Bridleless Riding & Liberty Training with Horses - Angie Wicks
Channel: ANGIE WICKS Equine
Date: 2020-07-11

Welcome! I am Angie Wicks from Angie Wicks Equine.  If you have a genuine love for horses, then you are at the right place.  Here you will find educational horse training videos focused on the study of understanding horse behaviour and applying good horsemanship skills when working with your horse on the ground.  You will also find videos with good training tips and exercises to follow when riding your horse.   want to help people establish a deep connection & relationship with their horses that starts on the ground and is then transferred to their ridden work.   

My Training Philosophy 

My philosophy is very similar for every horse I work with, whether it’s a young horse, an older horse or an unhandled horse. 

The Horse Factor 
When training and interacting with a horse I start by establishing a willing partnership that starts on the ground and is then transferred to ridden work.   I believe in establishing healthy boundaries, mutual respect and safety. Then building each horse’s trust, confidence and acceptance in our world.  I also want to help each horse find deep levels of engagement, connection and relaxation through all of our training and interactions.  

I believe in building a deep and fulfilling relationship and connection with every horse I work with.  Leadership is important but when I think of leadership I think of what we as humans are bringing to the relationship with our horse.  As an effective leader I set clear boundaries and rules in a compassionate and caring way.  I have very clear and consistent communication that doesn’t change from moment to moment or day to day.  I am also very aware of my emotions and how they affect my horse.  I believe you have to learn how to regulate your own emotions before you can expect your horse to manage and regulate their emotions.       

I believe in both negative reinforcement; pressure and release and also positive reinforcement of; touch, scratches and sometimes food treats. Both negative and positive reinforcement have their place when used correctly.  

I understand that every horse is an individual and all horses have different levels of sensitivity.  I want every horse to become a confident learner.  I teach them to always look for the open door through offering constant releases of pressure with clear and consistent commination cues.  When training and interacting with horses I never want to take them past their window of tolerance, that way they always stay confident in the learning process.  When you can communicate at a refined and intuitive level you are able to tune into how each horse feels at each given time. You are able to recognize the most subtle changes in the horse’s body language and your releases become micro-releases.  This creates a huge amount of desire to please in the horse and a deep level of engagement and connection can be fostered.      

I also believe true horsemanship is about personal growth and to be really good with horses we need to learn a lot about ourselves and how our mental state, attitude, emotions and our internal and external energy affects our horse and the dynamic of the relationship we have with our horse.  If I can keep working on myself; growing, reflecting and learning, I know my relationship with my horse will get stronger and stronger, so this brings me to the Human Factor.    

The Human Factor 
I now know that true horsemanship is more about actually ‘being’ than it is about ‘doing’.  I think of the ‘being’ as a state that is reflective of being calm, being present, being centered, being aware of your breathing and what’s going on in your body, being soft, being emotionally regulated and being aware of your energy levels.  ‘Being’ is how we are in our mental state, attitude, emotions and intentions.  
However, I do believe people need to learn about the ‘doing’ often before the ‘being’ and slowing combine the two.  I think of the ‘doing’ as all the practical techniques of how to do certain exercises and tasks so you keep expanding your skill sets. However if you just focus on learning techniques and developing skill sets without any focus on the ’being’ you will miss the personal growth and building a relationship with your horse based off a deep connection.  If you can learn to combine the way of ‘being’ with the ‘doing’ your journey will become much more fulfilling and joyful for both you and your horse.  

I hope I can help inspire and educate you to achieve your dreams with your horse!

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