Susi & Hercules Liberty Clicker Training

04/11/2024

Just a reminder that this page is no longer active. Please follow Susi May or susimay22 on Instagram

01/05/2024

🔊 Thankyou for all the new interest and following. Unfortunately this page is still inactive. Please follow our journey at Susi May or Instagram 🪽

03/04/2024

🔈Just a reminder that this page is still inactive. You are welcome to follow us at Susi May or susimay22 for Instagram.

31/03/2024

A beautiful example of what clicker means for me. The tool of my personal magic. Hours and hours of my life that flowed into this strangely alluring thing, that was indeed my destiny. 🙏

"Perhaps, you remember a moment when something you would come to love first registered in your consciousness. Maybe you saw a phrase written in a language so beautiful you simply had to learn it, or heard a particular instrument being played and felt the sound entrance you. Maybe you knew, right then and there, that hours and hours of your life would flow into this strangely alluring thing. That the thing was part of your destiny, a tool of your personal magic." — Martha Beck

12/03/2024

2 Day Horsemanship Clinic 🪽
First retreat of the year! Empowering horses to learn through positive experience.

🌵Womans Wellness Retreat is a nurturing based equine experience set over two days on our 20-acre Dongara property.

Prioritising relationship at the core, you will learn how to read your horse and increase your feel and timing with training techniques that build your horses confidence through relaxation and clear communication.

Surrounded by like-minded people and the love for your horse, this clinic is a great opportunity for any young horse, green horse or anxious horse needing self regulation practices.

A little about Susi.

Over the past twelve years, Susi has developed her training technique from a range of different disciplines but these days Susi is focused more on partnership before horsemanship. She provides the basic foundation to self-regulation practices bringing awareness to the horses nervous system and basic principles of horse psychology. She specialises in confidence building and behaviour issues.

Susi’s gentle and effective training method is used allowing horses and humans to connect on a deeper level. "To be able to share the delicacy of connection between horse & human and into the realm of energetic connection" is what she aspires to teach.

"After having a full knee reconstruction and 6 months out of the saddle, I can honestly say that having being forced to only work with horses from the ground changed my life! Horses have raised my awareness and my consciousness, and I am now able to focus on the messages that they are giving me. The more you stop to observe and learn from animals, the healthier and more peaceful your life will be. They are our earth schoolteachers."

Clicker training is being used successfully by horse owners, riders and trainers all around the world. It is based on behavioural psychology and is backed by decades of scientific research.

Clicker is considered one of the best practices by international animal training organisations and is used in zoo’s & marine parks around the world. It works with horses of all ages and breeds, and it can help build basic steps in your groundwork or if you want to achieve your goals undersaddle the competition arena.

Location Dongara. Special rate $400 per person. 📅 20th & 21st April. $200 deposit to secure your booking. Maximum five.

05/11/2023

Thankyou for the new followers 🙏 unfortunately this page is inactive. Your welcome to follow me on Susi May

30/05/2023

➡️ Just a reminder this page is NOT active! Please follow my Susi May page for continued awesomeness 🌟 Note: You are also able to follow my page without sending a friend request. Please reach out if you are having trouble doing this. Regards, Susi

04/02/2023

Shame wants you to hide.

But then you become ashamed of how much you’re hiding. How much you’re missing out on the life you long for.

It’s a vicious circle for sure. Disconnection from self, disconnection from life, feeding on itself.

It takes so much courage to step out into the arena of life. To come out of hiding. To tell the truth about yourself. To risk being ridiculed, rejected, laughed at. To risk being abused, re-traumatised, gaslit, ignored, whatever.
To risk failure. To risk losing all your friends, even your family.

But now you have a Great Ally. Yourself!
You are with yourself at last. And if you are mocked, jeered at, good. You get to experience that fully.

You taste the terrifying thrill of freedom.

You want to run back to safety and hide, but you don’t.

You taste more of yourself, more of life.

Shame is healed by bowing to it but not listening to it anymore. By taking the courageous steps anyway, despite shame’s protests.

Shame then loses its grip on you.
You have shame, but it no longer has you.
You are the powerful one, not shame.

You are life itself, dying and being reborn, endlessly.

Endlessly.

Jeff Foster (www.lifewithoutacentre.com)

25/12/2022

You will know the Ancients when you meet them. You will recognize them. They are the ones who lead by their example. They are the courageous ones. They are the furious ones. They are the singing ones. The ones with otherworldly eyes. The ones who make you dance in their aliveness. The ones whose faith keeps you afloat in dark-womb waters.

You will know the Ancients when you hear their voices rumble through your mortal coil. You will know they are near when the downy hair on your forearms stand up in a salute as they enter the room.

Some Ancients like to make an entrance. Others slip silently through the back door. But they know you. They know that you are there.
Some come wrapped in furs and skins; bones and animal heads adorn their crowns. Some wear feathers in their hair. Some come dancing in with jingling swinging hips, in waving, silky fabrics from the Orient.

The Ancient ones smell like campfire smoke, or exotic flowers. Some smell like the sea, briny and wild with sand on the scalp. On others yet, the scent of pine needles. Some burn hot, like the lava that made the land your stick house sits upon.
Even in the most gentle of Ancients, is something fierce and mighty. It keeps them humble. It keeps them true. It liberates the extended family from the bear-trap lie, and the caging of the mind.

Most Ancients are not easygoing. They died brutally too many times to take the medicine they carry lightly. They do not throw their diamond tears to those who dare not weep themselves to the rivers of peace.

The Ancients are deities-in-training, soon to be in practice. They are the new gods and goddesses emerging from the primordial waters of the red sea. Most of them insist that they are human; they do not want to frighten off the children they have sacrificed themselves to heal, to feed, to love. Hundreds of thousands of lifetimes over, they have died to help you now. Today.

The Ancients are a dignified lot. They may be young or old, fat or skinny, beautiful or terrible in their appearance. They wear an invisible mantle of Divine Authority. They are spiritual royalty, and to them your suffering is an insult to the Kingdom to which all of us belong.

19/12/2022

Just a reminder this page is inactive due to time management. If you would like to continue to follow Susi & Hercules Liberty Clicker Training, please go to the Susi May page

06/12/2022

11/09/2022

While each horse is different, here are some common behavioral signs that can help you tell if if your horse is happy, sick, or painful, as well as keep you safe.

08/09/2022

Mental Health for Professionals,

Some thoughts and rules to live by if you want to not lose your sh*t and enjoy a long, happy career in the equine industry:

1- not everyone has to appreciate you. Quit expecting others to value your work if they have a different expectation. Don’t waste a moments energy chasing after the need for someone to appreciate you if they don’t- because there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of others who desperately want your help. It’s a waste of your time and energy.

2- never stop working on yourself. The best people in their field work hard on themselves. Take lessons. Get therapy. Work out. Eat better. Never settle- keep pushing to be your absolute best. Don’t let your work swallow you whole and steal everything you have- if you develop yourself first, do your work second, you can pour from a full cup and truly serve the public.

3- make sure you ride your horses first. Don’t walk by your gorgeous horse one more time before you work with them- they aren’t getting younger and neither are you. Your training horses will all go home and you don’t get to decide what happens to them. Your horses are your true friends who won’t let you down. They deserve your attention.

Thankyou Amy Skinner Horsemanship

06/09/2022

Sadly I've seen alot of horses with this mental concept of being chased around in a round pen. It can bring back alot of sour memories including the use of the whip. I spend alot of time in the roundyard re-introducing the whip and the energy behind it. A whip has many purposes and the horse should know each purpose "energy" behind it whether it means halt, go, move out or move in. Vaulting horses for example, the signal to halt is to put the whip infront of the horse. But for me personally it's not about the cues it's about allowing your horse to connect with you in a way where he or she understands your energy, your intention. A tool is just a tool but connection is the true communication.

Does chasing a horse to catch them work?

It can, but, as I have often said, whatever you practice is what you perfect.

If we practice the experience of catching a horse by running them off their feet, and making running more miserable than being caught, we will always need the threat of running to catch them. These kinds of things teach a horse that being with a person is only slightly less bad than exhaustion. Is this what we really want to say about ourselves? Is this what we want to leave a horse with?

It is a sad thing to me to get a horse in a round pen and find them go into autopilot. The expression sours and they do manic laps as if there were an invisible whip behind them. These horses have often been run in circles in a round pen endlessly. They have not learned how to learn, or how to connect, but only to avoid, submit or bounce between a combination of the two.

Some folks have nothing good to say about a round pen. I happen to love mine and the work that can be done in it- but it’s far too easy to run a horse off their feet in one and create a poor experience and association with one.

A round pen is just another place to connect with a horse- no different than an arena, a stall, or any other place we might work. It’s limited size allows us to connect a little more easily in some cases, but it should not become a place to run a horse into a lather.

08/08/2022

There are two basic motivating forces....
Fear and Love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life and set a path of destruction. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer.

Learn to love yourself in all your glory & imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others and our potential to create.

Education & all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open hearted vision of people who embrace life.

24/07/2022

When we take on an Off the Tracker we sometimes forget or underestimate the rehabilitation that needs to be done. They require a lot of time and a team of professionals to help rehab them both mentally and physically. There are many aspects that need to be understood. However, the benefits are so rewarding if everything is introduced in the right way. Time, knowledge and patience.

This is Luna, a 4yo OTT with only 5 starts.
She's now had four months of inhand work and is ready to be started undersaddle again. My son Liam here being a great helper, not only tackling the weight of a 520 quad and watching the track but reading Luna at the same time, watching her body language, her ears and ensuring he allows space for her to move. Despite squeezing through the sharp bushes, Luna too is always listening and has learnt to read the revs of the bike. When we slow down she will slow down and the same with speeding up and stopping. I can't wait to see her evolve into a beautiful strong mare. ✨️

20/07/2022

In the wild, horses track every movement—who is moving, what is moving, what sounds are out of the ordinary. The herd notices and signals their concerns to the leader, who then urges the herd to move if needed. If the herd leader notices the concern but isn’t worried, the horses relax. This is exactly what Hercules is doing here as the lead horse 'confidence builder'. Not only guiding them on their first ever treks to the unknown but holding his weight in gold as an alpha herd leader and welcoming each and every horse 💗

14/07/2022

September is approaching fast! 👀💥

Don't forget to lock your seat in for our demonstration with Candida Baker on Saturday 17th September 9am- 2pm, Dongara.

Due to working with a trauma horse, this event will be child and dog free. 🐕‍🦺👶

$60 per person and please bring plate of food to share. 🥐🍡🍴

If you are travelling from a far like most, camping will be available on Friday the 16th for an additional price. PM for details.