Carolyn Resnick's Horsemanship Blog – Horse Training from the ground up

Horses respect politeness so much that when a horse corrects rudeness in their herd, they feel a deeper connection for the horse that pointed out their anti-social behavior. The most polite horse has many friends and a lot of respect. They have a lot of power because they know how to stay out of the way when another horse is not receptive to interaction or sharing space. They also know how to turn that energy around, how to develop a relationship, how to change another horse’s attitude and how to court a horse with a dominant attitude.

I use the Waterhole Rituals in the same way a lead horse goes about developing friendship, developing the bond, changing a dominate horse’s attitude and helping a fearful horse to feel more personal power.

Relationships are paramount to the well-being of horses. The connections and battles they share are enjoyed. Just like we would rather sometimes scrap with one another than really find a solution.

It is been my pleasure over the years to see many herds where every horse is a lead horse and they share a different rank position as needed to fit the circumstances. In these herds there is no more battles because all the horses respect and follow the rules I wrote about, in long time herds the fights are over. For these horses, the young coming up keep the dynamics alive and exciting because they will turn into social rule breakers as they begin to mature. This unity and harmony could not be gained without the evolutionary experience of learning social behavior. The young must adjust to fitting in and learning how not to be rude, how to lead, how to follow and how to keep their own personal needs met without being rude.

As humans we need to play many parts, sometimes we are the leader, sometimes the student, sometimes the teacher, sometimes the follower and sometimes the banished. If you focus on the practice of the Waterhole Rituals all these roles lead to a perfect working bond in harmony and unity. You will discover a magnetic connection as the outcome.

To take a closer look at understanding politeness and rudeness, we must go back to the wild, into a herd of horses and look deeply into their culture.

When a foal is born, he is born polite. He does not intend to make any changes in his environment or see any reason to do so, his ego is not formed. So, he listens to his instincts. His instincts keep him alive, safe, and likable in the herd he is born into. The way he operates is to move away for anything that approaches him and to move toward anything that is leaving him. (This is a good practice for people who can share space in a herd).

These two responses carry a lot of social protection and politeness. It was how I stayed safe and connected with the wild horses I studied throughout my life, especially when I was a child. I kept my distance and followed them. Communities of horses adjusted to my presence naturally from following the first simple rule of politeness. Dominant aggressive horses really respond well to courting them in this manner.

This is the most polite way to be in a herd of horses. A new horse that enters a herd will be pushed by many members because the members of the herd want to see that the new horse is going to be able to fit in with them. They are checking to make sure that he has a good attitude that can show respect. Horses can read the intent of other horses most of the time and will get very aggressive with a new horse if they feel that the new horse could possibly turn into a horse that would not conform to the community needs. If the new member allows all the other horses to push it around, the horse then gains acceptance trust.

It is paramount to achieve this trust and acceptance before training horses and it needs to be gained by starting out in a passive manner, the same way a foal starts his life in a natural herd.

Using round pens and tack to develop bonds does not take a passive position with the horse. Taking a passive position in the beginning is essential to develop a bond as close as the bond that horses have with each other. The practical reason for this kind of bond is to bring out a true friend and to bring out the best qualities of the horse and his ability to work as a united team with you in harmony. The connection you want to gain is a magnetic connection on the ground because it will translate to a centaur connection when you ride.

There is no better dance or performance.

Have a great weekend.

Carolyn

P.S. I heard from Mark that he will be sending out the email about how you can ‘be my voice’ next week. Watch this space…

Tags: bond, communication, connection, leadership, relationship, Waterhole Rituals

I do not address vices like biting, kicking or bucking if I can avoid it. Fighting with a horse does not help the bond and partnership and it can cause a horse to develop a bad attitude that then becomes a permanent part of his personality. It is better to focus on building a social bond and deal with the rudeness of the horse in a way that would build the bond and respect.

Many of you may be shocked to learn what horses actually see as polite behavior and it is very much misunderstood. Building polite behavior in a horse would enhance the bond, build team-working skills and enhance a horse’s natural instincts. When a horse is no longer rude, he sees you as family and you have a greater chance that he will want to follow your lead. The Waterhole Rituals will teach you when to lead, when to follow and when to pause. Observing the horse as he exhibits different behaviors from being willing to not being willing will guide you in the direction you need to take with him.

When people bond with their horses, often times the person does not realize that the horse is behaving rudely to them. Everything seems to be fine but a horse may not have unconditional respect for them. I develop unconditional respect using the Waterhole Rituals. The Rituals will also uncover the true nature of your horse and how he feels about you and you will learn more about horses and how to train them and develop their attitude to be willing, well adjusted and optimistic.

So what would constitutes rude behavior in a social interaction from the horse’s point of view that you might be overlooking?

Rudeness within the herd would be a horse that would not respect another horse’s personal space by leaving it when asked. Another rude behavior might look like not moving on when asked to move on. Or moving out of the way of a horse moving through and who needs the horse he is approaching to move out of the way. It could also look like a horse that enters another horse’s personal space without an invitation, or not paying attention to new personal boundary requirements of the horses around him. It is so simple really. I think we have similar etiquette in our own society. You will see this human etiquette in public places where people are on the move.

Horses spend a lot of time in social conduct in the spaces that they share with one another. It helps them to run at top speed as a herd in unity and helps them to make the right choices in what the next direction they need to go in and to follow the leader’s direction. Horses are amazing creatures in how they work together and this is the working bond we want to reach.

In order to be more clear in whether or not you have an unconditional bond and respect you need from your horse, ask yourself if you could ask the horse to leave you alone and move away from you even when the horse feels a bond and wants to be very close. Without this ability, it is hard to train and dance with your horse at liberty safely. Especially when he gets excited and wants to confront you, which they will if you do not have some order worked out with them.

Ask yourself could I stop my horse’s approach if I had carrots in my hand and would he leave me alone? Could I ask him to leave the area and not come back so that he would not return? Could I ask him to move away from me quickly? Could I enter the horse’s space and ask him to leave and he would? If he can do that, he has respect for you and he is being polite and likes you. Exercising how to move around each other in a polite way is the key to a horse’s heart.

If you answered ‘no’ to many of those questions above, then you have a long way to go with the relationship with your horse and it is why you are experiencing some of the problems you are.

When you’re approaching your horse and want politeness you will need to listen to what he wants and not always what you want. Though you could ask him and if he wants to do what you are asking him to do you are in good shape! An example is: If he did not want the halter put on, you would not try to make him wear it. If he comes up to you, it means he will be more likely to be in the mood for his halter to be put on. You could also be more direct with him and he wouldn’t perceive you as being rude as long as he chooses to be with you. But when he leaves you from your demands, to be polite you must not persist or pursue. When you and your horse work out these details on what is rude and what is polite it grows the trust and bond. The biting, kicking, and bucking stops if you are gracious in how you choose to listen to your horse and lead the dance going forward with him in a way that resonates with the horse while keeping the bond and respect.

5 Top Tips to Developing Your Relationship

I hope that helps and I look forward to hearing your comments as to how these questions have played or play out for you.

Carolyn

Tags: attention, bond, communication, connection, leadership, partnership, relationship, Waterhole Rituals

From this point, forward I am focusing on helping people to understand my Method of training through the Waterhole Rituals at liberty.

I have trained at liberty for over 40 years and in the mid 70’s I coined the phrase ‘Liberty Training’. In those days I had to explain what Liberty Training a horse was. Now 40 years later, people frequently use this phrase and in some cases not as it was intended or defined by me. For those of you who do not know yet what Liberty Training is, my definition is that Liberty Training is a method of training a horse in a free environment without tack from the ground in a wide open space large enough for a horse to avoid his training if he wants to.

This is the secret of how to bring about a horse’s interest in wanting to bond and seek out your company. In ‘Liberty Training’, you want the horse to feel free so he can begin to act and react from his instincts and to show the handler his true feelings and so that the handler can respond more proficiently and fairly. The Method causes a horse to exercise his instincts and at the same time, developing and increasing a horse’s spirit and ego. Once the horse exercises his instincts, it brings about his herding instinct preferences to follow a leader rather than to be a leader. With the right approach and when a horse feels free without tack or pressure, he will put forth his best effort into a partnership and develop an optimistic attitude with excellent team working skills that are instinctual to horses. Liberty training opens the door to interactive relationships. Most importantly, it will create a spiritual connection that brings about a true cross species bond like the boy and his Stallion in the movie the “Black Stallion”.

I will continue to help everyone with the UE when I receive a YouTube of your work. The reason I am not continuing with them at this time is the class needs to catch up and be able to perform all of them properly before I move into the next set. This way you truly earn your free lessons. But more than that, the secret to teaching anything is the timing of the information given to the student, so we need to pause so you can work and process this information, gain proficiency and be capable of understanding the advanced set. I am pleased to work with those of you that progress on the UE for the next two years because I know how valuable these exercises are. I will continue giving the class to the people who can do the first set of exercises well and who are receiving great benefits from them when they ride.

I am still looking for a working student to work with me on my many projects from my ranch. I need someone who is a great rider in dressage or bridleless riding or someone who can organize and create programs with my Method. I have a real good horse at this time that you will love to work with. He has two National Championships under his belt, he is an optimistic horse, and he sees work as play and loves people.

I will further explain the Waterhole Rituals but in a fun way. I wrote a book for adults using a children’s book approach. This is the first book in a series. I remember when I was growing up I loved books that were written as a series. There was something magical about them especially when they were fiction. This story is fiction, based on a horse that inspires me to write what I am about to share with you today. His name is Marchador. He likes his name because he told me that it caused people to respect him because of the sound of the name. M-a-r-c-h-a-d-o-r. It generally has no real meaning to English speaking people but does denote respect and causes a person to feel they might know the meaning of the name and would like to know more about him before getting too involved. His name gives him something in common with the people who come into his life because he doesn’t know what the name means either but the sound is softly haunting and has a strange effect on people by getting rid of any agenda they might have for him to fulfill.

Here are the first few pages from my story…

In his own words and thoughts Marchador tells a story about his unique purpose in life.

Marchador, Human educator

The first thing people ask when they see me is what kind of horse is that? Then someone says he is a Mangalarga Marchador horse. I have no idea what that that means. Then there’s a lot of discussion of what that means and each time I listen, it means nothing to me.

When I was born, I was a free spirit, I grew into a king of kings, a warrior and leader of leaders, a spiritual adviser, a judge and seeker, a diplomat, a caretaker and friend.

Then I became a traveler.

I arrived in the U.S.A. eager to educate humans in the way of horses.

I wasn’t very good at it in the beginning but at least I got my points across. We had a small language barrier.

I found the best way to address my students after winning a few battles was with kindness and body language.

I started teaching leadership workshops at “Dances With Horses.”

My students began learning once they gave up the idea that I was a Mangalara Marchado horse and now I am in my hay day having the full attention of my classes.

I am teaching how to speak to the spirit of all horses.

The lessons begin with the student addressing me personally.

They ask me what kind of a horse are you?

I answer I am your guide and I am the horse that I am right now and please speak to me not from my title but who I am right now. I must warn you horses are ever-changing and prefer to follow a leader that allows freedom of expression and can keep the order without control. I will be every horse you might run across giving you plenty of practice to handle these different kind of individuals and temperaments.

I choose this lesson because all horses have the potential to express all these character traits and moods. You have to be on the “ready” for them.

Then I ask my student what kind of a person are you right now? Right now, is all that is real and all that we have. The feelings we share right now are the real connection. Not what you expected or who we were yesterday but who we are right now right here.

I open the door for you to a kind of connection that all horses understand.

I lead and the dance begins.

So the first Ritual is “Sharing Territory” and starts a true bond in the most natural way the way horses do. This way the horse can come to you to start the bond and when you interact with him, you will have his full attention and his full focus. The first part of developing a bond, is to allow the horse to start it and to come into your space. The next phase occurs around sharing territory and grazing games.

The focus of the training is on social behavior and cannot start until the horse becomes so comfortable with you that he becomes rude. (In my next blog I will write on how a horse is rude socially) This is how the herd starts socializing the foals. If you do not have my DVD Introduction to the Waterhole Rituals, at this point I would advise you to order it so you can understand better the material I will be sharing with you.

In the first Ritual I advise people to read a book. I have found that it creates curiosity and begins the relationship and allows time to pass helping progress the relationship, and my book Naked Liberty would be a great choice.

Speaking of books, what did you think of the book I suggested “Songs of Horses” by Paul Belasik?

Hope you liked the story and I look forward to speaking with you again next week.

Carolyn

Tags: ego, leadership, liberty training, Marchador, spirit, Waterhole Rituals

You do need to have a natural ability to communicate with animals but I believe that people who are drawn to my Method have this ability somewhere in them. If you have a desire to connect and especially if you are good with dogs and children or feel you would be.

This reminds me of a story. A man came to my ranch and wanted me to teach him how to read a horse. I told him that he already knew how. I felt that this was the case because of how he was with his dogs during his visit. He rescued greyhounds, which he had brought with him and I had observed that they were well behaved and loved. He knew them as well as I knew my horses. He was their caretaking pack leader.

He told me that he could not read horses from what he had experienced with them. I believe this problem occured because he approached them differently than he did his dogs. With the dogs he wanted to give them a good life and maybe with the horses he expected the bond to be the same as he had with his dogs. He did not realize that he needed to start at the beginning in the same way he did with his dogs.

I think his problem with horses was that he had an agenda and it got in the way of his natural ability to allow the relationship to grow naturally. We got into a lively discussion. I told him that if he could not read a horse it was because he did not care enough. If he had rescued his horses, it would have helped him to allow the natural process of connection to evolve.

I believe that caring enough is all that is necessary. I do not know if this was right or not, but it was the stand I took in relating to him. We went around and around on the subject, and he paused for a moment and then said to me “You know, that horse you have been working with wants a carrot, and wants you to get back to the training, and hopes we are finished with our talk”.

He went on to say that he now understood that he could indeed read what a horse was thinking and admitted that he would not have said that before our talk. But he understood that I was right. Sometimes any little discussion will lead to a closer connection, as it did with us that day. We were in the moment and wanting to connect and we did. It is not always easy but so rewarding and the bond will deepen because it is the nature of nature to bring unity and harmony to partnerships.

You can be strong with a horse and the horse will forgive you easily, and you will not hurt the bond if the horse has free choice to accept or reject your behavior and leadership. This is a good lesson your horse can teach you.

The horse that is free to express himself can let you know if you are too strong or too boring. Or leading when you should be following or following when you should be leading. Intention and freedom and learning what to do at a certain time leads to a bond. This is the answer to working with horses. From trial and error in freedom, the bond is usually the outcome. Then, you will learn better when to lead, when to listen, when to pause and when to follow.

Be strong and be gentle and you will grow in your horsemanship skills, when freedom of choice is the condition a horse faces in his relationship with you.

In the beginning of the Waterhole Rituals, the rules are that if the horse leaves you, you must go in the opposite direction. You can ask your horse to leave your area any time you choose even if the horse doesn’t want to leave. You may indeed hurt his feelings to do so but it will in fact serve to deepen the bond. This is natural to horses.

I hope this is of help for people who need to be stronger, softer or more creative in their choices.

Carolyn

P.S. Thank you so much for all your replies to my email about ‘being my voice’, it was very heart-warming and gratifying to see all the responses. I have therefore decided that I will indeed use one or two people to be my voice and Mark will be writing to you with some instructions for your ‘audition’. I look forward to listening to them!

Tags: attention, communication, connection, leadership, liberty training, Waterhole Rituals

I am setting the U.E. Class aside. I want to have an open phone session class on the U.E.. I will offer it at $35.00 for those who are interested. I want to reward the people who are enjoying the U.E.

As you know I did not think that very many people would see the benefit in the exercises, so I have never offered them to anyone who was not a professional. I will have two more classes to finish up the winter program on the U.E. For anyone that wants guidance on them after that just send me your YouTubes and I will continue to guide you forward. I may choose to post your YouTubes and our correspondence on the blog if I feel it would benefit everyone.

I am getting ready to set a date for the Waterhole Rituals online course, so if you have any questions about the Method or course write me in the comments section and I will answer you or do a blog that will address your questions.

I want to address a concern that I hear crop up from time to time. A few of you feel that your horse may not like what you are asking him to do at liberty. I want to help you understand how to approach the Waterhole Rituals. The horse will experience ups and downs in how he feels in the program you bring him. This is good and is what builds the trust, well being, respect and desire to perform. You will be the judge in what he gets to do and what he chooses not to do, that is the right formula to create a happy well-adjusted horse. Horses need to have social interactions on a daily basis like we do. They will always need to be worked with to keep the relationship at its best. Working with horses needs the same focus as you would need working with children or keeping a good marriage.

Working with the Waterhole Rituals, it is hard to make lasting mistakes because the horse is free to go on his own and have a say in the matter and you are wanting him to have a good life. You can easily read your horse and tell if you need to be more strict with him or more playful or take a break or follow his lead or be the leader. The focus of the training is to create a well-adjusted personality with humans and a great dancing partner.

The Waterhole Rituals are meant to be interactive, fun and challenging. The ups and downs will most likely lead to a working bond because of your interest, the freedom and the fact that you are relating to a horse the way horses do when developing a bond. The reason they would not work would be if you had no idea how to approach your horse with them.

On the other hand, if you have no doubts in how to use the Rituals and can see how you would like to approach each successive Ritual, then they are so effective that even making some small mistakes will mean the bond will continue to grow.

My biggest concern for people using the Rituals is that a person might create a more aggressive horse or the opposite, from not being able to see how to apply them properly and to read how their horse feels. If you have raised well-adjusted children, have a good marriage and a well-socialized dog you should be able to use the Rituals to create a great partnership.

Most times the bond forms no matter what you have chosen to do, because you are spending the time together. The relationship is created from the freedom, your intention, the passing of time, the interest of a horse to want to bond and your abilities in how to be a caring leader.

Leadership is what a horse needs to feel a sense of family. I have found that lead horses enjoy human leadership sometimes more than other horses because, in my opinion, when they choose my leadership over their own they can relate and feel truly connected and can finally relax and just be with me in a herd of two.

Have a great weekend!

Carolyn

Tags: communication, connection, horsemanship, leadership, liberty training, respect, Waterhole Rituals

I have just got a new dog. It is a Lowchen; his coat is gray, he is one and a half years old and weights 14 pounds. He belonged to someone that was at Hap Hansen’s show barn, which is not too far from my ranch; I go there to work with a couple of students and their horses.

Someone had the dog at the barn, looking to find a new home for him. I played with him at the ranch for a while and decided to keep him. His name is Mojo and I can tell he doesn’t like his name, and won’t come when he is called. He runs the other way. When I catch the dog, I give him a treat and let him go. It fixed the problem in a hurry. It was so much fun watching him process his situation and then come running to me with exuberance for the treats.

Mojo, or whatever I will decide to call him is not house broken. I need to keep an eye on him because he will not ask to go out, so I take him out every two hours. When I do so he has a great game he plays with me. The previous owner must have put him back in the house as soon as he went potty. Mojo wants to stay outside and realizes that going potty should be avoided, because his experience tells him he can stay out as long as he doesn’t go potty. He pretends he is going to go and runs me all over the ranch, looking for the right spot. Every time he convinces me that the new place he pulled me to, is just right until we get there. He sniffs the ground as if he is in a hurry to go, then takes off to a new location pulling me along. He really loves this game!

I had him now for three days and yesterday I decided to re-school him. To do so I spent the day with him on this subject. I would take him out to go potty and hold him in one area. Well now, he did not like this at all, but that was the rule I gave him and I was prepared that he might hold out for a long time. I cleared my appointments and put my whole focus on the job of house breaking and potty training and bonding with my dog.

The first theory of house breaking is coming along nicely but took about 15 trips all day long and into the night. I am not a dog trainer, there might be an easier way, but I would not want to do it any different because it was fun and all that time we spent we got closer. My theory was that I would hold him in one spot outside, when I knew he needed to go potty, and give him about 10 minutes. Then, when he did not go, I would take him back into the house, and keep and eye on him. I took him out every hour.

Of course, he did not get it at first, because he was set in his ways, he knew to hold out as long as he could, but nature called and I won. When he went instead of taking him back into the house we went on an hour walk. From my approach, he learned to go potty first, because then we could go on a long walk. All day, yesterday, he held out as long as possible. But today when I took him out and held him in one area, he went right away and we took our long walk as a reward; this worked every time.

My focus is not on how to break him from a bad behavior but rather to focus on figuring out how to change his pattern of behavior into a new habit. I want to come up with a plan that, in a short time will let him see the reason he would like to change.

He is now taking a lot of my time and focus, as I get to know him and he adjusts to his new surroundings. I can tell you he is a lucky dog to have found me. All my ability to do what I have developed so far with my new pooch (that no one else wanted) came from what I achieved through communicating with horses using the Waterhole Rituals.

Practicing the Waterhole Rituals with horses taught me how to communicate with just about anything. The Rituals will do the same thing for you, if you enjoy the evolution of a bond, and working with a connection in the moment. Practicing with your horse will give you an ability to come up with a plan and theory of your own to communicate with your horse or with any creature, for that matter. You will learn how to work with any animal and bring out the behavior you want as well as the unexpected benefits. After a while, you can create a well-adjusted animal that you can depend upon. My new dog, whatever his name will be, knows that he can depend upon me and I know that one day I will be able to depend upon him.

I have a question you might enjoy answering…

The question for Tuesday’s blog: If you could have the perfect horse of your dreams, what would it be like? Describe it as a fantasy. Really, have some fun with it. The winner gets a DVD of their choice or a blog book.

Carolyn

P.S. I will be on a webcast this Thursday 25th February at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET (Italy). This is an Italian web channel and I’ll be doing some in English and Alessandra will be doing the major part of it in Italian, so I hope you can drop by. The show will last an hour and you can find it at http://www.cavallomania.net. Arrivederci!

Tags: attention, bond, connection, partnership, respect, training, Waterhole Rituals

Hello. I will be doing one more Uberstreichen Excercise in this series before we take a break to give you some more time to work with them. I’ll then be doubling back round for the sake of any new readers to the blog and revisit the Waterhole Rituals in the run up to the new Insider Circle Class.

So today I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the videos I’ve received from students who have been working with the Uberstreichen Exercises. You will see a variety of styles and responses from the horses. Some of the videos you may have seen but the feeling and the technique will be different between these videos. These clips help you see the ease and pace you are working toward.

And to whet your appetite for the Waterhole Rituals, here are a couple of videos from the last class:

If you’ve been working with either the Uberstreichen Exercises or the Waterhole Rituals, please let us know about your experiences. This should make for another a great discussion!

Have a lovely weekend!

Carolyn

Tags: communication, connection, partnership, relationship, Uberstreichen exercises

This winter I have been working to complete my next book on the Waterhole Rituals. If you are new to my blog and do not know of my work and Methods, I thought I’d share with you the first page of my book and then you can ask me questions on the subject of the Waterhole Rituals.

“Beyond the Whisper” – A step by step Guide to the Waterhole Rituals

The Waterhole Rituals can be thought of as a courtship to win a horse’s trust, affection, loyalty and respect rather than a horse training method. Your communication skills with horses using my Method are meant to evolve organically from the relationship you build with your horse. I will guide you though each step as your relationship matures to a dancing partnership in harmony and unity. Leadership in the moment a horse feels a connection in companionship inspires a horse to follow your lead like music inspires the dancer to dance.

I stopped pursuing horses as a way to bond with them years ago. A bond with a horse should happen naturally, like when choosing a puppy, from the spontaneous magnetic connection that brought you together.

Liberty Training needs to start at liberty without an agenda to force the horse to bond by using a fence and tack to keep the horse engaged. What you will do is to provide a comfortable place in a large fenced in area so the horse feels no pressure to bond. Where the horse feels completely at home with food and water. You do not want the horse to feel captured. Tack and fences are not natural to horses as a way they go about developing heartfelt bonds and willing partnerships in a natural herd. Giving the freedom and the time it would take for the horse to choose you, allows the natural process to unfold making it possible for a lasting partnership to form. When a horse is free to interact he becomes more interested in getting to know you as he is not being persuded and it becomes his idea to seek out your company.

I am drawn to horses like bees to honey, but I learned early to wait for them to start the relationship and bond. This is the secret in discovering the magic that is found between horses and humans.

From studying the herd behavior of wild horses in nature, I have gained this connection by getting a horse to accept me as a family member and trusted companion. Not that he is a part of my family, but that I became a part of his family. I develop a friendship and trust by communicating with a horse through the daily bonding rituals that I learned from wild horses. From the bond that I developed with them, I could ride wild horses in moments when the bond was strong. My experiences with wild horses in nature lead me to a universal way to create a connection with all things. The Waterhole Rituals I am sharing with you in this book are the processes necessary to build this connection. The journey that you take using my Method will possibly lead to the most rewarding relationship you can experience with a horse!

From the bonds I developed with wild horses in nature, I discovered that communication with horses was rather easy. To become a fare and equitable partner, we must first draw the horse to want to bond with us like they have drawn us to them and then a true connection can be formed. This requires us to wait for a horse to be attracted without any influence other than our presence sitting in their territory.

This is the first page of the first chapter of my book. If you have any questions or comments on the Waterhole Rituals right now, I will write my answers in the comments section. I would also like to hear how you like the beginning of my book.

I want to help people to understand the Waterhole Rituals that are new to my Method. For people wanting to start out using my Method I would suggest reading Naked Liberty and studying the DVDs Introduction to the Waterhole Rituals, Panadero’s Journey and Liberty Training.

Many of you are interested in doing the Insider Circle Program on the Waterhole Rituals. We do not have a date as yet and I’d like to set a date. Please let me know what date would be good for you in regards to it not being too cold to start practicing the Waterhole Rituals outside!

As ever, I look forward to hearing from you below.

Carolyn

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Tags: bond, communication, connection, leadership, liberty training, Waterhole Rituals

Hi. By taking the time to learn the Waterhole Rituals and their origins, you will be able to observe horse interactions with a much deeper understanding and insight. What previously seemed like unruly or strange behavior will suddenly start to make perfect sense as you watch the rituals unfolding before your eyes. Of course, this doesn’t just happen one time, it’s a continuous ongoing process and horses are always testing the limits around them.

Today I would like to share a letter with you from one of my regular blog readers, who witnessed herd dynamics and rituals at work when she introduced her new horse to her herd. It’s wonderful that she was able to witness it and take pictures for us. Thank you.

If any of you know that you have a new introduction coming up, I encourage you to make some time to watch the process and see if you can pick out what’s happening and how it mixes up the pecking order. If you can take some video of it all, I would love to see it and I’m sure we would all learn from it immensely, so I look forward to hearing of your experiences.

Till next week, keep watching, in my opinion, the best reality TV show in town – herd dynamics in action!

Carolyn

Hey Carolyn

I’m on a new computer, so hoping this is you email address. I read in Naked Liberty how a new horse to the herd must allow all the members of the herd to follow him or her. It’s leading from behind, a dominate thing, Once the new horse allows this, he hopefully is welcomed and then he can begin his climb up the ladder of the herd.

I introduced my new horse, Gunner to the herd and watched as it all unfolded. Gunner allowed everyone to follow, and then began negotiating with Hawk, who is bottom of the herd.

It was amazing, and wonderful, and I understood everything that happened because of you. I took pictures! Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for all your advice

Deborah Johnson

Tags: body language, communication, connection, herd behaviour, sharing territory

The fifth exercise starts with the horse in halt, with the head almost to the ground, on a held contact line. While you are holding the contact, ask the horse to move forward. Your horse will have difficulty wanting to do this because he has become light to the aids. In this exercise, we are teaching the horse to go forward with a held rein. This is a new concept to the horse.

The reason this exercise is important for dressage is that here you will ask the horse to stay soft, round up more at the same moment that he would go forward. This is a very hard concept for a horse to grasp, this is why in dressage we see horses becoming resistant, brace become unwilling, nervous and losing their forward impulsion and willingness to listen to the leg aids to go forward. This is also, what starts a horse rearing and bolting. The horse is totally confused because the rein aids are asking him to halt, in his mind, while the leg aids are demanding forward. This simple exercise takes care of these reactions in the horse by teaching him how to round up in a half halt and go forward at the same time. It is amazing that such a simple exercise from halt to walk, with the head down, would fix all these issues between a horse and his rider, but it works amazingly well. Of course, one has to have the program of all the exercises in place for this one to be completely effective.

If you do not do dressage, this exercise will help your horsemanship skills to advance to a higher level as all the other exercises will, and deepen the trust and willingness of your horse for bridle less riding.
When you ask the horse to go forward on a contact rein he will resist wanting to go forward, but keep requesting, you can use a reed to encourage him, by tapping him behind you. When the horse offers a half step release the contact, say good boy and walk forward with him on the twenty meter circle, when you get to the half way point on the circle, request halt, lower his head to the ground and repeat. This is all there is to this exercise. As you increase the difficulty of the exercise, hold the contact on the horse in longer increments of time, which would look like holding a strong contact as the horse is taking three steps forward before the release.

If you have a horse that doesn’t want to go forward on the held contact, there are two ways you can approach it. Fist, you can ask a friend to walk behind the horse and drive him forward, like you would encourage a horse to step into a trailer, at the moment you ask the horse to go forward from the held contact rein. The other thing you can do is to release the hold and ask him to keep his head down while the rope is released, then ask to walk on, and through the habit, the horse will listen to your request to go forward even though he feels a held contact later on.

For many of you that may need to see a Youtube on this exercise, we will have one out shortly.

Thank you again for checking in and remember to check in on a regular bases especially when the numbers are down in the comment section.

Remember, when you start with the exercises, that you take time sharing territory with your horse and that you are enjoying each other’s company, and that your horse is relaxed and has the capacity to listen to you rather than paying attention to other things. He has to have your full attention. Do not do these exercises if you have any feelings inside of you that remove your personal well being. If you have anything that is bothering you, the horse will pick this up and it will affect negatively the training session. If this is the case practice the exercises by walking through and doing them without your horse to music that is soothing.

Carolyn

Tags: attention, connection, leadership, partnership, relationship, sharing territory, Uberstreichen Exercise, well-being