https://www.hamiltonacres.com.au/l-e-horsemanship

Liberated Equestrian Horsemanship, Toorbul (2026)

23/02/2024

Jarrah finished up with some training here earlier in the year. He came in as an unhandled brumby not long saved from kosciuszko. He's aged at around 10 and was a stallion with his own mob of mares and foals. He had a long time out there to very much hone and perfect his flight instincts - and they sure were strong 😅 he'd already learnt how to look after himself and others in the wild making a relationship with humans not something he saw as necessary. He didn't need it and so he was resistant to it. There's something very humbling about working with older caught brumbies. If you want to interact with them, you have to have something to offer them in regards to a meaningful relationship or else they would rather remain independent. A lot of the usual tricks for training unhandled horses won't work on them. You need something deeper. Any kind of pressure was frightening for him and would trigger his flight response to a high level so being given the opportunity to start him with positive reinforcement and clicker training was super special. It allowed an avenue for communication to begin. To get the opportunity to work with a brumby that didn't have any other training influence on him, to really let the positive reinforcement do its magic was a really cool learning curve. And it made all the difference for him. Learning the behaviours and the visuals of the cues with no pressure applied, first through clicker training and shaping the behaviours, and then once he was building confidence there asking with a little pressure and seeing the change in his mentality as he learnt to trust what people were saying and started to enjoy the challenge of learning and working out what things meant. He's one of those horses who has a special way about him and a wisdom far beyond most people's. He's a special boy and he's in amazing hands with his owner and I wish both of them the best in their journey together.

12/01/2024

Bandit was in recently for a few weeks of training to help him find some relaxation undersaddle. He even had a go trying some bitless riding and it was pretty cool to see how much more he stretched out in his body when the bit was removed. Which I'll post some freeze frames of when I next get a chance cause the difference is quite amazing 😳

The first 2 clips show his "before" where you can see when he gets a bit anxious he tosses his head and jig jogs. The 2nd lot of clips are from one of his final rides where he's a lot less worried about the aids and is trusting in what the rider says more and the final clips are of him bitless 🐎😄

21/11/2023

4 weeks ago Jarrah was an unhandled brumby. He's now wearing a halter and lead and growing in confidence every week 🤎

Little mr confidence aka Arrow on the other hand is learning what it's like to be a pampered pony who gets all the mud groomed off him after the rain 🩵

14/11/2023

One brumby haltered, another half haltered. Wild, flight animals whose every instinct is to not let yourself get caught - to accept a halter is a very vulnerable thing for them. To rush that or force that from them shouldn't be the way. It might just be a halter to us, a way of being able to manage them in captivity. To them, it's their freedom. Their safety, put directly into the hands of a different species. They should be allowed the time they need to process that. To experience their emotions and work through them in order to find a better place mentally. Both these boys are incredibly lucky to have humans who understand that and allow them to enjoy their journeys into domestic life 🐴❤️

30/10/2023

Two very brave brumbies learning to trust 🥹

27/10/2023

Couple of new brumby faces around here for training 🐴😄 these guys aren't long caught from the wild so are still quite wary. They'll be given some of their early introductions into the human world here so they can start off on the right foot with confidence and healthy communications with their humans.

05/10/2023

Yesterday marked the end of Banjo's training here 🌟🐎 he had a few things to overcome so it's so nice to see him reach the end of that and be back home ready to embark on the next stage of his journey 😄

21/09/2023

Banjo playing around with some different stimuli 🤠

The world outside of the arena or roundyard can be an unpredictable place and though you may never encounter a flying tarp or umbrella out on a trail, it is very likely you'll encounter numerous stimuli that are new and challenging for your horse. By practising with all sorts of stimuli in a safe environment, you give your horse the chance to recognise that they can still rely on your aids even if their environment is different. You still speak the same language to them and they can still be successful and feel good even if they can't control their environment.

08/09/2023

✨️How do I resolve the buck✨️

Horses buck for all sorts of reasons but one of the most common reasons I find is due to them being stuck in a certain way of travelling in their body where they hold a lot of tension and then when asked to stretch out in a canter - especially when on a circle - the only way for them to maintain balance is to throw some bucks. It's their way of trying to release some tension and maintain control over their body on the circle. And to try and punish the horse for such a response won't help them. Two common punishments often seen will either be a smack with a whip or rope or to run the horse faster and for longer. Both of these will have the result of creating more tension in the horse's body. You will fatigue muscles fibres, again creating more tightness the next day (think about when you go for a run for the first time in awhile and overdo it and how you feel the next morning), and also tension in their mind. You will create a fear of punishment which will result in the horse carrying themselves tightly as they will be on edge around you.

So what else can you do? Well for me it's rather simple. Let the horse have their process and help guide them to a softer place both physically and mentally. Never make them feel wrong for being tense. Ask them to stretch out in the canter just long enough to bring some heat to the muscles, to stretch the fibres and then bring them back down and cool off. You'll notice rather quickly that the horse starts to feel more freedom in their body, there will no longer be any internal motivation to buck, and all this will result in a softer horse ready and open for more learning.

This is Banjo a brumby in for training who faced this exact difficulty. By going through this process with him he is now finding softness in his body and mind, is bracing less and less when tension does come up and is in a far better position now to find balance and strength in his body. So of course I'm very proud of him 🐴❤️ because even in those moments on the right rein where he felt more tense and was shorter in his stride and tighter in his neck, instead of bracing and bucking he decided to try this new thing he'd learnt and release and relax 😌

**It's worth noting if you go through this process and your horse is still bucking, one of two things may be at play.
1. Ill-fitting equipment may be perpetuating the tightness.
2. There is internal pain within your horse that isn't going to go away through stretching and releasing tension and may require a vet check.

14/05/2023

✨️How do I Problem Solve??✨️

When we first got O'Malley he had a stopping issue. He forgot about his breaks sometimes and was difficult to bring back from the canter. The problem wasn't that he didn't know how to stop or didn't understand any stopping aids, his problem was that he got so tight in his body he was able to block any aids provided to him. An issue I would say is one of the most common I see in horses. The things people say to them have lost value to them so they don't feel a need to listen. Then combine that with them being super tight in how they travel meaning they can't even "feel" your aids and you have a huge breakdown in communication.

So what's the step forward? Do you add more aversives until the horse has to listen because they've lost their choice as to whether they want to listen or not. Or do you find a way to strip everything back, open up the lines of communication so you can have a clear conversation with the horse - no equipment getting in the way. The latter is how I choose to tackle those problems. By removing the bridle O'Malley is provided a freedom he, in the past, hasn't been allowed. He can for once actually feel his body out and find what feels good without the rider micromanaging the situation. Once he's given the opportunity to find softness, I then check back in with him, remind him I'm still there and ask a couple questions: "can you bend a little more", "can you slow down", "can you turn". And now you have a horse that's not only open to listening and finding the answer but is actively partaking in the conversation being had.

29/03/2023

This old gal got a much needed pedicure today thanks to Equine Action QLD LTD. She'll be far more comfortable now and able to enjoy a leisurely life in her new foster home 🐴💙

02/03/2023

It's been a mammoth week of moving house 🏠🐎 apparently it was only 10 days ago we endeavoured to move all 6 horses in the one day but it feels like a lifetime ago 😅 we were faced with a challenge I'm sure many horse people are all too familiar with - the dreaded "I need to move my horse but haven't had time to do any float training with it yet" challenge. Except in this case it was a 12 month old c**t who had never been near a float before in his life. We had no idea how the day would go but we wanted to make sure Merlin was set up for whatever kind of success we could scrounge for him in this less than ideal situation. Instead of just trying to force him up into the float in the one go and hope for the best, we had a game plan in place. We had a 2 horse float and 6 horses to move which meant that each time we had to put 2 horses in the float we were able to do a quick training session with Merlin while the float was still empty. He got 2 training sessions in before his big moment of truth. Last to do the trip was Merlin and his mum. We loaded Belle up thinking we'd catch Merlin and do him last but as we were walking Belle on, he walked up his side of the float himself, parked at the end and waited for me to run and get his halter to tie him up 😅 we weren't expecting him to self-load when he did so we didn't have the camera ready in time 😭 for a horse who had never been near a float before to loading himself on by the end of the day made us quite the proud horse parents 🥲

This was achievable because Merlin has been handled in a way that instills confidence in his ability to be successful in a human world. So even if he's not particularly confident at a specific task what he is confident to do is give a try. And the try is all you need, because that's the open door to being able to train the whole behaviour. But if the horse isn't confident in what you have to say, they won't bother to stick around and hear you out, they'll just take matters into their own hands and get themselves out of the situation. And that's what my training is about. Making every interaction with your horse mean something to the horse. That the way you communicate to your horse has value to them. And 10 days ago Merlin was a shining example of how those elements can come together in a real world, difficult situation and result in a very successful, happy horse and two incredibly relieved humans.

Liberated Equestrian Horsemanship

23/02/2024

12/01/2024

21/11/2023

14/11/2023

30/10/2023

27/10/2023

05/10/2023

21/09/2023

08/09/2023

14/05/2023

29/03/2023

02/03/2023

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