Geplaatst 
Ik ben een lange tijd heel erg into NH geweest, maar een paar maanden geleden heb ik iets gevonden waardoor mijn kijk op het samenzijn met paarden totaal is omgegooid, en ik wil dit dolgraag met jullie delen!
Dat 'iets' is Liberty Horsemanship.
Er valt heel weinig over te vinden op internet, maar op Instagram vond ik een aantal accounts van mensen met paarden die dit 'beoefenen' om het zo maar uit te drukken. Ik vond dit geweldig mooi en heb allerlei teksten en meningen gelezen, en uiteindelijk besloten dat dit DE manier is voor mij.
Ik ben nooit echt overtuigd geweest van de traditionele manier, met middelen als hulpteugels, zwepen etc. etc.
Ik was altijd meer van het 'natuurlijke', ookal geloofden veel mensen rondom mij daar niet zo in.
Ik heb deze tekst over LH (Zo noem ik het maar even, maar ik weet eigenlijk niet of het een officieel iets is) zelf geschreven, en ik hoop dat jullie het met plezier lezen! Het is uiteindelijk een stuk langer geworden dan verwacht, maar dat gebeurt me wel vaker
Ohja, de tekst is engels, omdat veel Liberty-mensen op Instagram uit andere landen kwamen.
What is Liberty Horsemanship?
Well, as the name says, LH is based on the horse's natural freedom, and friendship together. Freedom is a horse's nature, and with Liberty you let the horse actually be free. Your friendschip is your number 1 priority, and the horse gets to choose if he wants to be with you and participate, or not. When I say that, many people immediately think that the horse is always gonna walk away or misbehave when he gets to choose what he wants, but that is where people go wrong.
They think like that because they do traditional horsemanship, and traditional horsemanship isn't based on friendship. The focus is on reaching goals with the horse, and being a team together. But in reality, the horse isn't willingly joining that team. That is because the way to these goals happens more harmful and cruel you would expect at first most of the time. People force their horses to do what their human wants them to do. Whether that happens with mental or physical force. And it gets even worse, because if the horse doesn't do what he is supposed to do, something even more unpleasant will happen, like hitting, kicking or pulling. When you act like that, your horse doesn't enjoy being with you, he doesn't enjoy doing these things for you. But he still does it, because he doesn't want to feel pain, pressure, or force.
For this reason many people started to do Natural Horsemanship. Because at first sight this is a much more friendly, natural way of being with your horse. At first sight. !!! This is NOT against people who use NH, we all have our own opinions and I respect every single one of yours, this is just mine and other liberty people's
!!! so, natural horsemanship has actually a bit of a misleading name. And even though NH doesn't use as much physical force as traditional horsemanship, it uses even more mental force, which isn't less harmfull to your horse. They focus on being the leader, and there's nothing wrong about that! But ~ this is where people go wrong ~ the leader isn't a horse who places himself above the others, and being annoying by forcing the others to respect him. No, the leader is a horse who the other horses feel safe with. A friend, who sees the other horses as an equal, a horse you can have fun with and trust. People misunderstand the definition of respecting. For example, look at teachers. I don't respect teachers who canstantly yell at me because they feel they are superior to me. I respect those who I enjoy being with, who are friendly and clear, and I like to be in company with. And if that is what respect is, then I respect my horses and they respect me. But in NH they look different at respect. They force the horse to 'respect' them, physically or mentally. They use pressure and release.
Pressure is put on the horse when we want him to do something, and when he does it, we release that pressure to 'reward' and let him know what he is doing is good. But again, the horse doesn't like that pressure so he only pleases the human so that he will be more comfortable. Is that friendship? or respect?
With mental force that works the same. If the horse is sent away till he 'respects' the human, have you ever thought about how the horse is thinking and why he is eventually coming to you and pleases you?
Being sent away means death in nature, he can't survive on his own. So actually the horse is mentally forced to be with the human, because otherwise he wouldn't be safe. I don't see how that has anything to do with friendship or love...
Now, with Liberty, we let the horse think of himself. We give him the free choice to be with us and participate, or not. Our relationship is based on friendship, love, and seeing eachother as equals. those things are always your priorities, with everything you do. Everything has to be based on those things and shouldn't be able to ruin them. No pain, so no whips or bits or pulling the reins. No disciplining. No force, so don't put pressure on the horse, mentally or physically. All positive reinforcement. We only want to be friends and love eachother. That must be the focus. Everything else accomplished with that focus is just a bonus. That way also has much faster and better results since the horse enjoys participating. He chose to do it. Everything he does, he does for you because he wants to please you and cause he enjoys it. Not because he doesn't want something unpleasant to come when he doesn't do it right, just because it's fun and he loves you! Give your love, and ignore the bad behaviour. that WILL work, because liberty comes to a point where the horse wants to do everything to please you, we just think they would walk away or act annoying immediately when we let them do what they want, because we don't treat them the right way. The way they deserve. Horses are so willingly and loving, but humanity has changed our view on horses so much, we would almost forget how special it is that such a beautiful and sensitive flight animal let a creature like us ride on their back and be with them. We think we teach horses things, but we only add cues to things they already know. They already can do everything we think we learn them, but we don't realize that and are putting tack and bits etc. on them, only because we are inable to see we don't need all that.
At last, many peole say "if a horse really doesn't want to do something, he wouldn't do it. you cannot force a horse, so it's not that bad".... Well, actually even an animal that big and strong, can be forced. Horses are flight animals, they naturally want to flight from bad things. Including pain or force. They want to be safe, and the only way to escape the uncomfortable situation is to flight for it, so doing what the human wants because then it will be comfortable. Horses are very sensitive, and we just have no idea what we are doing to them by putting pain on them or force them by using bits, whips, and even tack like bridles and halters and things like that. Liberty isn't about just dropping all the tack, it's about having such a great bond and friendship together you don't need reins or whatever to communicate. And because you don't put pressure on your horse, you won't need the tack, so why use it?
If only the horsey people would open up their eyes just a little bit more, the world would be a much better place for horse and human. t's not a way of training, it's a different way of livingDit is absoluut GEEN aanval of wat dan ook tegen mensen die NH of traditioneel zijn met hun paarden, dit is de methode waar ik in geloof, en ook geweldig heeft uitgepakt (nu al) voor zowel mij als mijn paarden. Ik hoor heel graag jullie meningen hierover! Ik respecteer die van jullie, dus wees vrij met reageren! Als het maar aardig blijft hier, het is absoluut niet mijn bedoeling hier een discussie van te maken
ik vind het heel inspirerend! Maarja ik ben maar een manegeruiter, dus toepassen zal niet lukken 
het is alleen (zoals jij ook al zegt) een heel belangrijk iets waardoor jij en je paard al een hele goede band van kunnen krijgen door dit te doen. En ja, kijken naar je paard is al mentale druk, maar juist daarom is het belangrijk dat je je aandacht vestigt op iets anders wanneer je in het weiland o.i.d gaat zitten. Maar paarden kijken ook naar elkaar, en wanneer jij en je paard elkaar echt kunnen zien als gelijken, zal die druk minuscuul of er misschien zelfs niet meer zijn wanneer jullie samen zijn. 
