Allowing the Bond to Grow Through Evolution
May 26th, 2011 by Carolyn Resnick Method
One of the things about the Waterhole Rituals is that you can’t just throw the Rituals at the horse. They are not designed to be used that way. That is what is so wonderful about working with me in the Insider Circle course, and why it is so important to take advantage of this program that I offer. What I do is walk you through the Waterhole Rituals and show you how to understand, and apply the Rituals to fit your ability and your horse’s disposition.
The Spring Insider Circle and Extended circle program is going on now. We have just started. We are focused on the First Ritual, Sharing Territory- and allowing nature to take its course by no interaction and allowing source energy to give a helping hand. It is very important that people get a chance to experience a horse starting the bond so one can grasp how natural is it for horses to be in your life.
Right now in the class, I have asked the students to be in nature with their horses in meditation. A meditation to clean out the mind. The kind of clearing out you get from going on vacation. I put great importance on this meditation for two reasons: one is that horses are more drawn to a quiet mind and a relaxed heart. Horses, unlike us, look to find a place of peace and protection because of their nature of being prey animals. They look to find safety. The horses that are most calm and contented attract other horses into the area they are in. They are drawn to humans that are relaxed with no agendas planed for them. This is when nature can takes its course developing a true bond between a horse and a human. In these moments of safety, freedom and relaxation draw out another side of a horse- the side that will start the relationship instead of the human imposing his or her need to bond to the horse.
The Desire to Bond
To experience the horse wanting to bond with you is an experience and event in life not to be missed. Another important lesson learned here is that nature can play a big part in the training of a horse if you let it happen without wanting it to. It will happen if you can just allow it. Being still carries so much magnetism that a horse will herd up with you and have a great tendency to stay with you. From here, we can take it to another level and begin some interactions to build a dance and language that a horse will stay in tuned to.
We have got to learn how to take advantage of evolution so we make fewer ruts in the road while training a horse. We want to learn how to work with nature and the environment to help us make the right choice in how to approach developing a connection that is steadfast with a horse. We want more trial, and less error. The pause, the draw, and evolution is our best friend, as well as being very accommodating tools.
The Sit In – In Progress
In the class right now, over 90 students are sitting in chairs with horses or sitting somewhere in nature with horses on a daily basis for at least a half an hour and most for an hour. The results from all of this sitting is causing more people to see the importance of taking the time to get the bond started at liberty with horses before you would use tack to train them. This way, when you use tack, the horse sees it as a life line and a way to connect with you rather than powerful devices that he can not escape from.
What the class will learn from this deep bond they have created at liberty is that you can work with a horse with strong demands and the horse will not see you in a negative light- because the trust and desire to learn what you have to teach him is his greatest focus. Sitting in a chair every day and becoming aware of ourselves, adjusting our energy to being happy, and being totally at peace with things as they are you will approach your horse in a different way. Make fewer mistakes and do not worry about the mistakes you have made.
You will begin to understand that your training will always evolve to a higher level no matter what. When a horse can escape your influence because he is at liberty, the horse never holds a grudge or develops a bad habit. What cases a horse to be difficult to train is the fact that he cannot stop his training, but one must also be careful that they do not allow certain behaviors which will cause a loss of respect. What I mean here is that you are as strong as you need to be to get your point across to your horse and if he does not like your request, he can stop it by going away from you. An odd thing happens when he experiences his ability to escape your influence, he will come back and reconnect. He learns that to be with you he will need to follow your lead. And, since you have a strong bond and a good nature about you from your efforts to be in a good frame of mind, he will try to be a better partner with you.
A Quick Story about Apollo on How to Use Evolution in the Training of Your Horse
After my dog Apollo eats, he wants a Greenie, which is a soft dog bone to keep his teeth clean. He loves them.
Lately I have been trying to get him to pick up two toys when I ask him to fetch. However, fetching even one thing is almost impossible for him to involve himself with.
Apollo is not much for interactive games, but with continued work, I have been able to get him to retrieve things and take them to a certain spot- like bringing his toys that he took outside back to the house.
This is how I used evolution to get him to pick up two Greenies at the same time. I put two Greenies on the ground for him after breakfast. He started by choosing one and running off. When he came back to get the other it was not there. So then, from that experience, he would spend some time deliberating over which Greenie to take and which one to leave. I just watched. Then as time went on, he now picks up both Greenies and carries them away. In this whole process, I did nothing to help him out, I put it into his hands to teach himself to carry two things at once. At first when I asked him to pickup something he could not get the idea to hold an object and come with me when I asked him to. It was too much for him to hold an object and list to me. Now I can get him to go get something and take it to the car or anywhere else, and I did not break it down for him in many small lessons to build up this behavior (as traditional methods would do) – I simply let nature take its course. As the class goes on, the students will learn how we use this same approach with horses.
Stina, if you are reading this, it would be nice to hear your account in the comment section what it was like for you when the horses finally came to connect without your influence, and what you learned from your experience that empowered your life and elevated your spiritual journey.
Looking forward to our Insider and Extended Circle class on Sunday and Monday!
I hope you all have a great weekend- and be on the look out for new horse and human sightings!
Carolyn
No related posts.
Hi Carolyn, I always read your blog. I get inspiration and guide lines to become a better human with horses and not only. Thank you very much to share your knowledge and wisdom with other people.
Roberta
I am catching up with a few posts having been sick and not at my computer for a while. I really appreciate this post as Ben taught me a good lesson today about my need to re-connect with him.
Carolyn,
Checking in and waiting for my new monitor to arrive. I have no sound and am looking forward to seeing and hearing stina’s videos.
Toni
(In a Box 2010, EC 2011)
Hi Carolyn,
Every week I receive a quote in my mailbox about ‘mindfulness’. I think this week’s quote fits right in with your method:
“Mindfulness teaches us that change comes from small things instead of mountaintops.”
(– Mark Williams)
Thank you Carolyn and Stina, and all the others who reply , and help us with their insight.
Hi Carolyn,
Checking in. What a great post. I feel changes in my spirit as I learn to let go and simply BE in the present. It is a true joy that I can harness and use at other times. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and knowledge. The horses thank you as well.
Tracy Litle and Keeper
IC
Texas
Carolyn
Thank you, your words are precious inspiration. Finally the horses are being HERD, finally their TRUTH being recognised. What patience after cenuries of domination and abuse they are realising their mission…to take us home, to the heart of ourselves. You are a prophet of the rarest kind!
Dear Carolyn
Just a few more enhancements of the points raised
Thank you for reading my story and for your ‘rapport’ – of course, therein lies your wonderful expanding gift.
Re: I appreciate how you say that I have grown – yes, indeed, although you write about the Rituals from year to year, you always add new nuances and ever clearer explanations.
Re: the journaling idea – clearly, I haven’t really been privy to that part although you have at times posted some interesting extracts. The reference to John Muir is of itself very powerful – a man very much ahead of his time. You share much in common, I note. I browsed through some of his quotes and came across this one:
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
And how very much that relates to the kind of sensitivity and feeling in communication that you encourage us to develop with the horse. We learn how gentle we must be and how far reaching the consequences are.
Re: the concept Sharing Territory, ‘that’ has certainly taken on a life of its own. Yes, I can very well imagine the book you might write on this alone. The more you think about it; the more it grows. And it has been evolving. It could even herald in a paradigm shift in human thinking. It surely has previewed much of what Linda Kohanov has been writing about in her vision of a more equitable world and others like Sherry Ackerman in The Good Life. Yes, Sharing Territory has very, very powerful implications. Congratulations on keeping it simple, powerful, effective.
I’ll restrain myself here and go back to listening; that is the trouble so often with men in the classroom; they talk and demand too much in relationship to others.
Thank you very much for your precious time as I can imagine just HOW much you have to attend to.
The horses are with you in all your endeavors…
Ian
Dear Carolyn! Your words and beautifull story are definitaly a big help and support! I will save your message so I can read it over and over again when old thoughts and feelings will come up. Looking at what I have this moment I feel blessed. Thank you so much!
With love,
Aline
Dear Ian,
Thank you for John Muir’s quote. I will save it and use it and saver it. The way he expressed his insight is heart felt. The reason I stay guiding others where the connection is born with a horse is that it has a strong impact to bring joy and understanding that the journey is the reward and to allowing impathy to lead us there.
John Muir’s quote reminds me of when I was about three and I had been told if I dug down into the earth I would reach chian. I spent weeks digging for hours each day dreaming of the possibilites of what I would find. I never doughted that I was indead going to reach china but I every got there. The reason I kept digging is the the journey was my reward. From my efforts it deepened my sense of “wonder” and widden my imagnation that we are all connected and so we are and I am awarke to that.
One thing I know is not to measure or care about the results, it will weaking enthusasim.
Again I do not have spell chck.
Anytime you have great quotes and insights please share them,
With apprecation,
Carolyn
“One thing I know is not to measure or care about the results, it will weaking enthusasim.”
I will remember this one Carolyn, thank you.
Marja
Dear Carolyn
You ARE spoiling me – like this you are going to have your class filled up with men in no time:-i
Yes, I know that experience of digging … and before you start in a new place, you leave a saplings planted in the hole. And so your forest grows…
Actually, I thought another John Muir quote goes so well with Sharing Territory:
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
”
John Muir
There is no doubt that Sharing Territory is a process of healing (that is why it is so difficult), a re-adjustment and coming to a deeper understanding of life.
Off to turn the horses out and clean the stables and when all is done … spend some time just being with the horses – it is truly the most satisfying thing on earth.
Ian
P.S. No problem about the spell check: I understand perfectly.
Dear Ian,
I am off as well. Thanks for adding your P.S. That means alot to me,
Carolyn