Roundpenning, Liberty Work and "free Longeing"
In the field of natural horsemanship, it is a common practice to work a horse loose in a round pen 40 to 70 feet in diameter. (50 to 60 feet is considered standard). This is sometimes called free longeing or work at liberty, because the horse is asked to travel in a circle and obey human commands, only without a longe line attached. The handler uses voice, body language and a lariat or a longe whip to give commands to the horse, eventually teaching it to speed up, slow down, stop and change direction on command.
A variation of these techniques are also used by circus trainers to train horses and other animals, such as elephants to work in a ring for exhibition purposes. Both single animals and groups of animals can be trained to perform at liberty.
These types of liberty work are considered schooling disciplines and to simply turn a horse loose in a small pen and make it run around to get exercise is not free longeing.
Read more about this topic: Longeing
Famous quotes containing the words liberty, work and/or free:
“We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)
“When I first heard Elvis’s voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was gonna be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.”
—Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (b. 1941)
“Englishmen never will be slaves: they are free to do whatever the Government and public opinion allow them to do.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)