To all of my readers my Thanksgiving is more enjoyable because of you. I wish each and everyone of us the greatest Thanksgiving ever!! I am having my Thanksgiving with my mother, Apollo and many close friends at Windy Stopnitzky’s ranch. Some of you may remember that Windy is my friend that owns the Pre horse Sonador who is going to be teaching us during the “Beyond the Waterhole Rituals” clinic on December 1-8, 2011. Here are a couple beautiful photos of Sonador taken by Alethia Saladino of Mystic Horse Photography. We have one space open created from a late cancellation. If you want to attend this clinic and you have worked with me online or in person, email me.

Herd Bound Horses

Here is a game to help your horse give up being herd bound. When working with horses at liberty, herd boundness needs to be removed from your horse to help him focus on you and allow the bond to grow. This game is a fun way to train the unwanted behavior out of your horse. A herd bound horse is hard to deal with if you force a horse to separate from horses he does not … Read more

Read Full Post »

Leadership with horses is so easy.

They are herd animals. It is natural for horses to lead and to follow. But when we begin to train they can seem to be resistant to the whole idea of us taking a leadership role with them. Often this response is because the person training the horse is resistant to having to take on the role as leader. What I hope to do in this blog is to influence the reader to see that training and shaping behavior through leadership at liberty is an enjoyable endeavor.

Hillside Arena – Maestro

Making a Good Relationship Great.

When a horse shows resistance to our leadership it is usually caused from not pushing hard enough, pushing too hard, or we are offering a program that is not appropriate for the horse in the moment. Since good relationships are developed though trial and error this back and forth is desirable because it exposes the true path we need to take with our horse to gain unity and harmony through leadership.

We have 1 spot available in the December Beyond The Waterhole Rituals clinic!

Please email web@carolynresnick.com if you would like to join us!

Finding The Joy.

The … Read more

Read Full Post »

I would like to share a story with you about my experience with a dominant gelding by the name of Breeze. Breeze had a nasty nature. Even though he was broke to ride he was hard to handle both under saddle and on the ground. His owner called him a dirty horse because he would plan ways to hurt you. She offered this story about the first time she had rode him: he pulled the reins out of her hand, ran around the arena and on the second turn ran directly at the end wall and stopped so abruptly she flew over his head sending her to the hospital. He would try to hurt you if you tried to influence him when he was being aggressive. After more than six owners, his current owner was able to handle him, but he always stayed aggressive with her.

Turning the Corner

I was asked to work with him to see if I could turn his disposition around.  He is a beautiful black and white Overo Paint loved by many different owners and trained with strong arm techniques, but that did nothing to take the extreme dominant negative behavior out of him. He had … Read more

Read Full Post »

It is amazing to me how approaching a daily connection with my horses can make such a difference.

The daily connection can make the behavior of the horse be either balanced for a good ride or a ride that would be full of resistance. To get on the good side of a horse, I put my attention on letting go of my agenda and watch for when the horse and I feel a mutual connection. If you can not tell if there is a mutual connection, chances are you need to wait longer with your horse before you put on the halter. This point is so important to learn how to connect with a horse, it is worth taking some practice time to work on it. I would suggest to you that if it took days of doing nothing with a horse but waiting for a feeling of connection it would change your whole experience with horses to magical proportions.

Leadership and Timing the “Ask”

I never ask a horse to follow my lead unless I know I have a connection with him. When I ask, I do not tell, meaning that I am very prepared to accept his … Read more

Read Full Post »