Posted in Stories on Aug 20th, 2009
The other day I was telling you about how I started to use music to train my horses and so I wanted to tell you a little more about my experiences.
When I trained to music, I found that the horses responded more quickly to my spontaneous direction. We became united as a team beyond anything I had experienced before. It caused me to be more careful not to ask anything of the horse that would cause the loss of rhythm or negatively impact the horse’s ability to perform. Music made me a more tactful rider. My spontaneous cues caused the horses to focus on performing at a moment’s notice, which created a brilliance in their steps. It was a miraculous discovery. After that, I developed a training program in four stages.
In the beginning, when I first started a horse to music, I chose classical or any music without a beat so the horse could focus on even cadence and develop an evenness and smoothness of the gait. This way, he could easily attach to the flow of the music. After the horse responded naturally to what he was listening to, the next step was to pick music with… Read more
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Posted in Misc on Jul 28th, 2009
Julia and I worked with Stoli today. First, we kept him company to start our daily work. He is now feeling a bond with both of us and even enjoying our company.
We are working on body releasing techniques to get him to release any bad memories that could get in the way of his willingness from trust issues in the past. Body work helps a horse to feel safe enough to be intimate with you and this is important. If a horse will not allow you to be intimate with him it is not a good idea in general to think about riding because it sets an attitude of not being fluid and fluidity is very important in dressage. Since Stoli is 21 years old he needs all the fluidity he can get. We discovered Stoli is an amazingly agile horse and loves doing carrot stretches and this one in particular as you can see below:
Stoli doing his agile excercise – he offered this to us completely umprompted
He is a great lesson horse for Julia because he is very locked in some areas and is responding very slowly, which is giving her plenty of… Read more
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Posted in Misc on Jul 2nd, 2009
The definition of a spiritual connection is that when the mind, bond and soul is entirely shared in the moment with your horse in a bonded connection in harmony and unity. Please do not use the Waterhole Rituals until you understand how to apply them and their purpose.
There are seven heartfelt strings of connection.
1. Bond
2. Trust
3. Respect
4. Willingness
5. Focus
6. Magnetic Connection
7. Desire and energy necessary for dancing.
For example in the last step if your horse is really too relaxed and not paying attention, then work him fast with you at a moments notice following your lead. Alternatively, if working fast would make him nervous because he is too hyper then his energy needs to be aligned.
When you go to your horse with my program you first must be in the moment and wait until you are completely balanced with no thought of the past or future outside of the territory you are sharing with your horse. You open your awareness to everything in the moment and the changing conditions that occur like a lead horse would. To get in a state of mind… Read more
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Posted in Misc on Jun 25th, 2009
For those of us gifted at birth with a natural affinity for horses, or those of us who as children developed a fantasy surrounding these marvelous creatures after reading King of the Wind, Black Beauty, or Fury, we gave special anthropomorphic quality to horses and that magical relationship based on communication, trust and understanding.
However, for those of us who have somehow maintained contact with horses as we matured, the relationship and training have become somehow more pragmatic, more cut and dry. The magic of horsemanship has been relegated to our youth.
Yet what if our adult dealings with the horse could be somehow aligned with our youthful dreams of a close personal bond with our horse, while at the same time facilitating and enhancing our training program? What if training could be more than simply a human’s will imposed on the horse, and become instead a mutually shared partnership between horse and rider, based on a system of communication both could understand equally?
What if the horse could have a real voice and truly participate actively in his training, working with the rider to achieve success, without coercion or forceful means? … And what if, in the… Read more
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Posted in Advice on Apr 30th, 2009
Hi again. Thank you for all your interest and kind comments about my new Waterhole Rituals Insider Circle Program. I was delighted that it proved so popular with you and in fact it sold out. We therefore decided to run a second class for all those who could not get in and you can sign up for this now at the Coaching page. Both classes will begin towards the end of May.
Right on to today’s post and I’d like to talk about something we will be talking a lot about on the Program and that is developing the connection with your horse.
To keep this magical connection you share with your horse each day and out of respect, you should check in to see if he is still feeling the bond he shares with you. Have you unknowingly violated his trust? Do you need to re-establish the trust before you begin your work? Does he want to join in with the activities you have planned for him? Does he run to meet you at the gate because he is looking forward to your work together? If you can lead him without a halter and he will swish his… Read more
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Posted in Advice on Apr 16th, 2009
Hi and thank you for all your lovely stories, photo’s and videos from Tuesday about working with my Method. Sorry if I haven’t replied to you yet, I will try and get to you.
It is only natural when we learn something new to have many questions and I know how frustrating it is not to have these answered. As you start to work with the Waterhole Rituals therefore, I really want to support you and so I am thinking of putting together a program that will enable me to walk you through the Rituals and then answer any questions you may have as you go along. We’re still looking into this at the moment but if you have any questions that I haven’t answered or any suggestions as to how this would work best for you, then please email Mark at info@carolynresnick.com.
The other day I was asked how my Method fits in with Natural Horsemanship and afterwards I thought the question would make for an interesting blog post. So this is the written up and expanded version of my answer.
In the initial relationship, rather than training a horse, my desire… Read more
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Posted in Advice on Feb 10th, 2009
I find that a very important connection I have with horses comes from the subtleties and energy that we share back and fourth. For example, how I choose to connect each time I have been away from my horse. I might choose to be focused on him and greet him with my full attention because that is how he chooses to great me that day. Or maybe I meet him with my focus on the world around us rather than on him to display that I have my finger on the pulse of life. This way I can win his trust in the moment and enforce my important position as a valuable friend and leader. I consider all these things when I reconnect with my horse.
I make these decisions by how I feel, how my horse feels at the time and where his focus is. If my horse’s focus is on eating and he does not acknowledge me, I will sit down and wait for him to come to me.
*** To read the rest of this post, get Carolyn’s Blog Collection Volume 1 ***
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