This was Super Fun!!

he hey everyone welcome back to another video today I'm here with a good friend of mine Patrick suvan of gilia unbridled and he's going to see if he can get me uh playing at Liberty with a horse off of a ridden horse I'm on a young three-year-old so this should be exciting let's get into it all right so Patrick if you don't mind just uh we did a video before um on you helping me do do some better Liberty on the ground with Lambo and then um can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of what you do and then uh maybe what the next steps are for me to think about for this yeah so my name is Patrick Sullivan and all I focus on is liberty and bridess riding but I try to bring in good horsemanship to the Liberty because just because the horse is loose and free doesn't mean that we can't teach them to use their body properly to use their mind and connection with us and to really have fun and relax while we're doing it together awesome and I'm excited cuz Patrick and his wife Avery are starting a YouTube channel uh gilia unbridled and they're going to have some great content they make some amazing Transformations with some of the most difficult rescue horses out there and uh you guys really want to go over there and hit the Subscribe button on his channel and watch some of those videos you're going to love it all right so what's uh perfect order of go here this is my most favorite thing to teach and obviously Ryan already knows how to do Liberty off the ridden horse but I think our technique will just be a little bit different than maybe how you would start them at Liberty it's been quite a while I did this you know maybe 10 years ago I haven't focused on it lately so I'm excited to get back into it well I'm holding you to high standard you know you're my mentor anyway so I'm just going to enjoy this session and we're going to just have fun with it no matter what so the most important thing when it comes to Liberty off the ridden horse is number one that you have a horse that you trust and the horse that you can walk trop caner on a loose rain and you can steer him pretty decently I know this is kind of a young boy for you so he's not a horse that traditionally we would want to use this but for you he seems pretty soft he seems pretty confident for whatever reason that he starts acting up we'll forget about the Liberty horse get him soft again and go from there and and a lot of people watching are probably wondering why I'm not using Marley um and Marley actually lives with both of these horses now but she would be trying to tell Lambo to get away from her bubble while we were doing this and so I was like H even though Marley's further along than this horse is I was like yeah it's probably not the best best setup so do you agree you kind of try to find a horse that is is pretty agreeable to be have other horses near them and things yes and the better the friends are of horses the easier it is to pair them together like if they live together and that sort of thing correct you don't have to if you can have a really confident rid horse where they can gets along with everybody that's fine but it's easier when they're friends yeah yeah him and Lambo are good buddies so oh I see him chewing on all your water buckets and breaking them all at the farm so I know they're like uh to to mischievous teenagers so what we're going to start is I you've obviously practiced with this but I'm going hand you this stick and again I just want you to make sure he's comfortable with it but obviously he is but when you ride I really want you to focus on riding with your left hand if possible M and putting and laying your out this stick across your RS to the outside because we're going to start with Lambo on your right side cuz that's his more confident side if his more confident was on the left we would do it the other way but always play to your horse's strengths okay um so I'm just going to hand this to you I'm going to come over here make sure that he's comfortable I'm just going to hand this to you and again you've already played with us a little bit but if let's say I'm going to be the horse there for a second and you want me to come forward right you're just going to bring this stick over your head and just ask him to come forward and yes exactly and think about it like this that you and this beautiful horse here you're one so everything that you did on the ground we're going to do Under the saddle and you're a great at working cattle so I want you to think when this horse is there think about the dve dve lines when you drive a cow when you turn them in it's all the same but everything that we've done on the ground with Lambo we're going to ask for them to do the same under saddle so I'm going to go get Lambo I'm going to ask you to stand so exact same patterns and an idea from the last video which is now I'm in a different location I'm up here but exactly nothing changes and the other thing that that's a good point to make because a lot of times people think of this as completely different but it's it's the same horse you know Lambo and what he knows and he just needs to learn oh it's the same thing yeah just in a little bit different position yes and then the only other thing I want to make sure that you know is that you are the leader of this whole party these to two horses can't be the leader of it so if he starts to act a little naughty just do whatever you do to get him back with you and if he starts to act naughty the Liberty horse just send him forward and say get whatever you need out there and then when he comes back he must be soft sounds good all right thank you Becky all right so I'm just going to walk him in front and then I'm going to walk him behind you just because he's going to be walking behind and I want to make sure that your ridden horse is comfortable when I walk this horse behind him and obviously they're buddies so it shouldn't be too bad but I want to again make sure so if he was freaking out right now we would just keep doing that until he was more comfortable y so when you start this you like to have somebody else bring the horse in and put him in position if possible to not confuse confuse the situation it makes it a lot easier yeah but you don't have have to but I like to yeah and like if I had to maybe I could go collect him and maybe Pony him a little bit and then just take the whole traz by myself I could do something like that exactly and so here's the next tricky part and when I let this horse go I'm going to walk around you cuz if I walk that way this horse might want to follow but I want to tell them I'm leaving you with them so I'm going to go ahead and just let him go and then I'm going to walk around you both and we're going to see what he does but I want him to think now he's with you guys this is your herd now and so I'm going to step out and all you're going to do is you're just going to step forward and you're going to see if he'll take a step to your shoulder just like you would on the ground nothing else changes so you're going to step forward yes good and when he gets there you just stop there yeah whenever you feel like he's soft in the forward I don't think he's quite thinking forward yet yes he's not quite thinking it that's exactly right just keep going cuz he's thinking kind of side pass but he's not thinking forward good yes he's got to think forward cuz he's still not really thinking forward there there there good Ryan can you explain to me why you did that because that was perfect so he got he got a little stuck and he was actually thinking side pass when I was tapping him so so I got his mind to get off of that and kind of Turn away and luckily he tipped his nose in and then I was able to guide him towards me a little bit but seemingly I thought I had to keep moving forward to get him to think into me but actually when I stopped he he just kind of was like oh yeah I got to catch up to this position so I just stopped there beautiful and then I just since I was tapping him with the whip here I just thought I'd pet him with it so Ryan just took my job there but that was the exact thing that we wanted to see from our horse just think forward think connection and you just have to with it based on what you know of your horse then when you're ready we're just going to try again that really was a good example cuz like I was planning on just keep moving forward to help him kind of draw in but when I stopped he kind of that's when he figured out so that's what like I like how you say like there's really no rules to this it's it's a you're just playing with the the life in them and there's not an exact science of how to do it it's it's work with the horse where they're at yes beautiful and so I try to go forward without the whip yes but then bring that stick with you and then yeah go ahead and stop your ridden horse there good and ask him to come back in and you can just keep walking here until he find Lambo finds the forward on his own cuz he's not really connecting the dots yet and I want him just to find Rhythm and relaxation with you I don't really care how close they are right now but I just want Lambo to think drive towards me okay so you see how Lambo left you're just going to drive him forward cuz he doesn't have the forward that we want and you don't have to like drive him for forward all crazy fast but I just want him to think go forward even if you can just Trot just a little bit and that's going to help us as we get that there we go good okay so just ask to walk forward and see if Lambo will come back around so again he wants to turn and face you I all I want Lambo to do is go forward to the left so go ahead and drive towards Lambo push him to the left and then we'll ask him to come back good yep so push him to the left and then we're going to ask about to go forward cuz that's his missing piece right now he just doesn't have the forward that we need and just a little bit more forward yes good it's interesting Voodoo is kind of bossing him around yeah Voodoo your ridden horse is going to like this job because he's going to feel like the leader good nice that's how really nice job of getting to the other side good good good good yes just keep asking him until he comes when he comes then we're going to release that good good yes yes yes when he gets there stop and rub him there beautiful and here yes really nice just set them until they relax good like he wants to move a little bit so maybe he'll just perfect yep and you see how Voodoo wants to kind of pin his ears you just make that slight correction good cuz again the biggest thing that we're seeing right now is the lack of that is the lack of forward and that relaxation coming to you cuz he doesn't know he's never done this before so again I just want him to think a little bit more forward cuz that's going to help his mind get with you yep yep a little bit more there we go good then walk forward yep and then just wait till he turns into you and then you're just going to turn away just like with at Liberty little bit more forward there when he connects to you you step away and ask him to draw to you if he loses there all right so just try it again we're going to ask him forward we're not asking for much in this session all I wanted to do is find relaxation with you and stepping towards you good yes yes yes cuz he's just thinking still side pass and turn and he's not really thinking forward good yes good good that's better forward yes yes when you feel like he's connected then we'll stop but don't stop until you feel like he's connected with you good that might have been the most effort he's put into trying to be here 100% it's interesting how much he's thinking side pass I don't think I would have expected that I maybe done that a handful of times on the ground wow sideways towards but but that's just what he's what he understanding right now and honestly as you said there's no real rules to this other than Ford I want your Liberty horse to think forward and then to connect other than that it doesn't really matter what you're doing yep try it again yep try it again until he will step towards you there you go I think I got to be better about my whip of tapping him on the inside here yes there that was a nice draw there and he doesn't have to be right next to you but he needs to be drawing towards you yes yes yes that was better and we just wash rinse repeat there we go so then he got distracted by a horse over there no big deal we ask him forward I love this guy good good so now he's doing a circle off of your Liberty which is beautiful and then we step away and ask him back in perfect yeah nice job Ryan so we'll step away again reset try again good as long as there's try and effort I don't care if he ends a little bit crooked all that I want him to think is forward beautiful job but guys this is what it looks like at home my horses aren't going to understand exactly what to do from the beginning they have to think they have to process and eventually they'll figure it out if we keep giving them green lights and rewarding them for the try good that was perfect yeah that kind of came together then Voodoo kind of figured it out too and got less boss he's like oh I don't have to do that right now yes cuz they're not in the herd they're in your herd yeah you know good yeah I started trying to tip his nose away from Lambo a little bit like hey you don't have to worry about that yes this is fun it's a blast good job Lambo lambo's starting to get the forward and not thinking side pass as much and the same thing on the ground like if he gets in front of you just turn away from him there we go you can tell Ryan's having fun out here guys beautiful yes I don't know why you just feel cool when you're doing this you feel pretty special good there we go now we're cooking right now that's it and just yep just slow there you go that good job of slowing Voodoo down there and then you can yep stop and reward good and again over time they will naturally get closer to each other I don't focus on how close they are at the beginning as long as they're connected yeah that makes sense you mind if I tried switching sides you said you want to switch sides yeah yeah go for it it's kind of curious I don't mind anything that you try cuz we'll work through anything there's no wrong answer to Liberty it's all just fun there you go good really nice good so he's thinking about leaving yep you just turn away yeah buo is like pinning his ears at him and it it's so small you can barely see it on camera but Ryan's doing a really nice job of just directing his ridden horse away from the Liberty horse to saying hey I'm the leader of this of this group here of this herd please don't try to boss the Liberty Horse Around good there good job and again even though he stopped crooked he gave effort to come yeah this is the first session you haven't done this before right no so that's effort and later we'll fix it but right now it's not about perfection just about confidence yeah how you feeling cool I like want to try so many things so there is one other most important thing with Liberty off the rid horse so I'm going to have it's called the heel it's what your horse knows to do when they get lost okay so I want you to get them back to the other side cuz that's going to be the more comfortable side and then I'm going to teach you the heal good so just yep just get him connected at the walk then when he feels connected or at the walk or the Trot you'll bring him to the middle you're going to stop and we'll teach you what the heel exactly is good okay so the requirements cuz I don't think I talked about the requirements in my eyes of how you know your horse is ready as a liberty horse is they need to be able to walk and trot at the shoulder on the ground and they be able to walk and trot circles on the ground once you have that you can do this WOW in my opinion yep and so but the most important thing is that I think other than them connection is called the heel which is the start of the circle but I wanted to teach them very early on in this process because if they get lost which they will what it is that we do to get him back okay so don't do it now but I'm going to have you back up Voodoo One Step you're going to bring your whip over your head you're going to send around your Liberty horse cuz backing up gives him space to come around okay when he comes around you're going to walk forward to draw them in to come back there oh gotcha okay so many people missed this step but it's so important CU yes so step back just back back one step yes open up the door yes yes there yes yes and then step forward and ask him to come in Oh My Gosh guys I promise we didn't practice this before but that was phenomenal and then from there once they get comfortable then you can back up and you can just follow with your stick to the circle wow but I need them to know that because that is their home how how many like maybe an average repetition or days would you kind of do this more basic stuff before you try like going into the circle honestly it's about nothing about the number of days it's about how connected they feel like if they feel soft you can do it next session so yeah if they had more experience at Liberty on the ground and we pretty connected you probably could just go on with it exactly yeah I want try that one more time yep and this is so good cuz you guys can't see but there's another horse running around NE in the round pin next to us here but they're staying really connected nice nice nice beautiful good that's fun it's a blast yeah and so the last thing I want to do is I don't want to end on the heel I want to end on the forward where they feel connected and then when they feel really good we'll Hop Off rub them and that'll be a good session okay I know you want to do a bunch today but again I'm big believer and giving it when they're giving effort yeah build build it in leave them in a good spot yes but just look and you guys watching at home just look at the difference in the relaxation and the forward and the confidence they're having with each other just after 20 minutes and uh it really is phenomenal and again not everybody you know wants to do this but I encourage you if you ever have oportunity to try it I highly recommend it because it's one of the most fun things you can do with your horses good job Ryan thank you Patrick that was awesome got to pay the toll here yeah I think I think uh people are going to see more of this I think we're going to we're going to keep this going and see what we can put together with these two I sure hope so I mean they're both young and green but um I think with a little bit of practice we'll be doing some cool stuff in no time well thank you very much Patrick that was a blast I really enjoyed that and uh that gave me just a lot of new insights on kind of the next level of Liberty like um your Liberty has really evolved and and you spent some time with Dan James yes um and and you've kind of made a hybrid program of sorts uh putting together things you knew from the past and things you learned learn from Dan and um it's it's really cool to see people like Patrick that are challenging it with Advanced high levels Liberty high levels of bridess riding and um I'm really looking forward to watching those videos on your YouTube channel so make sure again if you guys haven't already make sure you go subscribe to gilia unbridled I'll leave a link in the description below and we'll see you guys on the next one