Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

I am really excited! I am taking a new horse “Chip” in training for my project horse for the Insider Circle and Extended Circle Program that will be starting this spring on April16th, 2011.  The official announcement will be soon, and that is when you will be able to register for those of you who are interested. The Insider Circle will be open to 40 students in two separate classes, and the Extended Circle program will be open to everyone. You will get to read all about the course details soon.

Back to Chip!

Chip is a yearling wild horse that was taken from the Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s band of wild horses in the North Dakota Badlands. He was three months old when he was taken from his mother. He had pneumonia and had to be nursed back to health. In the process of his recovery, he developed orphan foal syndrome. He lost his social skills and instincts he was born with from too much human handling to get him well. It will be my job to raise him back to what his natural behavior would have been.

Natural Instincts

When a foal is born, he is born with… Read more

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As we go forward with the Waterhole Rituals™ in my blog, I am speaking to you either on Sharing Territory™, or shaping behavior, or working on the performance and training of the horse. How we approach the training of the horse will help the friendship grow. We need to bring a program that inspires the horse to want to learn and follow our direction. To do this, we need to keep tabs on our horse’s attitude while we are working with our horse, and then we need to make adjustments in our leadership to keep the quality of the connection.

We as leaders must also focus on the rhythm of our horse while we are working with him. I have found that I can communicate clearly to my horse whether I am in the saddle or from the ground by matching his rhythm and then signaling my request between the strides. I will often times choose a slightly different rhythm from the horse that would cause the horse to want to match my rhythm. For example, if my horse is walking too fast I will choose a rhythm in my own body that I would like him to have… Read more

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Thanks for your big response. That should hold me for a while. Our weather is note worthy today. Hot and cool with thunderstorms. I will not be working horses much today.

Stina is in town and looking forward to our visit. She is now a certified clinician in my method.

Apollo is always becoming a more willing and loving dog. He loves to chase rabbits. As soon as he sees one, he is off and running and I can’t do anything about it. The other day when a rabbit ran by us I asked him to stay with me and he did. Right in the middle of his take off, he stopped! My complete focus has been on getting him to change with no luck at first. I could not lead him, let him free, or expect him to stay in place while training a horse, or keep him from jumping on people at our front door. Now he is doing everything I ask him to do.

The funny thing is that his obedience came out of his disobedience with no reprimand. I gave him no consequences but expressed to him in a big way what I… Read more

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To understand the Waterhole Rituals and how the pecking order of horses function in a way that brings about the well-being of the herd, even to support the weakest individual, we need to look at the conditions that exist in nature that create herd behavior.

For horses to survive in nature, they need to stay in a herd. What prevents horses from beating up on each other is the need to stay together for their safety, as well as the open spaces that they live in, which give them freedom to choose who stays in the herd, and who goes. If a horse is too self-serving and aggressive, the herd has the ability to banish them. Likewise, a horse can only join a herd when they show they can fit in harmoniously.

I have never cared for referring to the pecking order of horses. I prefer to call it picking order. One of the main reasons family bands get established is a stallion’s need to win the favor of a mare so that she will go off and form a new band with him. In the beginning of a relationship, as these bands are being formed, the stallion must put… Read more

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I have spoken before about preparation before you ride but I was recently asked a question about letting other people ride your horse and wanted to make sure I had explained it clearly.

Do not let anyone ride your horse unless you believe they have the skill to get along with him or can put more training on him for you. Horses can be offended and lose their training by having a stranger on their backs. Most people have few or no skills in making a connection with a strange horse for the first time. On the other hand, I have watched people get on horses and need no time at all to find out how a horse needs to be ridden.

*** To read the rest of this post, get Carolyn’s Blog Collection Volume 1 ***
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What I would like to talk to you about today is how to use an area to develop a willing attitude in a horse.

The reason that you need to think about an area is that horses are very territorial. Also, if they have experienced a predator in a certain area, when they return there they are insecure. How we can use this to work for us is that we can take our horse to the arena where we are going to be doing the training and we can get him to the fall in love with the area by feeding him his favorite food there and then taking him home again. So when he comes back to the arena, the horse says, “Boy, I just love being in this arena” and that’s how I use territory in relationship to training a horse.

*** To read the rest of this post, get Carolyn’s Blog Collection Volume 1 ***
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