse through changes in direction from the ground or in the saddle; whenever you feel your horse is losing focus or increasing speed, think about changing direction left or right rather than back or front (pull/kick).

Keep in mind this was the first time I was on Moon since November and only the second time I've worked with her since then. I also had planned on working through lateral movements from the ground, but based on my observations I changed my plan and rode bareback instead as I thought it would be more beneficial (and less stressful for her) to focus on easy changes of direction with forward energy rather than lateral movement where she might have gotten "stuck" and become resistant due to physical limitation.

This video is a glimpse into the beginning of developing connection with Moon despite distractions from her friends in the barn, bugs and the physical factors of heat adding another layer of discomfort and annoyance.

You will see a couple brief moments of connection where I am able to place my hand on her cheek and have her walk with me - matching speed, direction and reducing distance to the point where we are touching. Keeping in mind it has been a few months since I have worked with Moon, I chose to stop after these minimal moments of relaxation rather than get greedy and continue in the hot humid weather with the bugs. She did not reach a point of relaxation where I would consider it a wise idea to go for a ride, but hopefully you can see that she did improve toward relaxing and connecting over the course of this 10-minute video.