Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

This week’s post is from guest blogger Kai Mattern.

From riding waves to riding horses

Sports like white water kayaking, surfing and windsurfing took up the bulk of my life, sports that teach you to work together with nature rather than against it and the occasional encounters I had with horses and their riders didn’t match the pictures I had in my mind.

My background with horses

One day I went for a ride on a dude string which is another funny story I might tell in another occasion, either way it led to me taking riding lessons and some months later to my decision to get my own horse. I bought Oli when he was around 9, he was an extreme horse, a thoroughbred off the track with plenty of go but no whoa. Researching horse training on the internet, I found lots of information on natural horsemanship and for sure this was the path I wanted to be on. One method I tried, was round… Read more

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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… Read more

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I went to Return to Freedom and just got back. I have my Insider Circle and extended Circle classes right now so I did not have much time to spend there. I left Tuesday for Return to Freedom and returned last night on Wednesday at 3 in the morning. I am just a little woosey.
I took my mother, Apollo, and Kai who is a working student. I was going up for several reasons. One being to give Kai a lesson with wild horses. I also needed to  see a couple of horses for my programs and see Neda De Mayo of Return to Freedom about  the upcoming Webzine in regards to her contributions on the current issues regarding wild horses and contributing a journal page in my webzine on wild horse observations that are also current. Donations from you, my readers to Return to Freedom non-profit wild horse sanctuary are very welcome and allows me to go up there more often and work with her wild horses.

It took  four and a half hours to get there which was the expected time. We left at high noon. When… Read more

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Today I thought I would share a lovely letter sent to me by Connie, one of my Insider Circle students.

Dear Carolyn,

Thank you for your reminder to us about how subtle and important intention is when we are with our horses.

When I first was leasing my horse, I was purely in that place of making it all about him. That was how I dreamed having a horse would be and I was continuously thrilled having him in my life. That has not changed after proudly becoming his person and spending the last couple years with him.

In the beginning, others said my first horse should be such and such, and he should not have any lameness issues, perhaps should be older than 5+ years, etc…however, I persisted because this horse deserved to be loved as every horse does and I felt a deep connection with him. I had his teeth done, sheath cleaned, nearly fused hocks injected, and tried chiropractic and acupuncture to help the front leg issue…it was expensive, but it worked. I believed in him and saw the treasure within. I was involved with him because of the joy we felt with each other, because

… Read more

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Hello. With the Waterhole Rituals Classes underway and the participants already beginning to experience the benefit of it, I wanted to talk about the possibilities there are with the first Waterhole Ritual. At the moment, those who are in the ‘Insider Circle and ‘In a Box’ Programs are working on their first assignment, which is to Share Territory with their horse, read books or write in a journal and focus on becoming connected in the moment. When you do this and when your vibration starts to match the environment in the moment, things really start to occur between you and your horse.

As Sharing Territory deepens and starts to feels like a ritual for you and your horse, new things can begin to take place such as spontaneous outbursts of interaction. This is just what happened at the ranch here last night. I have a new apprentice whose name is Lila Harding and we are very happy to be working together. Anyway, Lila brought her horse, Sebastian, a 12 year old Percheron Thoroughbred gelding, to go through my Method and learn bridleless riding. She has been Sharing Territory with her horse and we are into the second week together.

So… Read more

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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… Read more

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This is one of my favorite stories from my own experiences growing up with horses. This is a quick version of a story that will be out in my next book, a how-to book on the Waterhole Rituals.

The story offers a formula in “How to get what you want from a horse”. Let’s say you want to bond, or to be able to put a halter on a horse, or maybe you have a larger goal like winning the Olympics on a horse you have trained yourself, or take the “buck” out of your horse, or take the anger out of your horse, or teach your horse not to be afraid of a trailer, or teach him not to bite you, or how to be successful with the Waterhole Rituals to solve these issues, or to be successful using any method that has stumped you.

The secret to your success with a horse might be revealed to you through asking yourself one question only. From this question a path will unfold easily, you will return to what you “should be” doing with your horse rather than want you “would want” to do with your horse.

Maybe you read Tom… Read more

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