Dealing with Resistance to Develop the Trust
Dec 31st, 2009 by Carolyn Resnick Method
For anybody coming in to my blog for the first time, I welcome you.
Thursday’s blog is my classroom on the Uberstreichen Exercises, the exercises that I offer are a system of training horses to be able to create collection when you ride and to introduce tack and rein aids. You can go back through the blog and find the start of this class. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.
Continuing with the program…
After having worked with the first Uberstreichen Exercise for a month, on a regular basis for 10 minutes a day, and that you feel that you have received a great deal of benefit, you are ready to move on to the Second Uberstreichen Exercise. Before I give you the next exercise, on next Thursday, I want to further explain some details in what we are achieving through their practice, and what benefits you need to have received from the first exercise.
1. Your horse is more trusting.
2. Your horse is willing to allow you to hold on to both sides of the halter, in a free-floating hold that asked nothing from the horse.
3. Your horse allows you to manipulate his head, when his muscles are relaxed, because it feels good to him.
4. Your horse will allow you to hold his head down for 3 minutes or longer and looks forward to it.
5. The exercise puts him in a state of bliss.
6. You can move his head up and down, and in and out, making circles and infinity loops.
7. You are beginning to create an arch in your horse’s neck, adjusting your horse’s head by taking it down and in, up and in and out. Remember to always release to a free-floating hold. Each time you will find a different pattern of adjustment needed, and each time it will take you a shorter time to achieve the arch from the evolution of practice. The horse will begin to offer the arch on his own when you ask for it, because he understands what you want and from his desire to perform what you are asking him to do.
8. You have developed a deeper bond with your horse.
The purpose of my Methods is to create a riding horse for all equestrian pursuits, with tack and without it. My first phase is getting the horse to perform without tack through the Waterhole Rituals. I do so by developing the bond, the respect and performance at liberty. Then I train the horse to accept tack with the UE, and remove his resistance to tack, until he is able to respond to my direction through tack as freely as he does at liberty. Later on, I move to the next phase of training, using a single line to introduce rein aids for direction and collection, and a more sophisticated gas pedal and brake. The last phase is to train the horse without the influence of tack, to ride bridle-less.
Working with the Uberstreichen Exercises, my focus is to find and remove the resistance in the horse toward tack and our control. The tack is introduced to the horse in a way that removes the resistance he would naturally have for it. The Uberstreichen Exercises are also a way to bring well-being to the horse, like one would do with massage, to create relaxation and to relieve tension and anxiety.
Working with the Uberstreichen Exercises you do not want to hide the resistance, or to figure out how to train the horse bypassing the resistance. You want the resistance to come out in the open, and remove it in a nurturing way. This is important. This kind of work takes the “hidden anxiety” out of the horse at all levels, because it deepens and matures our partnership and trust while it creates an amazing performance for collection under saddle.
Many of you that are normally using tack have found resistance in your horses when beginning to use the UE by standin in front of your horse. This resistance is a sign that your horse is not really experiencing a sense of freedom and willingness, nor he is understanding how to respond to being directed with the reins, when you ride him with tack and use rein aids.
Horses need to be introduced to rein aids in an inviting way. Once we find their resistance, we need to release it the same way we have done when introducing the Waterhole Rituals, looking for the bond when the connection in unity and harmony is present. The horse gets to respond and react, while we work with his responses and reactions without using force, in a nurturing way. This causes him to give up the resistance in the most natural way.
At liberty, we clearly can see when our horse is not happy and not connected and this gives us a better understanding in knowing how to approach him.
With tack a horse will hide his feeling, because he thinks he has no choice and he has been trained to think like that in general with other methods. The horse loses his sense of freedom and self-expression and personal power. Using the Uberstreichen Exercises, in a soft way, the horse begins to see that you allow him a voice. He, then, has time to adjust to rein aids and you can easily find the resistance and begin to remove it, right when it is presented. At the same time, you can teach your horse how to take direction and to collect. It is a slow process but many things are being gained. Through this process you develop you skill, and the tasks are easy to accomplish.
I have found that horses that truly enjoy performing with tack and rein aids, when tested with the Uberstreichen Exercises, respond with no resistance whatsoever. If a horse does not like your hand on the halter in a loving way, what do you think he likes about having to listen to your reins no matter what, and to go where you choose?
Some of you are feeling squeamish about getting your horse to accept you standing in front of him and holding onto the halter, or feel you may not have the skill. You really do not need much skill. The natural skill you need is the one you would go about in how to get a child to accept a seat belt, when he would not want to do so without force or more crying.
Rein aids are not natural to horses. Even when they seem to respond well to them there can be hidden anxiety, that is not good for a horse on a regular bases. If we take it slowly, we can then bring the relationship we share with a horse to a greater trust and well being, and get rid of this hidden anxiety that we can see in the pictures of horses in performance.
Even if you are never planning on using tack I still advise that you use the UE, because of the benefit the horse gains for his well-being, and the deeper trust and bond you gain from this practice.
In the comments section, this time, feel free to share your journey up to this point using the exercises, how you have personally benefited and the insights you have gained or the problems you experienced in understanding them. Feel free to ask any questions you might have before we move on.
My last note is that if you feel challenged and do not resonate with the exercise, please, do not keep trying to use the UE, because they will not work well if you are not relaxed, grounded and pleased with the process. Horses notice this and will respond by not wanting to give up their resistance easily. We are not wanting to get in a fight, or teach a horse to be more resistant.
Stay calm, stay relaxed and go slowly. The exercises ahead are much easier.
Looking forward to hearing from you and wishing you a Happy New Year!
Carolyn
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Hi everybody
just checking in!
Have a nice day
tine
Hello Carolyn,
I have four Spanish Mustangs, 2 mares and their ten month old fillies. They had a week or so of work before they wre shipped, enough to get them to quietly load and unload in a step up trailer, to be haltered and a bit of foot handling, all very minimal as there were three mares and foal sets coming.
The hauler was a bad one and left came straight through with no stops at night, no box stalls for each moma and baby, and just the bale of grass hay the rancher gave them when they left.
All three mares were dehydrated to one extent or another, so were fed wet mashes and on fresh pasture with salt and fresh water. I was able to get the halter off of one mare, the second i had to have help. I got your WHR DVD and soon after I got the last halter off. I had been reading and watching everything on line by you that I could find. The last mare (also the most fiercely alpha.)
I had to take them all in the round pen and then shift them about in the four panel corral until I had her and her daughter in there alone. It was not possible to get the lead rope at the ring under her chin (rearing, throwing her head etc in the early days) but this time she did let me clip it on her throat latch after I asked her, scratch her under the halter and behind the ears, and even lowered her head a bit so I could fumble with this halter. It was mud encrusted and so hard for me to do (still weak from chemo) she was so patiient, and when I finally was able to get it off, she let me cratch her head where the halter had been for about 8 minutes before moving off. I then backed away from her and let her leave through the back panel. She quietly stood while I opened it and did not attempt to go through until I was well clear. She is very respectful of me at all tiems, knows right where I am and while I am not her buddy yet, she is well… not relieved that I can understand her now, though she is impressed with my new manners… but there is this bond forming, and she is feeling something I can’t explain… Its like I was hard of hearing for years… Now it seems like all the horse people around me are as deaf as boards.
Now I have been doing the WHR with them all meeting them where they are at, just sharing space with the mares, and can walk about the pasture with the babies alongside, and can groom them at liberty complete most of the time with cleaning the hooves and then back to grooming. I can use brushes on the one, the other is terribly tickish and prefers the hands to any brush I got.
When I share terrority, The mares will walk up to me about a foot away and sometimes one of them will sniff me, but I do not have their trust yet.
When they came their feet were really bad, never been trimmed, etc etc Sad to say I would walk them down in the round pen until they would stand and eat from the bucket and then I would drape the halter in the bucket until they would let me put it on so we could do their feet. Took months. Both mares got done on the front, and the really really preggers one we did not push for the back feet as I felt she was at the end of her willingness to work with us even after we backed up a bit. (tow of the three mares hauled aborted their foals soon after getting here) Farrier was willing to take my instruction on this and that was nice, not all will listen when u are doing one of the rituals.
So i have done the sharing territory, and grooming at liberty, walking around the fillies (ten months old) and they just stand, and when I want to walk, they join me like bookends on either side of me when I ask them to. Very respectful and good. Then in comes the food. Sheesh. I finally had to do the taking terrority as the mares are so greedy with the bucket and the babies (although they were not coming near me) were into the hay cart.
So I followed your instructions as best I understood them and now reed in hand, they wait for me to let them have the food without crowding me or fighting amonst themselves. I know it is best, but I miss the fillies eating out of the cart. But what is darling in a baby will not be so much fun when they are 800 pounds. I am a little unsure about how ans when to give a treat. They will not touch a carrot or apple or man made treat, about the best I have been able to come up with is a alfafa pellet. Would that work and when do I give it to them? Right now we don’t have any biting, if I give them treats for rewards, do I need to be working with just one horse and is it okay to use my round pen if they are at liberty? (I only have the one pasture to work in.)
I think maybe I should just continue to read in here and watch the whr dvd over and over and get the whr rituals really down before I try anything else. But readin in here has helped me so much and its like a light has started to glow in my heart. My relationships with the mares is so interesting.
The one mare would tolerate me if i pushed. But now instead I just turn and walk away and she starts following me trying to figure out what I am doing. If I hold the bucket I can brush all over her head, better if i have her alone in the round pen with me, no halters or ropes, just me rubbing her head.
The alpha has let me know she will forgive me for what she sees as trapping her in the round pen, moving her into the four panel corral and the fact I couldn’t get the halter off of her because I was not willing to push her or rope her. I did it your way and still got it off, no cowboying.
She did the most intelligent thing with my feeding her out of a bucket when we had company here.
She came up after shooing the others off, watches me eye to eye, makes sure she catches my eye, nose into bucket, get a mouth full and then flexes her neck and head as far away as possible without moving her body or feet. Depending on if I shifted from wearyness, she would then do the same on the other side. After she has let me know that we were forbidden to halter her (not that there is one around) she then relaxed and ate out of the bucket even though there were strangers there.
When we are alone, she just eats normally, but I swear she thought those folks were there to catch her.
I have not gotten to where i want to be with her, but she is the most amazing animal… Thank you so much for taking the time to teach me to do this slow… I will continue to read the UE and the blogs, but for now I am concentrating on the WHR. Is there something I should be looking at with the fillies that will let me know when they might be ready to start to try the first UE? Even if I was ready, is ten months to young for the ground exercises? I have had Spanish Mustangs for over 32 years but this stuff is so much deeper… I am in awe…
Your admiring fan
LJ
Dear Carolyn,
I forgot to mention that I have begun to an arch beginning to appear in Silver.
I cannot attribute to a single thing but can only guess it is arising froma shift in my interactions with him.
I had wanted to mention what an impression your writing on rudeness had on me.
I brought much more consciousness to being polite with the two horses I care for
and interact with and expecting politeness from them……….
Hi Carolyn,
After about a month of reading your posts ad playing with the Uberstreichen Exercises, I feel more as if I am picking up a conversation with an old friend than just introducing myself. I’ve been a rider and trainer since childhood, participating in many disciplines; foxhunting, hunters, jumpers, eventing, dressage, combined driving, reining, even (for a while)showing an amazing Shire at draft and dressage shows. About 8 years ago I got serious about Parelli, stopped showing and began to explore communication rather than control. I came across Alexander Nevzorov on U-Tube and returned to his website many times for inspiration. Emulating his magnificent bridleless collection has been my goal for some time.
I began teaching myself the Uberstreichen Exercises with Z, a magnificent heavily muscled 17.1 grey TB who is my main squeeze. I bred Z and raised him; he has lived his entire 7 years on my farm and never known any training but Parelli. Although I sometimes ride him with a bridle to work on my feel, I mostly use a halter when we ride cross-country and just a string around his neck when we work in the arena. He is very responsive to pressure, follows my focus and usually trys hard to keep himself balanced under my seat — our rapport is solid and longstanding. Among my 22 horses, Z stands relatively low in the herd hierachy and readily follows my lead. When something startles or alarms him (he IS a TB), I can usually cue him back to calmness quickly by asking him to lower his head and walk on.
I did not expect much difficulty with the Uberstreichen Exercises. I got a lowered head, then a nose tuck, with fingertip control the first time I tried it. Z has been standing still at liberty for grooming, polo wraps, fly spray and tacking up (halter goes on last) for several years, so waiting while I walked around him was not an issue. Keeping his head at belt-level while I circled came after a few minutes, although maintaining the nose tuck for a while took longer. But then I made my first big mistake.
Instead of solidifying Z’s relaxation and waiting until he yielded his head to me totally without resistance, however many days that would have taken, I marched ahead to the second and third Uberstreichen Exercises. He did them all as I asked, but as I read and thought more about what you were saying, and read some of the posted comments, I realized I had missed the point. I had obedience, not bliss.
About a week ago I went back to the first Uberstreichen Exercise. determined to stay there until Z radiated complete relaxation and let me move his head around like a ball bearing in oil. We are still there, approaching but not achieving the feeling I think you intend to communicate. I notice excessive licking of my hands and sudden hitches in the smoothness, clearly moments of disassociation, mental resistance and distraction. We just wait it out and he releases or I ask again. Now, I think, I am beginning to feel the inner meaning of how to approach the Uberstreichen Exercises.
Tonight I started the first exercise with the Colonel, a superbly athletic but very sceptical middle-aged mule who has major emotional scars from a bad abuse situation. To give you an idea, the first day I brought him home, he jumped out the small, high stall window when I went in with a pitchfork to pick up some poop. The Colonel is hyper-alert and never lets his guard down. For more than a year, his attitude has been that he will allow me to hang around and feed him, but he’s ready to fight or flee as soon as I reveal my true colors as a mule-torturing human.
Tonight we played with the first exercise in his stall, which he now regards as a place of comfort. Over time, the big (15 x 15) stallion stall has come to feel safe to him, but initially he was so wary of being trapped that I made it a rule no one enters his stall when he’s in it for any purpose other than feeding him. He used to run to the corner and show us his heels even when we filled his feed tub. Now, although he still won’t eat until we leave, he comes to the stall door when we open it and offers his head for the halter.
Anyway, he let me ask his head down fairly easily in the halter, although he never kept it down when I released and walked around him. Still, I felt something, a whispy beginning of relaxation, I never felt from him before. Maybe these exercises will be the key to gaining is trust at last.
Dear Carolyn,
Personally my horse and I love these exercises and your insight on hidden resistence under tack is so true. Thank you for putting words to this behavior. My horse and I are progressing well. There is still some resistence with holding the head down and still for maybe more than 30 seconds but I will continue to work on that. She is naturally high headed so does that come into play? She doesn’t stand with her head that low out in pasture when she is relaxed. Still a little tightness in the poll when I ask her to arch and bring in her nose. That is where I feel the most resistence. But again very valuable exercises and you are so generous for sharing this time and knowledge with us. I’m sure the horses appreciate it.
Nancy Proulx
This is for Susan Homes:
Continue to learn and let your horses be your teachers. And not having horses won’t help it go away, as my uncle said once, they are an addiction.
one of my favorite quotes sums it up perfectly:
I may fail, but I’m failing at the right thing.
I’m new to your blog and just reading through your older post. Sometimes I feel totally out of my element here, but I’m trying to stick with it. I’ve researched many different methods trying to find the one I felt comfortable with for my “girls” and I just keep coming back to yours.
Let me tell you who I am so you’ll understand if I post something stupid in the future. I am 53 years old, and have LOVED horses all my life, but not been in the position or situation to have one of my own. I would ride at any given opportunity, and I know nothing! I did give my daughter the opportunity to learn some horsmanship when she was younger, perhaps to satisfy my own love for the animals through her. Three years ago we moved from the west coast, back to my origin in Kansas. As soon as we got here I started nagging my husband for a horse. My brother had two and came to my aid with the logic that he had everything I would need except the desire to ride. My mom had some ground for me to keep them on and realizing my husbands resistance, said for me to go get the horses, and she would call them hers, but I would be responsible for taking care of them. That’s exactly what I did. I didn’t even tell my husband, I talked my nephew into finding me a trailer and we went and brought the girls home. I didn’t know anything, how to saddle, halter, or care for a horse, and of course I just wanted to get on and ride the minute we took them out of the trailer! What a learning experience! I give the girls a lot of credit, because I have made some mistakes that could have caused me a lot of pain, but they have been wonderfully patient with me. I have some physical problems, and am not able to ride as often as I want, but I just absolutely love being with them. Not even realizing it, I have practiced many of your techniques with the girls.
Gracie is about 13 years old and Dixie, is around 25. The last time I got Gracie ready for a ride she reared up on me and refused to let me get on her. I decided that maybe she was having a problem with the bit, or maybe she was in heat, or maybe she just didn’t want me riding her without the company of Dixie. My plan was just to ride her around the lot a bit before the ferrier got here to work off some of her energy. The weather has been too cold as of late to try anything again. So, in waiting out the weather, I thought I might look into a bitless bridle for her and see if that would make a difference. A friend of mine told me about Liberty horsemanship about a year ago, and I thought I would love to practice this with the girls, and that is what brings me to your site. I’m so excited, I can’t wait to get started. I’ve ordered your dvd and am waiting for it’s arrival. In waiting for that I am just trying to learn as much as I can so I know what to do when it gets here. I’ve been watching a lot of the video’s online and reading anything I can get my hands on. Maybe my lack of knowledge is a good thing………???????? Regardless, thanks so much for this. It gives someone like me hope!
Susan
Hi Carolyn!
I have been working with Alger and the arch in his neck is really developing. Since he has been exposed to these exercises over the years, he seems to have the attitude of “Oh Yea- I know how to do this” I think my next step is to increase the time spent with his head down. Also, he has been really good undersaddle, but he has his characteristic speediness that I am gradually slowing down. I think that these exercises will help him to regulate his speed as well by developing a more relaxed horse with more sensitivity to the aids.
Thanks,
Lori
Dear Nan Anderson,
On your fussy horse. Be stronger with him so he can see that his behavior is not wanted. Keep practicing and trying not to notice the negitive behavior as much as you are. keep to the lessons and your direction and let time and rutine take its affect.
Do not be in a hurry or show you are dissapointed in him. Just be firm and relax and breath and pay more attention on what you want him to do than to his ove active nose. Every once in a while get tough and take lots of brakes. It might be that your horse is not yet well trained enough to start this program. The UE is put on a horse after the Waterhole Rituals and this behavior would be fixed in him on the first exercise of that program.
I remember the first thing I ever trained an animal, it was six kittens, they we about 6 weeks old. I wanted all six kittens to wear doll cloths and a night cap and lay on their backs in a doll buggie while I pushed them around town. I can not spell. I hope you know what I am trying to spell, well any way, I go the job done in a short time, about three days.
I would take a kitten and lay it on it’s back and go get another kitten and as I did this the first kitten would jump out. I then would go get the third kitten and second kitten would jump out. Sometimes I would stop and go back and work on getting the kitten that was jumping out and put it back again and then grab a new kitten that is all I did. In three days I had kittens wearing doll close laying on their back and me pushig them around town as if it was their idea.
I never scolded them. Once in a while I was firm but most of all I was persistant.
I could do anything with them. It was amazing.
Imagine you are a plate spinner.
Just continue to continue!!
Hope this is of help.
You do not want a fast fix. You want the long way, it will pay off for you more. People are always wanting to radicate problems rather than working with the problem to creat a depentable in the animal.
Dear Carolyn,
So sorry to check in just under the wire here on Wednesday. It has been face-cutting, bone-numbing cold here for over two weeks now, and ice is everywhere. We have only a run-in shed to work in out of the winds. So I am afraid we are behind, but I don’t want to hold anyone else up. I have taken the time indoors to copy off your blogs on UE and in addition the helpful comments to others who have written in and place them in a notebook. Reading over them, I get the larger picture and it makes so much sense why one would ask this of the horse. In retrospect, these may have become some of the most important exercises we have ever done or attempted. Certainly following along as you and others post has done much to grow my horsemanship.
So Where Are We Here?
Stella: Stella is one of those horses who takes responsibility seriously. She likes your philosophy about what the horse can bring to what we ask of them. She has the first part of the exercises down, lowering the head, the small tip of the nose towards the chest. She gladly stays still as I walk around her between requests. She is not so good yet at holding the arc on her own for any long period of time and is not truly fluid on the infinity circles. I do smile though. When I walk towards her in the field and come close, she will often just offer the carriage of the neck we are working towards.
Johnny: Soft and sensitive, he gives easily to pressure on the halter for lowering and tipping the head. He too stands still as I circle him between requests. ONE QUESTION HERE THOUGH: Johnny is not a biter, but he needs to have his mouth on EVERYTHING. He is the prankster and jokster of our band. Perhaps now he is just bored from the weather, its restrictions on his daily romps. He has his mouth all over the mares too, irritating them. Today when I went to do the UE with him, he took every opportunity he could to wrap his lips around my gloves as I reached for the halter, to grab my coat, my scarf. It didn’t stop. I did send him off once, as I felt his insistence had become rudeness, but I am not really sure now to handle this. I really feel this is his way to seek amusement; it is a game. It is not aggressive but is a nuisance and certainly interrupts learning time. He, as Stella, is not as fluid as he needs to be, though one can rock and tip his nose at request with the halter. And we are still at the first stages of the infinity circles. He has not “given.”
Junie Moon: Junie is along for the ride. She just loves to connect. I hadn’t planned on doing these yet with her, my 5-year-old mare. I thought I would wait until I had the other two well on their way. In fact I have spent less time with her than any of the others, but it is in her nature to be soft and fluid. She is working on the infinity circles well, but I know we can do better.
Just again thank you. You’ll find me knocking on your door when you do the next Water Hole Rituals Class. I didn’t know the power that online learning could have. Thanks for all you give here, for your vision, for your dediation and help.
Nan Anderson
Thank you Carolyn for your response. I will increase my energy and see how it goes. Your comment “They love being told want to do, they love deciding if they will or won’t listen to you. And if you allow them their expression they come alive and you can shape your leadership a direction to bring the bond to a working bond at liberty” really hit home with me especially deciding if they will listen or not. It is almost like horses are continuously judging if we are worthy enough to be entrusted with it’s (horse’s) life. My I continue to grow emotionally and spiritually to become the leader my horses need. Thank you.
Carolyn, hi again,
I just came back from a (cold!) session with Capricho, intending to read for an hour but I couldn’t take it (I admit my idea of cold is probably anyone else’s idea of balmy…). So I decided to just put the halter on him for UE but make no attempt to control him with a rope.
Have you met horses with comic talent? I imagine you have. This guy is too much. I put my hands on either side of his face standing in front of him, and he abruptly shoved his head all the way down, held the pose a few seconds (we had done this move the other day, he got it perfectly) then impatiently yanked his head back up, bowed his neck to the extreme side, and eyeballed me out the corner of his eye, giving his pejorative opinion of it all. He didn’t leave or turn his body, did not take one step, only that when I attempted to do it again, he put his head all the way to the other side and rolled his eye at me, daring me to do anything. By then he had me laughing. This guy could get a job on TV. So finally I put my hands on either side of the halter and said “good boy” as if he had done something I wanted, and the ears went forward and he arched his neck and held it there. He is a pill.
Also he got a little nippy. It is mostly a lip thing. Here is what I am thinking: what if I bring carrots in so he smells them, do not give him any, and then the instant he should try to nip, I say “no carrots!” and throw them outside the pen? In other words, no matter what, no treats, but I would just bring them to reinforce the way he sabotages himself.
Anyway I was able to deal with nipping several months ago just by sharing territory and driving him away – until very lately there was none of this.
So I think I can work with a halter without attempting to handle the lead rope. I just let it dangle and do nothing with it. He stays right with me.
I can’t thank you enough for this trick of pretending the horse did what was asked. It really works.
Dear Carolyn,
Thank you ever so much for your advice. I didn’t want to give up too soon, yet I also didn’t want to push too hard and as you put it “get on the wrong side of him.” Roscoe and I do a lot of companion walking, and yes he does halt on a non-contact rein, so maybe we will be able to continue with the exercises after all. We will give it a try.
There is one more thing I would like to share with you that has nothing to do with the above-mentioned topic. Rather this is about food and working around food when working with a horse (You addressed this in one of your posts.) Some time ago I began feeding Roscoe myself even though he is boarded. I feed him in an open area and no halter. Of course, at first he did the usual horse stuff of pushing and running over me. We worked through this by my using a reed to get him out of my personal space; he did not get his feed until he stayed out of my personal space, later only a hand signal was needed. A few weeks ago I began asking him to go out on a circle before I fed him. At first he didn’t even do a complete circle, but that was ok, and he got his grains. It wasn’t long before he did a complete circle; then I asked him to stay on the circle a little longer.
Roscoe and I do a lot of our groundwork at liberty. In the past I had asked him to go out on a circle, but he would simply run away instead. Periodically I would try again, with the same results. I always wondered how I was ever going to accomplish the last waterhole ritual with Roscoe when we do your class in the Spring. Last weekend we were in a snowy arena with the wind howling doing companion walking and going over obstacles at liberty when I decided to ask him to go out on a circle. And to my amazement, Roscoe did.
I was so delighted that we had accomplished this, even though we stumbled into it. You have talked in your posts about experimenting and letting things happen. You are so right. Thank you.
Karin
Dear Carolyn,
Happy new year! This was a great post to read today. I came back from spending new year with family and yesterday just had time to feed and muck out in the dark. It was very cold and I was not thinking of connecting with either Ben my gelding, or Rosie, the little pony. But guess what? Ben (who normally can’t wait to get to his food) decided to delay going to his hay and share territory with me. He came and stood beside me as I mucked out and moved with me until I ‘got it’ and stopped and stood with him. Wasn’t he wonderful? He initiated connecting with me. I felt so complimented.
Today, he came to me when he saw the headcollar in my hand (great progress). Due to Christmas and unusually severe weather here I have not been able to do the UE exercise everyday, but we have worked with it. Ben shows big resistance. What is interesting is that he always shows tension when I put his bridle on: he gives big yawns although he does not actively resist it.
He has progressed very well with standing still. He now will allow, mostly, a floating hold from me. When I ask him to lower his head he ducks it right down, which feels like an avoidance. But today he allowed me to lift it to a midline position and he stayed there. It feels like a real trust issue for him. I had been feeling frustrated at such slow progress and so was delighted to read your blog post today. I also get a lot from reading through everyone else’s comments and your replies. Ben sounds a bit like the horse Tracy Litle (at 58) described.
Máire
Hi Carolyn,
Well I can’t seem to get anything straight – somehow I answered this post’s questions on a previous blog post… I’m so sorry. So I’ll repeat here what I put in the other day in the wrong place, hoping you will ignore it there.
1) It seems I have some serious phobias about ropes and halters, and I believe Capricho is picking up on it. The first joint of my left index finger is still sore, swollen, with circulation compromised by a surplus of scar tissue. So when I tried to halter him for the UE, I think he sensed my anxiety and kind of froze up (just like Mom). We are having exceptionally cold weather and it is really hard on the injured finger to handle tack, so I don’t dare fool with ropes until we get a reprieve. So what I’d like to do is return to doing UE at total liberty MINUS TREATS. I did that yesterday, and although his little lips are moving looking for treats at times, he so readily responds to my hand gestures and seems to love arching his neck to my pretend pulling down of his halter. Again, this is entirely without treats.
What I am thinking is to totally withhold treats during UE, then ration them on our other liberty work. He will work without any treats at all. And I’m planning to do a lot of sharing territory – I have a lot of reading to catch up on.
Does this sound reasonable? He will put his head down with the halter, but always on that third try, and then he thrusts his head down low, as if to say “whadayathink, I’m stupid?” He has no resistance to be standing in front of him or holding onto the halter. But he is so much more comfortable at liberty, and is letting me walk all the way around him. In fact he doesn’t move at liberty. I have been able to circle him entirely with no tack.
He is such a quick study. I read some trainers believe horses need hundreds, thousands of repetitions to learn a cue. I can but wonder what on earth they are doing – this little guy has picked up cues the first time and repeated the request every time since (particularly picking up his front legs for the Spanish Walk). I think he’s hyperintelligent with a serious capacity to get bored if I don’t respect his intelligence.
2) I had to sign in here before to reinstate my subscription with the new email address. Sorry for the confusion. You do not need to worry, as it seems the system has now automatically responded by sending me the comments.
Thanks for your explanation of this great UE program. If you think I should not do it at liberty I can stop, but I assure you he gives me great results. He seems to like to arch his neck on the command “look pretty” when I pretend to have hold of an imaginary halter.
Dear Tracy Litle, 58
Happy New Year to you! I would need to see you and your horse to really know what I am telling you to do is the right path but here it is.
From your letter I would be careful you are not babying your horse too much.
Work your horse on a line and at liberty and wake her up. I think she is enjoying her work and wants to be good. Take her on walks in nature. Take her to a place away from home and have a lunch for her at your destanation.
When you work her at home ask her to run at liberty and that will bring the life up in her. When she wakes up and runs around praze her and give her a treat. You are good to her and she is not hiding from you. I think she is wantings to be good. I think you need to pick up your energy as well. Horses need your energy to be drawn to it.
Think of horses in nature they are not like lambs being as concerned as you are to one another. they enjoy activity and are very ruff and tumble in how they communicte with each other. Horses need us to be that way. If she gets offended she will get over it and when she does she will like you more for this experiance. Horses like to have attitudes and to expres them.
They love being told want to do, they love deciding if they will or won’t listen to you. and if you allow them their expression they come alive and you can shape your leadership a direction to bring the bond to a working bond at liberty . Their greatest instenct in horses is to follow a leader of their choosing because they are herd animals.
If you make a mistake your horse will forgive you. You are a nice person and your horse knows that.
Hope this guidance is going in the right direction.
Dear Carolyn,
our weather conditions are so horrible and the only place with a roof is Clarence’s box (she’s got an open box with a large paddock, when she can’t go to the pastures). It’s been raining for days, all mud around. We can do very little in the moment. I don’t know if doing the exercises inside the box, because I think it’s her private place and maybe better not doing them there. What have we achieved so far? Clarence stays put much better, and I can walk around her telling her “whoa”, only sometimes she still tries to walk away, but as you told me I always bring her back to the point she was. When I clean her hoofs while she’s standing she gives me 3 of them volontarily , but not the fourth which is always the same one, the left fore hoof. She puts all her weight on it as if she wants to say: “No way!”The floating hold sometimes works sometimes not. She often is distracted of what’s going on around us and then doesn’t stay focused. When she puts her head down she sometimes pushes me with her nose. Tucking her nose is still not easy, she often rises her head then. I try to be very soft and floating. It’s a question of patience I think. I love the exercise you told another classmember, sitting on a chair and letting her eat out of a bucket I hold on my legs and play with her halter.
The first UE worked very well with another horse of a friend of mine, a young mare, Luise, she was born free (I once wrote you about her) . I started with her the other day.She stayed put and I could walk around her and she immediately let her head down, half closed her eyes and relaxed.
I think with my Clarence I have to work more with the waterhole rituals to have a stronger bond with her. I ordered them and also liberty training before Christmas, but they havn’t arrived yet.
That’s all for now and I’m very much looking for the next exercise. When I can’t work with my horse because of the bad weather, I just imagine I do.
Thank you and a happy New Year
Andrea
Thank you very much Carolyn for your response. I plan to go through the Waterhole Rituals when you offer it in the spring. Til then I’m a bit limited with the weather in how much I can accomplish with them. My older horse Moon is 17 and been with me since birth, I would say is way beyond kindegarten but not a graduate. For the most part, we do have a good relationship but he will try to avoid me if it suits him. He has always been quite a challenge and I was fearful of getting hurt by him for many years. He has matured and calmed down considerably but perhaps he feels more in control of me than I of him? Just a month ago I set up an arena which is about 60×160 but then winter came. In the round pen Moon is very responsive to me and will do most anything I ask.
I would have to agree that I have enabled some bad behaviors by being too passive at times. I don’t always realize it at the time, so I appreciate your comments. When you said “It sounds to me that when your horse looks off in the distance wanting to be afraid of something this is a way to control you and you need to address the problem with leading for behind for as long as he is intresed in something else then give him a brake and hang out with him” I hadn’t thought about it in that way but it makes sense to me.
I have done a lot of ground work with 4yr old Micah and he is quite responsive to me as well. But again, it’s mainly been in a round pen. I have started him under saddle and ridden him on trail, but I decided to take a step back to create a better relationship with him because I didn’t feel he was connected to me enough. That is when I went searching and found out about your Method. So that’s where I’m at now and I feel I am on the right track.
Carolyn, when you said “I also guided you in what to do when your horse walks off you can find this lesson if you look back through the program. this is a very important exericse that you are missing” I think you are referring to that I should walk away from him at the same time so he doesn’t have the control? If not, then I’m not sure what exercise you mean or where to find it. Thank you again for taking the time to answer me.
Regina
Hi Carolyn,
May this year be full of grace and prosperity for all.
This entry has caused me to really examine my relationship with one of my horses and face the reality. I do not think that she is ready for UE and haven’t started them yet with her. The reality is most of the time she still does not trust me and will leave my presence when at liberty. However, she loves sharing territory and will wait at the fence where I can see her in a window of the house or nearby if I’m outside. This being said and contemplating on what can we do together I am going back to just WHR and cease the riding and other agendas (which I haven’t done up to this point) until I have her heart. This will be very hard for me as I love to trail ride. She is very obedient under saddle, on line but it is robotic with no exuberence. Maybe that is because she feels that she doesn’t have a choice. Am I on the right track?
Thank you for your valuable insight into the nature of horses and the introspection that you bring about in us.
Dear Karin Kozlowski,
Why don’t you try the new exercise on Thursday and see how that works for you? The next one is alot easire if you can get your horse to walk next to you in companion walking and haulting on a none contact rein. This work may help you with the first exercsie.
Happy New Year, Carolyn,
To summarize how far Roscoe and I have come, I have to conclude that it’s a mixed bag. It’s a little confusing because we started out very strong. He stands independently, I can walk around him. He allowed me to float his head. He lowered his head and was very relaxed, closing his eyes and sighing. Tucking his head was less consistent. We were never able to do the circles with the nose. But then everthing changed the last three or four times we worked on the UE. He wouldn’t even allow my hands on either side of his head. A lot of resistance. Roscoe is always very clear when he says no.
I think our progress would have been more consistent if we had completed your Waterhole Rituals class before attempting the UE. Anyway, I think it best to discontinue the exercises at this time, but I will continue to follow along with your class. And in the Spring, I look forward to taking your Waterhole Rituals class. I have your Waterhole Rituals DVD and Naked Liberty. I have learned so very much from your method.
Karin
We’ve been out of town for the holidays and my wife is dealing with some health issues so I am saving your posts and I will try them all this spring or summer when, hopefully, things are better.
Dan
Dear Regina Walters. 53
So gald you ae enjoying the program.
You are teaching your horse to stick his nose out more than ever by kissing him when he sticks his nose out.
It is important to understand that you are training your hrose to go against what you want, becaue it will help you to make better choices to be sucesssful in my method.
I could be wrong but it is possible you are spoiling you horse by the choices you make in how to handle their behavior in the moment. It sounds to me that when your horse looks off in the distance wanting to be afraid of something this is a way to control you and you need to address the problem with leading for behind for as long as he is intresed in something else then give him a brake and hang out with him.
But first I must ask you do you think your horse is in kinegarden in his program with you or has he gratuated in being more responsible. When a horse becomes more responsible after leaving kinigarden we must keep the horse responsibe or he will slip backwards and take charge of you.
Do you do the Waterhole Rituals with them? If you do not they will help you make good choices in when to pause with to lead and when to follow and how to suport the progress of your relatisohsip with your horses.
I can only guess that your not getting what you want is coming from helping the horses to take change of you and you are rewarding them when they do. If this is not the case and you would know this better than I would say you are on the right track. By the sound of your horses lack of focus I belive your horses need more schooling in the Waterhole Rituals at liberty before you start with the ue program. I also guided you in what to do when your horse walks off you can find this lesson if you look back through the program. this is a very important exericse that you are missing.
Please respond.
Hope this is of help,
Carolyn
Hi Carolyn,
This weekend we took things very slow. Seemed each day I went out to try the Exercises, they were distracted by something.
Saturday they were both nervous about something in the woods and did not want to stand quietly. I let them choose to stay with me or leave and they both needed to leave and watch whatever it was in the woods. I think it was a moose.
Yesterday I decided to hike out into the wooded area they were and again give them the choice of interaction or not. This time Moon was very alert about tractors and chain saw noises from a distant neighbor. His head was high and he stared intently with a relaxed body however. So I decided to just stand next to Moon and ask nothing of him nor touch him. After a few moments he lowered his head to me and touched by head and hair and breathed on me for a bit and then took his attention back to the noises. That’s all we did.
Micah however is always more curious and interested in interacting with me. He lowers his head easily and tucks for me but only for short times. That’s fine for now. He is playful and is interested in my coat, by boot laces, my hair and does so mostly in a very respectful manner. Sometimes he needs a bit of correction so he doesn’t treat me as a playtoy. Both horses handle the disconnect very well. We are not ready for the infinity circles yet but I beleive that will come in it’s own time. Right now we are just adding ingredients, the cake is going to take a while. I truly appreciate you reiterating that we can and should take things very slowly and just enjoy the interaction. I do not believe I am causing any stress by the exercises so I plan to continue on at our own pace.
I have one question or would like your opinion. Micah (almost 4 years old) has a habit of stretching his neck staight out (kind of level with his shoulder if you can visualize and with his head facing sideways. He has done this since I brought him home as a weanling. I’ve seen him do it when I am not there, he is just doing it toward Moon when they both may be very relaxed. He sometimes (not always) will do it when I am asking things of him or even if we are just hanging out. It doesn’t necessarily seem to be a sign of stress although sometimes it seems like an act of avoidance. Other times he just seems to like to do it and he likes it then when I kiss his nose (because I can’t resist it when he sticks it out toward me). Just an odd behavior that I can’t pinpoint the reason. Any thoughts?
Thank you
Regina
Hello,
I’m just checking in. I was able to see Maia the other day and so did the first exercise of walking around her at liberty and having her stand in one spot. I also did a similar thing a few other times during the whole training session, when I had her wait in one spot while I left and got a treat and came back and gave it to her. I love seeing the sense of ownership and dedication that it brings out in her!
Thank you,
Hannah Rivard
Dear Anuschka,
This is my class room on the ue only.
If you would like you could book a phone coaching session with me and I could help you.
If you practise these exercises they will be very benifical to you and your horse in dressage riding.
When you write to me in the class room please leave your full name.
Thank you for your intrest,
Carolyn