Posted in Advice, Clinics on Nov 17th, 2011
Leadership with horses is so easy.
They are herd animals. It is natural for horses to lead and to follow. But when we begin to train they can seem to be resistant to the whole idea of us taking a leadership role with them. Often this response is because the person training the horse is resistant to having to take on the role as leader. What I hope to do in this blog is to influence the reader to see that training and shaping behavior through leadership at liberty is an enjoyable endeavor.
Hillside Arena – Maestro
Making a Good Relationship Great.
When a horse shows resistance to our leadership it is usually caused from not pushing hard enough, pushing too hard, or we are offering a program that is not appropriate for the horse in the moment. Since good relationships are developed though trial and error this back and forth is desirable because it exposes the true path we need to take with our horse to gain unity and harmony through leadership.
We have 1 spot available in the December Beyond The Waterhole Rituals clinic!
Please email web@carolynresnick.com if you would like to join us!… Read more
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Posted in Misc on Sep 2nd, 2010
Communicating with a horse is like a courtship.
Try treating a horse like you would like to be courted, and then your horse will show you how he would like to be approached, this way you will discover a working partnership from a co-creative evolution that will grow into an amazing cross species bond built on love, affection, parenting and respect. Know that trial and error will, usually, have a positive result, because your heart is in the right place.
There as been several people a bit confused in how to communicate the fifth Ritual Eye Contact with their horse.
It is quite easy to put it into practice.
I thought I would break it down for those of you that would like more information.
What you are wanting to do is to develop your horse to have a habit of keeping an eye on you, not as a horse would on a predator but like you would do with a friend at a gathering of many people, where if you did not keep and eye on each other you could get separated.
The way you approach this ritual is the same way lead… Read more
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Posted in Advice on May 14th, 2009
Picking up on our conversation from Tuesday…
My advice is once you have built your foundation when you work your horse at liberty to think of working with slow and fast tempos as a way to create the connection and partnership you are want to advance to. Stina’s and Alessandra’s work with their horses on their YouTube videos show them working slow and easy and this is the way everyone needs to start out. Be very careful on this point. Don’t jump the gun. Alessandra knows now how to work her horse at all levels of energy and Stina is now beginning to work with her horses with a little more animation too. Readers might like to take a look at her work on YouTube and watch her development.
As you start to do this, remember to vary your programs of tempo to keep the horses happy connected and enthusiastic. If you have a low energy horse, start out with asking for more speed. This will cause him to wake up and be more interested in following your lead. In the wild, when the lead horse wants to get his band to run with him, he will agitate the… Read more
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Posted in Advice on Jan 27th, 2009
The old system of round penning has been glossed over by fancy words. I remember when I was a child, I was told that a round pen was used for breaking a horse’s spirit. Then it was shortened to “breaking a horse,” and today it is said to be a way to start a horse that would “develop a bond.”
Round pens and ropes are wonderful tools but the most misused. Ropes are many times used to jerk a horse into submission. Round pens are too often used as a tool to gain a horse’s trust by the horse running himself ragged into submission. The round pen was designed so that the human can always influence the horse and the horse can never escape his handler’s influence. This is too much pressure on a horse to start a proper relationship with him. The bond gained from the inability to escape is created from a dominant leadership pursuit. This is not natural or easy on a horse. I clearly would not use one to start a relationship with a horse. It isn’t easy on a horse nor is it natural.
*** To read the rest of this post,… Read more
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