Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

From this point, forward I am focusing on helping people to understand my Method of training through the Waterhole Rituals at liberty.

I have trained at liberty for over 40 years and in the mid 70’s I coined the phrase ‘Liberty Training’. In those days I had to explain what Liberty Training a horse was. Now 40 years later, people frequently use this phrase and in some cases not as it was intended or defined by me. For those of you who do not know yet what Liberty Training is, my definition is that Liberty Training is a method of training a horse in a free environment without tack from the ground in a wide open space large enough for a horse to avoid his training if he wants to.

This is the secret of how to bring about a horse’s interest in wanting to bond and seek out your company. In ‘Liberty Training’, you want the horse to feel free so he can begin to act and react from his instincts and to show the handler his true feelings and so that the handler can respond more proficiently and fairly. The Method causes a horse to exercise… Read more

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You do need to have a natural ability to communicate with animals but I believe that people who are drawn to my Method have this ability somewhere in them. If you have a desire to connect and especially if you are good with dogs and children or feel you would be.

This reminds me of a story. A man came to my ranch and wanted me to teach him how to read a horse. I told him that he already knew how. I felt that this was the case because of how he was with his dogs during his visit. He rescued greyhounds, which he had brought with him and I had observed that they were well behaved and loved. He knew them as well as I knew my horses. He was their caretaking pack leader.

He told me that he could not read horses from what he had experienced with them. I believe this problem occured because he approached them differently than he did his dogs. With the dogs he wanted to give them a good life and maybe with the horses he expected the bond to be the same as he had with his dogs. He did not… Read more

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I am setting the U.E. Class aside. I want to have an open phone session class on the U.E.. I will offer it at $35.00 for those who are interested. I want to reward the people who are enjoying the U.E.

As you know I did not think that very many people would see the benefit in the exercises, so I have never offered them to anyone who was not a professional. I will have two more classes to finish up the winter program on the U.E. For anyone that wants guidance on them after that just send me your YouTubes and I will continue to guide you forward. I may choose to post your YouTubes and our correspondence on the blog if I feel it would benefit everyone.

I am getting ready to set a date for the Waterhole Rituals online course, so if you have any questions about the Method or course write me in the comments section and I will answer you or do a blog that will address your questions.

I want to address a concern that I hear crop up from time to time. A few of you feel that your horse may not like… Read more

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This winter I have been working to complete my next book on the Waterhole Rituals. If you are new to my blog and do not know of my work and Methods, I thought I’d share with you the first page of my book and then you can ask me questions on the subject of the Waterhole Rituals.

“Beyond the Whisper” – A step by step Guide to the Waterhole Rituals

The Waterhole Rituals can be thought of as a courtship to win a horse’s trust, affection, loyalty and respect rather than a horse training method. Your communication skills with horses using my Method are meant to evolve organically from the relationship you build with your horse. I will guide you though each step as your relationship matures to a dancing partnership in harmony and unity. Leadership in the moment a horse feels a connection in companionship inspires a horse to follow your lead like music inspires the dancer to dance.

I stopped pursuing horses as a way to bond with them years ago. A bond with a horse should happen naturally, like when choosing a puppy, from the spontaneous magnetic connection that brought you together.

Liberty Training needs to

… Read more

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The fifth exercise starts with the horse in halt, with the head almost to the ground, on a held contact line. While you are holding the contact, ask the horse to move forward. Your horse will have difficulty wanting to do this because he has become light to the aids. In this exercise, we are teaching the horse to go forward with a held rein. This is a new concept to the horse.

The reason this exercise is important for dressage is that here you will ask the horse to stay soft, round up more at the same moment that he would go forward. This is a very hard concept for a horse to grasp, this is why in dressage we see horses becoming resistant, brace become unwilling, nervous and losing their forward impulsion and willingness to listen to the leg aids to go forward. This is also, what starts a horse rearing and bolting. The horse is totally confused because the rein aids are asking him to halt, in his mind, while the leg aids are demanding forward. This simple exercise takes care of these reactions in the horse by teaching him how to round up in a… Read more

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Today I would like to share with you a video by one of my students using the Uberstreichen Exercises. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

This video clip I made yesterday.

I put the camera up in a tree and started. Before starting I have been reading on Carolyn’s UE Thursday blog and I had printed out the first two exercises and read them over a couple of times and also watched Farah’s and Carolyn/Alexandra’s videoclips on UE. So after the theoretical preparations, I did the mental preparations which was to clear my mind. I clear my mind by watching some video clips of horses, it can be the Unbridled Spirit Videos or listening to a few music pieces. I did not watch the Waterhole reflection DVD yet of Carolyn, but this is the kind of video you can use to clear your mind.

You may notice in the video that I am not distracted of the other horses and I am very focused on what I am doing. My mind is right there 100%. Through my journey so far with Carolyn, one thing that has surprised me the most is how much of what you

… Read more

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This is one of my favorite stories from my own experiences growing up with horses. This is a quick version of a story that will be out in my next book, a how-to book on the Waterhole Rituals.

The story offers a formula in “How to get what you want from a horse”. Let’s say you want to bond, or to be able to put a halter on a horse, or maybe you have a larger goal like winning the Olympics on a horse you have trained yourself, or take the “buck” out of your horse, or take the anger out of your horse, or teach your horse not to be afraid of a trailer, or teach him not to bite you, or how to be successful with the Waterhole Rituals to solve these issues, or to be successful using any method that has stumped you.

The secret to your success with a horse might be revealed to you through asking yourself one question only. From this question a path will unfold easily, you will return to what you “should be” doing with your horse rather than want you “would want” to do with your horse.

Maybe you read Tom… Read more

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