Liberty Show an exhibition of horse-riding trickery

By Jeremy Appel on July 27, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

Niki Flundra of Pincher Creek is bringing her horse-riding Liberty Show to the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede this weekend.

“I work my horses through a whole routine,” said Flundra, 38, who’s been putting on these shows for the past decade.

Flundra rides the horses without a saddle and then gets them to do tricks, such as figure-8s, without any reins or lines tying them to her.

“They work off my verbal cues and body language,” she said. “It’s just a pretty display that shows the relationship that can exist between horse and human.”

Flundra says she has to build up a level of trust with the horses, starting with the most basic moves and working their way up to more advanced techniques.

She studied under an Australian Liberty trainer, who showed Flundra the tricks of the trade.

“The basics would be having your horse follow you, and be able to work a circle around you and come back,” explained Flundra.

“Keeping him focused and hooked on to you, and then you would work your way up into a little more refined things, like being able to place him wherever you want, stop him, bring him to you from a long distance, change directions, and that would work up into more of the advanced trick-training, like rearing them up and laying them down.”

This is Flundra’s fifth year performing at the Stampede. She’s scheduled to perform each day at an unspecified time near the halfway point of the rodeo show portion.

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