Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Hi. Thank you so much for all your comments to my post on Tuesday. There is always a danger when you are in the public eye and you say something, so your support is very much appreciated. I hear from Mark that the campaign is really starting to get some momentum and if you go back to www.DressageDisgrace.com, there is lots more information there and ways you can help.

Thank you too for the stories you have been sending and I’d like to share with you the following one, which came from Jeff. It’s the kind of story you need when it seems like the world is spiralling out of control.

Enjoy your weekend

Carolyn

Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn’t open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She’s my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office.

… Read more

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It looks like we might not be running the ‘In a Box’ Program this winter after all as the weather looks like it will be too cold for most people, so I may end up postponing the course till sometime late spring. If this happens, those who have prepaid will have their tuition fees returned.

This is Julia Felton’s last week with me as a working student. For people who live in the UK and would like to learn my Method from her, you can contact her at Julia@connect-thru-horses.com. So now I am looking for another person that would like the opportunity to be a working student with me. I have a great horse for you to learn how to train bridleless and to develop your dressage skills under saddle with my Method plus all my ground training at liberty. You should be aware though that there is no salary attached to this position and you will have to take care of your own living expenses but of course all the tuition is free! If you are interested in this position or for more information, please contact me at info@carolynresnick.com.

Recently Mark… Read more

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Hi. Hopefully another ‘In the Box’ Program is about to start and if it does, I want to provide support on the blog for the students and for everyone else who reads my blog. This way we can all start the Waterhole Rituals™ at the same time. Every time I start at the beginning, I find magic and personal power from being able to return to the beginners mind. “Beginners mind” is a phrase used by many cultures and Buddhist teachers to bring the student back to a place of personal power and learning.

What I want people to understand about the Waterhole Rituals™ is that the ongoing practice of them will continue to deepen the bond and training of both you and your horse. However, you need to approach the Rituals with the mindset that you are discovering a deeper connection and evolution in the skills of leadership and a closer connection to all things in your life. You will begin to achieve wonderful results through your abilities of observation and performance. Through practice you will continue to acquire more amazing skills.

One example of this came yesterday when Julia and I were working with her school horse,… Read more

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Hello. My great passion with horses is dressage. This may surprise some of you but as always, it’s about approach and application.

There is little difference between a classical dressage rider and a competitive rider in the hands of a master, but the methods of training are very different. The two methods are different from the standpoint of how to develop lightness and self-carriage.

At this time in history the classical school of dressage is very strong and is suffering little conflict in their theories and methods of training. However, the competitive world is suffering greatly. There are a lot of horses that are being rushed through the process because of the desire to compete. They are ridden with new methods of training to shortcut the old methods through the rider’s talent to take a horse falsely to the FEI levels.

Currently there is an upsurge in the classical methods helping the competitive world. I have had a lot of personal success using these classical principles and theories with riders and horses. I would like to suggest a book by Sylvia Loch, The Classical Rider. It points out that dressage riders in the top levels of competition,… Read more

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This is an amazing August, usually it is hot. Fall is in the air and the weather is beautiful. I do not have much to share today so I just wanted to update you on everyone here and tell you about a small tip you might find useful.

Cat is doing really well and appears to be very happy, as is Stoli. Morning Star (Lucero) is also very happy with his life and is like a little puppy dog now. When he came here about 10 weeks ago, he had a very surly attitude but has responded wonderfully well to the Waterhole Rituals™ and is as friendly as you could wish now. This kind of grounding well set him up very well for whatever training he does later in his life.

Greg Bruce, our equine dentist, came the other day. He fixes all my horses teeth and it was amazing to watch him. He spent at least 30 minutes with Julia telling her all about how a horse uses his teeth and things to look for that can cause a horse problems. I came in the middle of it and got a lot out of his talk. Greg teaches… Read more

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Today I’d like to continue to talk about the ubstreichen excercises I use.

The exercises isolate and address blockages in the horse’s body, whether in the neck, jaw, shoulders, back or hocks. Once the horse performs the exercises easily and properly, he will be in front of the leg. I have found that the exercises’ greatest benefit appears in their use before competition. They enhance the horse’s way of going, its attitude and desire to perform.

Clarity of aids is the key to a horse’s willingness to perform. A horse commonly gets turning rein aids mixed up with supplying rein aids and half-halt aids. We can hardly get angry at a horse for turning off to the subtle differences of our rein aids and leg aids. Many times, when asked to supple, a horse will drift in or out of the turn because he thought the rider was using a turning rein rather than a suppling rein. I believe most performance problems are caused from the horse’s lack of understanding, which can create defiance.

Some individual problems can occur. Aggressive horses with big performing gaits can find it difficult being submissive to rein aids when they are at the top… Read more

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Hi again. A week or so ago I mentioned my uberstreichen excercises and many of you wrote in asking more about them. Well, the good news is that I have just given the green light to produce a series of DVDs on how I use them. These will be coming out later in the year and in the meantime, here is a piece I wrote about how the excercises can help with dressage.

Uberstreichen or more correctly, überstreichen, comes from German although there doesn’t seem to be a literal translation you can use (unless you can tell us otherwise!). What I like about the exercises are that they can be used on all horses no matter what level of training they have received. The purpose of the exercise are to enhance the forward expression of the horse’s gaits. They improve collected and extended gaits by giving the horse the ability to perform with ease. They support the horse’s way of going by removing locked muscles while simultaneously schooling the horse to respond correctly to rein and leg aids.

The eight uberstreichen exercises are exaggerated requests of the half-halt. There are eight because they cover the different ways we want the… Read more

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