Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship Blog: Horse Training from the ground up

This Sunday morning before I began working on my blog for Tuesday and after feeding, I was coming up from the horses and I heard bird sounds that were not natural to this area. I ran to where I heard the sounds coming from and found about 16 parrots on the telephone lines next to the house. After watching them for a while, they swooped down into our arborvitae trees and began to eat the berries on them. I went to the house and put out fruit and seeds. They were not interested. They were here all morning and now they are gone. I just had to share this as it was so beautiful an unexpected.

Last Thursday I worked with the first Ritual, Sharing Territory, with Lucero and wound up in a spontaneous ball game with him. Lucero is a 14 month old Andalusian-Arabian cross gelding that I chose to help me with coaching for the Insider Circle group. I had intended to sit quietly and just share space but the game started when he started throwing a ball he has in his paddock. He was just playing by himself, while we were Sharing Territory, when he accidentally… Read more

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Hi. When Sharing Space, the first quality of connection you would hope to have with your horse would be gentle and kind with a feeling of friendship. Where safety would never be a concern for the human or horse, without the worry about being pushed around, and mauled. Most yearning colts go though a period that is a little intimidating for their owners and this is what was occurring with Morning Star.

Shaping a relationship and connection with a foal can be a tricky business because things can go wrong, like getting the foal angry which can lead to more aggressiveness. Also he could decide that he does not like people or he could get defensive and flighty making him harder to deal with. You cannot just reprimand a foal for doing something that you feel is dangerous and aggressive because the foal does not understand that he has done anything wrong since he does not yet have the ability to distinguish between right or wrong. From the foals’ perspective, he thinks that you, his friend, has turned on him.

So how did I approach my problem with Morning Star? When he was occupied at the far end of his… Read more

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I have never spent much time bomb proofing horses because with the Waterhole Rituals I provide a horse a feeling of safety in my charge and to follow my lead without question from the relationship I can establish with them. Before you consider bomb proofing a horse I would advise that you to get the go and stop buttons on your horse first at liberty, as well as teaching a horse to be polite, respectful and willing to work with you creatively in any given moment. What your horse is lacking is an understanding in how to respond creatively and with interest.

It is a good idea while bomb proofing your horse to ask your horse to leave the area at a quick trot as well as to stand still, working between these two requests. Horses are capable of giving many different responses to the same thing if you train them through a combination of routines and creative spontaneous interactions.

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Hi. I was asked the other day if I could sum up what my Method, DVDs and courses are all about and what makes me different to other horse trainers. So I sat down and tried to condense my philosophy into a few sentences, which wasn’t so easy! Anyway, please find below what I wrote, I hope it resonates with you.

Before we get to that though, I have a small survey it would be great if you could complete so as to give us some feedback. It’s very easy, just check one of the choices and click vote. Thank you.

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Hi. This is the continuation of the letter to Helene that I started to share with you on Wednesday. As always, I am very happy to hear your comments and reaction to my blog posts, good or bad. Till next week, have a super weekend!

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Continued….

I am not saying that you could not succeed doing what you are doing but the dangers are too many. I would almost never run from a horse or lead him to carrots before a horse will allow me to move him around with a reed easily. I never chase after a horse as you have described. In the beginning, I keep the horse in walk only.

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Hi. Before we get on to today´s blog post, I just wanted to say “thank you” to all the people who have been posting comments on my blog. Because of my work with horses, community is something that is very important to me and so to see our little community here growing is wonderful. I will endeavour to get back to you on any questions that are raised as we go along.

Right, today´s blog post is a question concerning how to handle a new foal and comes from Nancy who writes:

Hi Carolyn

I have your DVD on the Waterhole Rituals. I wondered if you could give me some tips on how to handle a new foal. We have a one week old foal who is so cute but he is already charging us, then turning and kicking out towards us and he is trying to nip. He is quite a handful. We aren’t sure what to do so he trusts us and wants to approach us but stop the inappropriate and potentially dangerous behavior. Also, is there anything you recommend teaching young foals?

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Hello again. Today’s question comes from Melissa in Indiana and is typical of ones like this that I receive on a regular basis. Her situation involves a horse that is just too bossy! Perhaps this sounds familiar to you too? Melissa writes:

I have a 4.5 year old gelding quarter mix I’ve had since he was 7 months old. He has had 45 days professional (natural horsemanship) training and that’s been almost 2 years ago. I know that’s not much and I’m at fault for him being so pushy because I do not put enough time in saddle!

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