Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship Blog: Horse Training from the ground up

WORKING WITH THE WATERHOLE RITUALS: RULES AND GUIDELINES

As we go along, you will learn many ways in which your approach can affect the relationship you share with a horse. The rules of your behavior will change according to whether your horse approaches you, or you approach your horse.

The rules for working at liberty to bring about a true instinct in a horse to want to bond and stay with you are:

1. If the horse does not like the direction that he is given, he goes away, signaling you to stop your interactio
2. To reconnect, you must seek permission to enter the horse’s personal space through the Hello Ceremony.
3. If the horse objects by walking or running away from you, you must then go away, giving the horse time to naturally choose to reconnect.
4. When you direct a horse when you are in his personal space, it should always be a request, and if he doesn’t respond to it, you drop the subject and walk away.
5. If a horse walks up to you and steps into your personal space you can be more assertive
6. If you are too assertive, your horse will leave you and you

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Hi, this is Mark here. As you may have seen, Carolyn’s site has been down the last day or so for which I profusely apologize. At this stage, we do not know exactly what happened. I am guessing it was some sort of hack attack, a professional hazard of working online. Anyway, we have restored a backup from LAST SUNDAY 23rd, so if you made a comment on or since then, it may have been lost. Please go back and check if you are not sure.

Apologies once again and normal service will now been resumed… here’s Carolyn!

As many of you know, I use treating and food very specifically and purposefully in my work with horses. However, in the ‘Saying Hello’ Waterhole Ritual, you do not want to use treats. The reason for this is it causes the horse to focus on the treat and not on you.

I gained a deeper insight into why not to use treats during the Hello Ritual from the dog whisperer, Cesar Milan. Watching his TV show, I learned more clearly the way a dog’s mind operates. I was feeding my food-aggressive dog, Apollo, the way Cesar suggested and now that… Read more

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Positive leadership behavior is using leadership that a horse would appreciate and would be willing to accept. Positive leadership behavior would be to ask and not to expect and to encourage if you are not getting what you want, and then, if you are not getting what you want, change the subject to something that would bring relaxation, trust and harmony to the horse. A good rule of thumb is to train in short windows of time with lots of pause at liberty or on a loose line.

As horse owners, we need to shape a horse’s behavior to fit in harmony with us because of practical reasons and keep their pecking order personalities social and respectful. We need to set an example for our horse in the kind of leadership that we would like him to offer us. This way, the horse learns to treat us exactly like we treat him in regards to leadership. This creates a 50/50 partnership, with the exception that we are the ultimate leaders of our horse because we are setting leadership by example. Captivity requires leadership.

Even very fearful horses can become pushy. At this time of Marilynne’s training, she has become pushy… Read more

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When a horse is responding to me from my influence, I am focused on what he or she is feeling in the moment. I want my horse to be engaged so that I can develop his interest to dance with me with enthusiasm, looking forward to the adventure and challenges that face our growing relationship. I want the partnership to be a co-creative adventure. When I listen to my horse in each moment, I can capitalize on furthering the relationship and his performance by making adjustments to my leadership approach and the horse’s program. I adjust my leadership and the program to fit the evolution of the horse’s dance behavior while at the same time building his interest in learning and performing.

Every time I am training, my big focus is on evolving my skills of connection and courtship to keep the dance alive. I also focus on being sure that I bring my horse enough fulfillment of his need for companionship and connection, which is important to a horses psyche. Sometimes courtships are not smooth and we often make mistakes and in turn make over-corrections. It is through the “making–up” that we re-establish the bond that makes our connection… 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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Hello. With the Waterhole Rituals Classes underway and the participants already beginning to experience the benefit of it, I wanted to talk about the possibilities there are with the first Waterhole Ritual. At the moment, those who are in the ‘Insider Circle and ‘In a Box’ Programs are working on their first assignment, which is to Share Territory with their horse, read books or write in a journal and focus on becoming connected in the moment. When you do this and when your vibration starts to match the environment in the moment, things really start to occur between you and your horse.

As Sharing Territory deepens and starts to feels like a ritual for you and your horse, new things can begin to take place such as spontaneous outbursts of interaction. This is just what happened at the ranch here last night. I have a new apprentice whose name is Lila Harding and we are very happy to be working together. Anyway, Lila brought her horse, Sebastian, a 12 year old Percheron Thoroughbred gelding, to go through my Method and learn bridleless riding. She has been Sharing Territory with her horse and we are into the second week together.

So… Read more

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When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait for my two horsemanship magazines each month. One was called Western Horseman and the other was called Horse Lovers. They cost 36 cents a copy and they held free lessons in them and free things to send away for. With my horses and these magazines, my days were filled with things I could do and ways I could train. Over time, my skill grew with horses. The horses helped me along in their training because of the connection in friendship that we shared. They made me look like I knew what I was doing even when I did not. It was like a Dr. Dolittle adventure. The reason for this is that I focused on how to get the horse to help me from my lack of experience in training horses. From the bond I had developed with my horses, we had a desire to do things together and my horses would try to figure out how to support me on our adventures in our ever-deepening cross-species bond.

Not only have I been able to help you to develop a cross-species bond with your horse through this site, but also my blog… Read more

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