Canadian Clinician Lorie Duff Horsemanship


“Ride Together” by MIRIAM LUCERO with LORIE DUFF photo credit MILLS PHOTO • photographer RICK MILLETTE


What is your “Philosophy of Horsemanship”, and how do you apply that to your horses? Would you share with our readers an example? My philosophy of horsemanship I have developed over several years.


Mostly from trial and error and just experiencing many different aspects of the horse. My philosophy of communication, trust & respect helps establish a safe and solid inter-disciplinary platform that will support and enhance the continued mutual learning of humans and horses that work together. When I first started out training horses, I sometimes would misread the


horse. I think mostly I didn’t really understand horses well enough. It took time to develop a good understanding. Take my Appaloosa horse Maverick, (now 22 years old) who I trained and


competed with for several years and is now retired. He’s a perfect example of how I developed my philosophy of my horsemanship. To this day, he still teaches me to stay humble and to be accountable for what it is I’m trying to communicate to him. He is also pretty clear about what he wants to commu- nicate to me. Most horses are misunderstood I think. Sometimes we spend a lot of time


misunderstanding many things in life. Taking the time and actually communi- cating it clearly will always give you a better result. Now older, Maverick and I have a different understanding of each other. I’m not in such a rush anymore to ask something of him without giving him an opportunity to communicate something back. When communicating to a horse I like to take the time. If I’m going to ask


a horse to walk and lead by my side or if asked to take a step back away from me, I want to make sure that when I ask the horse to do that my “ask” is understood. The timing in my hands is very clear to the horse. I can see the response from the horse, and I wait to ask more of the horse.


You have a great deal of training in Liberty, would you share the 5 key concepts to Liberty training? How would you apply the Liberty training to a spooked or rescue horse? Some of the greatest training that we can do with Liberty training is to tru-


ly understand what it means to work at Liberty with our horses. What liberty means to me and to my horse is freedom. I spend a lot of time with any horse


(continue to 14, 15, 16) HORSE & AG MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2020 13


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