Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Carey Sweet rescued “Pony” from the race track. He was to be euthanized. She had rescued other track horses before and welcomed him into her life. In spite of her best efforts, his head shyness and jumpy reactions to movements or being touched escalated over the 7 years she owned him. She left a breakaway halter on because she couldn’t take it off without him exploding. Even unclipping the lead rope would throw him into a panic. Whenever he was loose he was nearly impossible to catch unless he was ready to come in for dinner. The situation became increasingly worse, as she didn’t have enough information about how to help him past his fears. After he panicked and crushed her mother into the wall of the stall, breaking her leg, Carey felt desperate. A respected source referred her to Robin Gates who’s work is based on my Method.

After 2 hours of trying to connect with him, Robin advised Carey to have an experienced body worker visit Pony because of the injuries he had inflicted on himself in his outbursts and then bring him to her ranch.

The first days at the ranch were spent simply being with him… Read more

Read Full Post »

Several people learning my method have horses that have not yet been trained to accept the halter, and they have asked for my guidance. Of course, there are lots of halter breaking methods. They call it halter “breaking” because you must be very careful with the horse or foal, as you can easily run into resistance you cannot handle from the sheer strength of the horse fighting to get away. You need to stay away from the resistance and train the horse to never use resistance in response to a direct request from a pull of the lead rope.

I find it very interesting that we see very few DVDs on the subject of halter training a wild horse. It takes great skill, and trainers who are not at all intimidated by getting in a fight with the horse or foal, or putting a horse though a process where he learns that, if he gets into a fight with the trainer, he will lose. This is why it is called halter breaking. Many trainers are not comfortable if the horse has not experienced this fight and lost to the trainer. Many feel that it is mandatory for a wild horse… Read more

Read Full Post »

Hi again. Today we will be moving on with the Uberstreichen Exercises.

When your horse will stand on his own then you are ready for the next step. Put your hands on each side of the noseband of the halter and do not but in fingers or thumbs inside the halter in order to prevent injury to yourself your horse should jerk his head up. Don’t but your head above his for the same reason. Hold the horse’s head straight, breathe deeply, and relax. If the horse turns his head one way or the other gently bring it back to straight and then float with him holding his head. Do this for a short time as the horse will tolerate it, then let go slowly and walk away and disconnect. The disconnect is very important to practice. The horse is learning to give and to stay put. He is learning to be responsible without you having to police him. This teaches your horse to stay focused in a hold as well as in a disconnect. Self-carriage of the horse’s gaits can only occur when the horse is free from the rider’s active influence. This exercise starts the journey. Self-carriage creates… Read more

Read Full Post »

I first want to say thank you to all of you in the class for your interest by enrolling in this course. In doing so you show that you care for the quality of life a horse faces in our hands throughout his life, and in his training.

I would like for people to think of training as something that enriches the life experiences of the horse. In nature horses are always in a class room! Bringing the horse new experiences raises the quality of life for the horse, as it deepens your connection, which in turn adds meaning to the horse’s life.

Everyone that as enrolled is eligible for the course. The one exception is the person that has the 33 year old horse which would need a doctor’s approval. For the rest of you, you will know if the exercises are right for you and your horse by how much benefit you and your horse receive from your practice.

I’d like to ask you to please sign in every time you read an instructional blog during the free instructions. The amount of enrollment in each blog will let me know how we are doing. I… Read more

Read Full Post »

Hi there again. Before I go on to today’s blog, I wanted to thank everyone who wrote in with suggestions for Cat, I really appreciate all the kind thoughts and advice. Thank you too for all the poems, it was really lovely reading them and discovering new treasures.

OK, on to today’s blog post. Many people ask me what is the best way to use a bit in training a horse and so I thought I would write and tell you the approach I use.

Before you even start to introduce a bit, first make sure your horse is bonded to you at liberty through the seven strings of heartfelt connection using the Waterhole Rituals. Make sure your horse is the kind of horse that loves learning and following your lead and being ridden. I do not use a bit until I have trained my horse to perform three speeds of walk, trot and canter from the ground and also whilst riding, along with having a good stop and go button on him.

I also want to be able to lead my horse from behind and Companion Walk him in walk and trot on a course with turns… Read more

Read Full Post »

Hi again. Thank you for all your interest and kind comments about my new Waterhole Rituals Insider Circle Program. I was delighted that it proved so popular with you and in fact it sold out. We therefore decided to run a second class for all those who could not get in and you can sign up for this now at the Coaching page. Both classes will begin towards the end of May.

Right on to today’s post and I’d like to talk about something we will be talking a lot about on the Program and that is developing the connection with your horse.

To keep this magical connection you share with your horse each day and out of respect, you should check in to see if he is still feeling the bond he shares with you. Have you unknowingly violated his trust? Do you need to re-establish the trust before you begin your work? Does he want to join in with the activities you have planned for him? Does he run to meet you at the gate because he is looking forward to your work together? If you can lead him without a halter and he will swish his… Read more

Read Full Post »

Hi. I was saying last week how many wonderful letters and emails I receive and here’s another one that I really wanted to put on the blog. It’s from a lady from Northern California with the lovely name of Indigo. The reason for putting it on the blog was twofold. One is to help people understand that they need to take more time on the relationship with their horse and that training is more than a 20 minute experience. Indigo’s story demonstrates this beautifully.

The second reason was that it also illustrates that there is this kind of field of dreams and connections, as you will see when you read the whole story.

*** To read the rest of this post, get Carolyn’s Blog Collection Volume 1 ***
Click the image above for more details

Read Full Post »