Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship Blog: Horse Training from the ground up

Hi. I’m delighted to tell you about another workshop on my Method that’s taking place in September near Santa Rosa, about an hour and half north of San Francisco. The workshop features my dear friend and long time student, Robin Gates.

I’ve known Robin for more years that either of us would care to mention and I am really proud to have her represent my work, she is a phenomenal horsewoman. If you are anywhere near northern California in early September, I really recommend you go along to the clinic, especially if you can’t get down to me. If you want to bring your own horse, you’d better get in touch quickly as I know she only has a limited number of those places available. I personally love to watch Robyn at work and so even if you only go along to audit, I know you will benefit hugely from seeing Robin in action. If you never seen her train before, I can guarantee it will be beyond your expectations.

Details of how to book are on the flyer below, which you can see in a larger size if you click on it.

For those of you in the Insider… Read more

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Hello again. First let me start off by thanking you all for the wonderful comments and stories you write after each of my blog posts, it’s brings me great pleasure to hear you are getting on so well with my Method.

However, as the popularity of the blog grows, I’m starting to hit a bit of a hurdle. As regular readers will know, I don’t find it particularly easy to read and write and this is especially true when there are long passages without paragraphs. So what I would like to suggest is that we try to keep each comment to 1 or 2 short paragraphs of no more than a couple of sentences each (like Marja did last Thursday on Comment #7) or better still like Stephanie did with Comment #13).

If I need more detail from you, I can then ask you for it. I trust you understand and appreciate your help.

Right on to today’s blog…

Working with a horse at liberty, you must wait for him to give you his full attention and interest in bonding, because if you try to make the horse do what you want, he will run off.

Why, then, would… Read more

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Working with horses at liberty, the focus is on many aspects. Liberty work teaches a horse to govern his performance himself, and really commit to the dance you would like him to participate in. The trainer learns how to control the horse’s behavior without having to actively control the horse. Liberty Training brings out different behaviors and engages the horse’s intelligence in different ways than traditional training with tack. It enhances a horse’s ability to learn new things far more than we previously thought possible.

Once the horse has been exposed to training at liberty, tack becomes a supportive aid rather than a governing aid. After he has been developed at liberty, tack helps to communicate with the horse rather than control or govern him.

My life has been working with horses at liberty, and horses continue to surprise me in how quickly they learn without tack. The most notable lesson that a horse learns more quickly at liberty is to halt when asked. Halt is where my focus is these days because I am working with Lila and her horse Sebastian to prepare him for bridle-less riding.

It takes some preparation for equestrians to learn how to approach a… Read more

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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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