Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Back at the desk again after our 10-day WRIC and In the Box Program’s First Annual Beyond the Waterhole Rituals™ clinic with nine students. It was an amazing journey! The group was focused, understanding, nurturing, happy, supportive and very willing. I am sure you who were in the clinic are safely back home. I am still resting up. Thank you for bringing your smiling faces and opens hearts.

Over the 10 days, we learned more about who we are, and how we as individuals want to go about approaching our horses, each other, and our lives ahead.

The art of horsemanship starts every day rather than being found at the end of the journey. My Method is so different that it takes some time to catch on in how to train a horse without tack and only in the moments of connection without repromand. Everyone in the class was really comfortable with my method. I was very impressed.

Liberty Training, a word I coined, is a training method that begins at liberty rather than a method of training that ends at liberty. It starts with the first breath, and at the moment you and your horse are in the same… Read more

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My experiences in nature with horses unveiled an understanding that horses naturally want to bond with us and enjoy being ridden if it happens naturally.

The equestrian world increasingly begins training the horse to be ridden at a time when a horse is not ready, so lots of preparation must occur. In this modern day, a lack of Sharing Territory™ to grow and maintain the connection with horses is more than half of the reason why it takes a well-seasoned trainer to train a horse to be dependable and trustworthy.

Not sharing our daily lives with horses causes horses to be more wary of us. Rather than working with the horse when the horse feels safe and secure, most equestrians end up spending more time desensitizing the horse and showing the horse how not to be afraid in the moments he is fearful to gain trust. When we establish security we can then easily bring to the horse social activities that are more natural for the horse and human. This helps to develop the kind of trust and respect that creates a cross-species bond that brings about a unified working partnership.… Read more

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Little Known Precursors to Aggressive Behavior in Fearful Horses, and How to Deal with Them.

I was watching Animal Planet with Victory Stilwell. She mentioned something about a little known fact about dog behavior. I thought I heard her say that a dog that will roll over on his back as a submission gesture in the future will surely bite you.

I started thinking of the things that most horse professionals do not know about horses. One of them is if a horse tries to look at you with only one eye with a stiffness in his body, he does not trust you. It is a fearful as well as an aggressive stance, and it comes with strong threat in the future to the person the horse responds to in this way.

The horse that will look at you with one eye or will switch his head around back and forth looking at you from one eye to the other may follow this behavior with biting, charging, kicking or striking at a later time, when you might least expect it.

Years ago, I had to clean out stalls as an every day chore when I was apprenticing… Read more

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I have created a virtual student to help me in coaching you. My virtual student has a great relationship with her horse. In fact, once she learned how to use my Method she developed a tremendous ability to communicate with her horse telepathically. Once that connection was achieved through the Method, she stopped the practice and focus of my Method and just used telepathic communication alone. Her horse has finally lost interest because she is not focused on the strings of connection that must be maintained. There is no courtship in telepathic communication or the ability to make adjustments in the relationship. While telepathic communication is very natural and beneficial to use it cannot take the place of developing the strings of connection, sharing body language, and intent. When only using telepathic communication, there is no way to create a magnetic connection.

My virtual student wants to exclusively use telepathic communication and this keeps her away from the real experiences and challenges that arise from trial and error, she finds that she also has problems with her other relationships in her life where interplay is needed for cooperation, connection and understanding. Life and relationships are a dance in attitudes, connections,… Read more

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Today’s blog comes to you courtesy of my apprentice, Lila.

Working on the ranch as Carolyn’s apprentice student I am having many opportunities to appreciate the subtleties of the Waterhole Rituals and learning what creating willing relationships with a horses REALLY looks like.

As a professional consultant and coach, working at training people for the past 25 years, working intensely with horses for the past 12 of those years, I feel that I have a good grasp on what it takes to create willing partnership in my students and trainees etc. But that being said, I must tell you that what horses are showing and teaching me is dramatically expanding that understanding.  I want to share with you the continued evolution of what my horse Sebastian and I are creating together.

Some of you may have heard about my experience with my horse Sebastian at liberty in the arena a few weeks ago; how I was playing with him looking to see what training opportunities would evolve.  We played with a barrel and I learned about the power of focus and sharing leadership though reciprocal movements.   As I have observed Carolyn with horses I see that with some horses

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Horses respect politeness so much that when a horse corrects rudeness in their herd, they feel a deeper connection for the horse that pointed out their anti-social behavior. The most polite horse has many friends and a lot of respect. They have a lot of power because they know how to stay out of the way when another horse is not receptive to interaction or sharing space. They also know how to turn that energy around, how to develop a relationship, how to change another horse’s attitude and how to court a horse with a dominant attitude.

I use the Waterhole Rituals in the same way a lead horse goes about developing friendship, developing the bond, changing a dominate horse’s attitude and helping a fearful horse to feel more personal power.

Relationships are paramount to the well-being of horses. The connections and battles they share are enjoyed. Just like we would rather sometimes scrap with one another than really find a solution.

It is been my pleasure over the years to see many herds where every horse is a lead horse and they share a different rank position as needed to fit the circumstances. In these herds there is no… Read more

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I do not address vices like biting, kicking or bucking if I can avoid it. Fighting with a horse does not help the bond and partnership and it can cause a horse to develop a bad attitude that then becomes a permanent part of his personality. It is better to focus on building a social bond and deal with the rudeness of the horse in a way that would build the bond and respect.

Many of you may be shocked to learn what horses actually see as polite behavior and it is very much misunderstood. Building polite behavior in a horse would enhance the bond, build team-working skills and enhance a horse’s natural instincts. When a horse is no longer rude, he sees you as family and you have a greater chance that he will want to follow your lead. The Waterhole Rituals will teach you when to lead, when to follow and when to pause. Observing the horse as he exhibits different behaviors from being willing to not being willing will guide you in the direction you need to take with him.

When people bond with their horses, often times the person does not realize that the horse is… Read more

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