Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Hi there. You may remember a couple of weeks ago I announced I was looking for someone to be ‘my voice’ for the podcasts we will put on iTunes. Well, I was just overwhelmed with the number of responses we received, it was very humbling.

With so many people volunteering, the question then was, how do we decide who should do it? We thought about holding a competition and having elimination rounds like they do on that TV show American Idol but that didn’t seem fair. So what I’ve decided to do is let EVERYONE who wants to, read the blog and be my voice. Plus, I thought it would be nice if you could tell us all a little about yourself beforehand so we can all get to know each other better.

Before I get on to how this will work, I want to explain why I’ve decided to find someone else to read the blogs rather than do it myself.

As you are probably already aware, I have a good deal of trouble with reading and writing. I guess my brain’s just not wired that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love to write and enjoy very much… Read more

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For anyone new to my blog, the programs I offer are about developing better connections between horse to human and human to horse. They are meant to support the equine community by creating better equine partnerships through social interaction and communication that strengthening the bond, trust and dance.

If you are new to my classroom and want to understand more deeply my philosophy and the programs I offer, I would suggest that you order my book Naked Liberty, the DVDs Introduction to the Waterhole Rituals and Panadero’s Journey. I also invite you to join in on the free training course on the Uberstreichen Exercises. These are exercises to develop a better partnership and connection when your ride, by working from the ground teaching a horse to perform the beginning stages of collection.

You can join in the free winter Uberstreichen Exercise Program by going back in the archives and reading from the November 19th entry. Every Thursday there will be a new lesson, Tuesdays will be regular blog entries that might have further information regarding the lessons.

From reading all of your comments, many of you say you are visual learners and are grateful for the YouTube… Read more

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This is an amazing August, usually it is hot. Fall is in the air and the weather is beautiful. I do not have much to share today so I just wanted to update you on everyone here and tell you about a small tip you might find useful.

Cat is doing really well and appears to be very happy, as is Stoli. Morning Star (Lucero) is also very happy with his life and is like a little puppy dog now. When he came here about 10 weeks ago, he had a very surly attitude but has responded wonderfully well to the Waterhole Rituals™ and is as friendly as you could wish now. This kind of grounding well set him up very well for whatever training he does later in his life.

Greg Bruce, our equine dentist, came the other day. He fixes all my horses teeth and it was amazing to watch him. He spent at least 30 minutes with Julia telling her all about how a horse uses his teeth and things to look for that can cause a horse problems. I came in the middle of it and got a lot out of his talk. Greg teaches… Read more

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I deal with a loss of performance under saddle using the activities surrounding the Waterhole Rituals as we are doing fun stuff together at liberty. Like the game, “Look at me and eat all you want, or come with me and I will take you to the food.” I gain co-operation and respect over food issues rather than asking a horse to perform a self-serving act under saddle. The Waterhole Rituals prepares the horse to perform under saddle perfectly by priming him to be focused, willing, connected and having the right energy to perform at its best under saddle.

You will approach your horse much differently at liberty than when you are working with a horse under saddle because under saddle you are focused on the performance rather that the teamwork and quality of connection. At liberty, you will take the time and deal directly with issues of why the horse is not performing well under saddle with a kinder attitude. In this state of mind, you can put all of your attention on developing the connection instead of trying to get a horse to perform when the connection is not quite right.

*** To read… Read more

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A few weeks ago, Nicole from Canada wrote in with a couple of questions and this second one ties up nicely with this weeks post on Unconditional love. Nicole wrote:

The other question I have is with regards to ’round penning’. I use quotes for this term because I seldom put a horse into a round pen for this work, more often it’s in a 2 acre paddock with 3-4 horses. When I have a horse that does not come when called or leaves when I’m haltering, I will drive them off and separate them from their herd. I used to do this with a lot of energy and make them go at least at a trot, if not more. There would be lots of directional changes, both inward and outward turns. Then I would ask them to come back to me and most of the time they come running in.