The art of horsemanship
Jul 16th, 2009 by Carolyn
The art of horsemanship starts every day not at the end of the journey. It starts with the first breath and at the moment you and your horse are in the same state of awareness in harmony. It takes a spiritual journey to develop a partnership with a horse. It takes consistently focusing on keeping the magnetic connection alive between you and your horse by managing the relationship and keeping the training on the horse as well as adding training. This keeps the horse young and motivated.
Working a horse at liberty gives the horse a sense of freedom and the horse can express himself more honestly. From this honesty, you can see more how to approach your training. The other aspect of working a horse at liberty is that a horse will trust you more, bringing out the side of his nature to follow your lead naturally.
The act of controlling a horse will develop a horse that needs to be controlled. What would be better is that the horse is more than willing to perform and take direction. Taking the time to get a horse to volunteer his performance is fun and life enhancing and will achieve a magical partnership and a performance that is the best the horse has to offer. In a controlled performance, the horse will only put in enough effort to get by. He will not excel.
Horses have a natural desire to follow your lead and perform if we use the art of horsemanship rather force and control. Freedom to respond without reprimand is what keeps the dance in unity and harmony rather than an act that is not heartfelt by either horse or human. The dance is something special and if the outcome of controlling leadership is a magical dance you have to decide whether the journey of control was worth it. In most cases, it would be preferable not to choose to take a forceful approach because time was spent in strict control and heartless moments of unawareness. In unawareness, you cannot lead and you are not a leader. You are only a tyrant. Something is usually lost using forceful leadership and you do not benefit from the nurturing support system that nature has to offer. This nurturing force supports all of us on our journey through life. Magic can happen when you work with the natural elements. Allow the miracle that nature provides us to give us a helping hand in the training of your horse. Work with what you have rather than what you want brings you clarity in how to approach your journey. You discover that nature provides us support, protection, and many time better results in a relationship than anything that we could strive to achieve. When we allow nature and the horse to assist us, we become humble and less afraid and softer and stronger to our core. Life seems to flow and the natural elements begin to support us.
From my Method of training I want people to learn how important it is to allow a horse to be free to respond, to be in self carriage and not to control him to perform but rather ask him to and learn how to ask in a way that would get a positive result. In this approach, a horse will become more responsible in his partnership with you and his performance.
When giving horses freedom to respond to our leadership and by creating a program to suite his interest we find a horse that wants to be responsible.
In the past, we needed horses for our daily survival and now we do not need them for any purpose but our love of them and to ride them for the pure adventure it adds to our life.
It is here that we need to understand that horses can teach use how to evolve our leadership and spiritual growth. The last thing I want to add is that if we are looking for the dance we can have that and even more. To experience this to be able to ride like the wind to be on their backs for all the things that we do with horses can be done better; trained better; by slowing down and taking the long journey. My Method is a long walk to develop the perfect connection with a horse. A walk that is more rewarding than the goal. The reason for this is that when the goal is not shared a partnership that is forced and hurried results that is not enjoyed by either horse or human. There is no spiritual connection or friendship. Teaching a horse to take responsibility without using control causes a horse to perform in the best way possible. Then the dance is magical, when the horse takes on more responsibility without control.
No matter what choice you take, in the end it is a spiritual journey you are on with your horse. If you take the low road of strife and speed with the only the appreciation of the goal as the reward, you are unaware of life and the goodness it brings us. You are missing a path that offers life’s enrichment. When we cut a path for ourselves, it takes a lot of hard work. If we don’t use the support, that nature offers it can harden us to life itself. Who better to get us back on the path of least resistance and spirit than the horse? Leadership is what a horse wants and it is natural for humans to lead and working on better relationships and understanding will guide us to be the leader we long to be and the leader that the horse is longing to find.
Enjoy your weekend
Carolyn
July 16th, 2009 at 10:28 am
As always Carolyn, your words and message resonates with me and inspires me to continue on the path. Unlike many people I didn’t have goals other than connection, but your techniques have given me the connection I was seeking.
Thank you, Kim
July 16th, 2009 at 11:17 am
i can only give an ovation.
so true….
July 16th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hi Carolyn,
It takes trust and self confidence from both the horse and the person but when its there, WOW!!!!!
I have been working on this kind of relationship with my horse for two years now. I was worried about doing things wrong- but now I realize my horse is willing to experiment with me as long as I am fair.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Carolyn- I love the reminder that our journey with Horse is a spiritual one- where side by side, we can become what we were meant to be!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Jenn
July 16th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
When i was little, i saw a ‘horse-whisperer’ on the TV. I was amazed because they were able to get this wild horse, tame it and back it within ten minutes. I thought that if they could sit in a horse that quickly, they must be special. Now ofcourse, i feel differently! It is that ‘long walk’ as you put it that makes it special.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Hi Carolyn, and all
Now that we got booted back into the space age with computer service, it’s nice to be able to share in a timely way. I’m still catching up on the WRIC material.
Despite my sometimes intermittent mastery of body language, Capricho is such a wonderful little horse with whom to work, in great measure because of my interpretation of the rituals (Carolyn, the brain is peddling as fast as it can…). This little guy loves to play. Much of the time he does what I ask. He now sends away at “go trot” (although sometimes he bucks or jumps on his way out), and comes eagerly back, ears forward, face open and happy: did you like that, ma?
He often will turn and face me when I’m commanding him to change directions. It is very hard for me to not smile, and I guess I’m telling him he’s doing right. It just brings such a flood of joy to the heart to see this that I have trouble not smiling. That is one of our biggest flaws. He seems to be what Hempfling describes as a little Minister type, and likes both challenges and to challenge. I would be in trouble if I let him get bored.
We’re looking around for some cellphone with video capacity so I can at least submit a glance at this journey for critique. Meanwhile we are very happy on the journey. I thought today: I don’t think I would care if I didn’t ride him, this is so much fun. I’ve sat on him, but we don’t know his age for certain and I don’t wish to overburden him too soon. He was said to be 1.5 years, but the vet said he could have been up to a year beyond that in January. When I sit on him bareback, my husband reports the one time when his eyes reveal perplexity although there was no struggle or anger. I feel his muscles moving, shifting, as he tries to figure out how to support my weight. Since he is somewhat of Freisian blood, a breed who reportedly are slower to mature (although he’s a miniature mixed-breed), I plan to at least let him fill out three or four months more before I put a saddle on him.
Thanks very much again, Carolyn, for your masterful and intuitive life’s work with horses.
July 17th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
My life has taken many twists and turns on the path of spiritual growth…and some of the greatest leaps of faith and progress have always seemed to be wherever horses are involved. I have been known to say to others that “horses have been helping us ’settle the worlds’ for years, but they have been waiting for us to evolve enough to allow them to assist us in settling our souls”. This is a belief in my deepest core and it is my sincerest desire to somehow be of assistance in this process. Very recently, someone asked me if I was passionate about horses as a career and I said ‘yes, but I am not a trainer by any means, I am not sure what my role is, but what I have discovered is that in my experience I have found that people, when given the chance to be in the presence of horses find themselves quiter, happier and things begin to change in and around them. In today’s world when so many people are leaving traditional churches or religous beliefs, they still find themselves searching for some kind of spiritual connection. I believe it is that desire for CONNECTION that binds us to each other horse, human, human human, horse horse… whoever we are…there is LIFE, Vitality, Joy, Peace and Harmony in that CONNECTION. Thank you Carolyn for shedding light on the means of creating connection with horses (and eventually humans too!), of having the courage to embrace the word and idea of Spiritual in connection with the horse and for providing a space and forum for this kind of work to take place. With much grattitude, elizabeth
July 17th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Very very true if you don’t use a horse as a controled winning machine they can show you all sorts of things.(= Its so cool when you have a horse so willing to learn. It’s just such a warm hearted feeling.
Hey Carolyn mai I ask something of you that you could message me about or put up on your next blog is collection at liberty. I am trying to find a natural non-forcing way of collecting but sadly extremelly few trainers and even few liberty trainers knows the answer. Though I want to learn collection because without collection its hard to teach a piaffe, persade, ter-a-ter and other elements without it and I know it was often taught in war times to protect the horses jugular and make a free movement, it also means that when I ride him he is more comfortable since his back will be rounded which protects him from my weight crushing on his organs. Do you have any advice???? Please, please, please, somebody help me with this because its one of my current goals.(=
July 18th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Dear Amber,
What can you do as a trainer and rider of horses at liberty at this point in your life?
What would you like to do better and how will you go about developing your skill and knowledge? Do you have the right horse? The answers to these questions will lead you to your goals.
The secret to gaining the movements you asked me about is to ride and train at the level you are qualified and build daily from this point and forget trying to achieve your goal. Have the goal but focus on where you are in your education and you will get there. This is how I work ever day.
The questions you are asking I could answer more easily if I were coaching you and your horse.
I could only advise at this point that collection is gained by focusing on speed control and working with the last Waterhole Ritual with your horse until your can create great energy and excitement into your horse at will and then have trained your horse to understand the walk trot and canter are gates that can be performed at any speed.
If a horse will volunteer trot on spot he will be collected if you have not trained the movement as a obligation he can not get out of, you do not have to collect him, he will do that automatically if his energy matches the request.
For insight look up Honza Blaha and Gaston’s You tubes.
It is all about connection and your years of experience and how much skill you have and your ability to create controlled energy in your horse and speed control through the gates.
My last question to you Amber is why are these movements important for you to gain?
If you take the long walk and stay on the subject you will get there.
Last but not least find someone who you feel is qualified and have them analyze where you are as a ride and trainer so you know were you need to put your focus and efforts. Building from this point you will experience a smooth journey.
I hope this is of help.