Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Happy New Year to you and to all the connections we share! I want to thank you for being in my life. I wish everyone around the world abundance, deeper connections, health and happiness that multiplies around the world like the abundance of nature in spring.

New Year Wishes

My wish for the new year is for an apprentice or two who have a solid background in training horses that would stay for a long time to learn all aspects my method (Waterhole Rituals, Uberstreichen Exercises, Single Lining, dressage training and bridle-less riding) who could represent my method as I would like it to be. In exchange, I would like you to help me with educational material, office work, emails and bookings or your own unique skills (video, marketing, ???…). Thank you for all the greetings you left me on my blog. There is been no one in the office during the holidays but me. I was not able to respond to your comments because something in the system that was blocking my response. However I do want you to know, I read them all and I’m back to being able to write.

Expectations and Performance Horses

Expecting performance is… Read more

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Learning more about the magic of the co-creative process

Horses are flexible in their attitude and emotions from willing to unwilling, from trusting to fearful, from relaxed to hyper. Basically a horse’s nature is dynamic, cautious and willing. That makes sense, we are a lot like that ourselves. Horses have two changeable behaviors, fluctuating from trusting to not trusting, from social to antisocial… a bit like we are in our own society. They also seek friendship and live in communities and family groups…again a bit like us. When they feel secure and have enough space, food and water, they life in unity and harmony with one another.

Horses are very social, caring, outwardly affectionate and seek unity and harmony with one another most of the time.  Once we have formed a deep bond with a horse it will be deeper than the one we can share with our own species. When we share a cross-species bond, the horse shows us how deep our feeling for friendship can be. If we choose to look for this connection with all things our well-being and appreciations for life is enhanced. Then, when we can extend this connection to the people in our life,… Read more

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When working with the nature of horses you do not need to “get it done” to advance your horse’s training. Evolution will do it for you. Nature is always working for us if we can be in tune with it.

Removing the Focus on Force

The celebrated method of horse training in this country is based on making the thing you want the horse to do easy and the thing you do not want him to do hard. This method does not taking advantage of the evolution of a symbiotic bond and connection between horses and humans in the training of the horse.

In this method, a horse cannot get out of the “bind” the trainer creates until the desired result is obtained. This approach does not take the time to shape the horse’s behavior to have a desire to do something, that at first, he would not what to do. If the horse is allowed to stop his lesson and guide his human partner towards a fair and equitable relationship, the horse is shown more respect and this is the way we would all want to be treated.

To persist and force that a horse must do what he… Read more

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It is one week since my dear students completed the Beyond the Waterhole Ritual Clinic here at the Dances with Horses ranch in California. As I think back to the events of the week I am reminded that the learning continues well beyond the clinic dates. I am delighted to share your journey of connecting with your horses, yourself and the present moment.

Health and Horses

The energy the class brought made my teaching job a joy. Thank you for your interest to dig in deeper with my method and your unique skills you shared with me. What was challenging for me was that I had a cold that really slowed me down. I ran a temperature throughout the whole clinic. The good new is I was very happy with the over all material that we covered. I was very impressed with the skills of this group of students. What I noticed is that everyone had a wonderful connection with horses that was enhanced from my teachings and influence from the online classes. I was also pleased how people who had little horsemanship practice were as capable as the professionals were.

I was also… Read more

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Today was Day One of the Beyond the Waterhole Rituals Clinic.

For the next 8 days we will be developing more horsemanship skills to bring out the dance we would like to share with our horses.  I developed my school of learning because I saw that there was a learning opportunity not being offered to the equine world. Some things were not being taught like timing, leadership responsibility, understanding the nature of horses, noticing the individual personalities and working with the situation that exists in the present moment without forcing an unwilling horse to accept leadership.

Finding Empowerment Through Your Body Language

A person needs to develop a sure footedness in their direction and connection with horses. The way I go about this is by beginning with exercises working on assertiveness and sensitivity. Then we practice being supportive and finally move on to developing directive skills. From these exercises the student learns how to be flexible and gain more willingness from their horse. Through the practice of the Waterhole Rituals, the student develops a consistent ability to stay focused on the horse by keeping the connection alive and the horse motivated to keep… Read more

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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… Read more

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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!… Read more

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