Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Learning more about the magic of the co-creative process

Horses are flexible in their attitude and emotions from willing to unwilling, from trusting to fearful, from relaxed to hyper. Basically a horse’s nature is dynamic, cautious and willing. That makes sense, we are a lot like that ourselves. Horses have two changeable behaviors, fluctuating from trusting to not trusting, from social to antisocial… a bit like we are in our own society. They also seek friendship and live in communities and family groups…again a bit like us. When they feel secure and have enough space, food and water, they life in unity and harmony with one another.

Horses are very social, caring, outwardly affectionate and seek unity and harmony with one another most of the time.  Once we have formed a deep bond with a horse it will be deeper than the one we can share with our own species. When we share a cross-species bond, the horse shows us how deep our feeling for friendship can be. If we choose to look for this connection with all things our well-being and appreciations for life is enhanced. Then, when we can extend this connection to the people in our life,… Read more

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Welcome To My Blog -To Get You Started!

The purpose of my blog is to make a connection with you. I can connect with people all over the world, thanks to the computer, and we can explore and correspond with one another on the experiences we’re having with our horses in our life!
I also use the blog as a way, to educate, to raise consciousness, and to use philosophical viewpoints that will lead to a better relationship with horses; for training, partnering, and performance.

The blog is also here to help support interested people and my students who are learning my method through the educational material I offer and direct coaching. Feel free to ask questions on horse behavior, pecking order, leadership, self-realization, meditation, and the training and performance of horses. I may answer your question, or I may choose it for a blog topic for a later date. Of course, I can’t answer everyone’s questions, but I will read all your comments and I will respond to several questions on each blog.

I look forward to dialoging on the subject of what creates a better connection with a horse. Enjoy!

I will give you a lesson from… Read more

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As the Insider Circle and Extended Circle classes are going on, I want to share with my bloggers and the class more detail on how to approach Leading From Behind™ that I offered to Karin in the comments section of my last blog. I also added some information about how to approach your horse with reciprocal movements (leading and following in connection) and Leading From Behind at liberty, and the attitude and energy level that will help in how to approach this Ritual.
When you first start out with Leading From Behind, you start out easy and stay easy. You follow slowly, and when your horse stops, wait a moment. Then ask him to step forward- and when he does, you can either follow behind him, or if you feel he might take off, immediately walk in the opposite direction, and wait for your horse to relax. Use the “Hello” Ritual, but this time, stay with your horse and wait-and when your horse walks off, repeat by slowly following him again. Slowly and surely, Leading From Behind will look like a parade in harmony and unity.
Get to the Ridge By Sundown!
Visualize that you are… Read more

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Back at the desk again after our 10-day WRIC and In the Box Program’s First Annual Beyond the Waterhole Rituals™ clinic with nine students. It was an amazing journey! The group was focused, understanding, nurturing, happy, supportive and very willing. I am sure you who were in the clinic are safely back home. I am still resting up. Thank you for bringing your smiling faces and opens hearts.

Over the 10 days, we learned more about who we are, and how we as individuals want to go about approaching our horses, each other, and our lives ahead.

The art of horsemanship starts every day rather than being found at the end of the journey. My Method is so different that it takes some time to catch on in how to train a horse without tack and only in the moments of connection without repromand. Everyone in the class was really comfortable with my method. I was very impressed.

Liberty Training, a word I coined, is a training method that begins at liberty rather than a method of training that ends at liberty. It starts with the first breath, and at the moment you and your horse are in the same… Read more

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Carey Sweet rescued “Pony” from the race track. He was to be euthanized. She had rescued other track horses before and welcomed him into her life. In spite of her best efforts, his head shyness and jumpy reactions to movements or being touched escalated over the 7 years she owned him. She left a breakaway halter on because she couldn’t take it off without him exploding. Even unclipping the lead rope would throw him into a panic. Whenever he was loose he was nearly impossible to catch unless he was ready to come in for dinner. The situation became increasingly worse, as she didn’t have enough information about how to help him past his fears. After he panicked and crushed her mother into the wall of the stall, breaking her leg, Carey felt desperate. A respected source referred her to Robin Gates who’s work is based on my Method.

After 2 hours of trying to connect with him, Robin advised Carey to have an experienced body worker visit Pony because of the injuries he had inflicted on himself in his outbursts and then bring him to her ranch.

The first days at the ranch were spent simply being with him… Read more

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Hello. Work is progressing well with my book and we are aiming to have it finished by the beginning of December. I’m very excited about it. We have been taking some wonderful photos for it so it will be more like a coffee table book. I will also be discussing horse and herd behavior and how it relates to our lives and society, so I’m sure you’re going to love it.

OK, on to today’s blog post and I’d like to share with you a little more from the Insider Circle. So one of my students asked:

I am working with a horse who really isn’t a perfect candidate for this. She is complicated and I knew that from the get-go….she is a Marilynne. She is the only horse accessible to me and I wanted to learn what you had to teach so that I would grow and be able to work with her as she heals. We are in the beginning stages of sharing territory and saying hello. She is learning to love both of these rituals.

I am still pondering how to help her overcome her fear of the reed. The look in her eyes when she sees

… Read more

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I am so pleased to have all of you in my classrooms and on the blog. I want to thank you for being here with me. Your interest in my programs gives me an opportunity to be able to share with you what is closest to my heart. We have a large enrollment for the ‘In a Box’ Program. I kept the ‘Insider Circle’ Program to a small number so I can coach to offer personalized coaching. For everyone in those Programs, my blogs will help you in the courses so don’t stop reading them. I will use the blog for added lesson material. The blogs going forward will also help the those of you who are not currently in these Programs on the Waterhole Rituals. I will focus on philosophy, how to go about training and the kind of atmosphere that will bring a horse well being. I have always felt that to follow your truth in what is fair, just and moral and effective, will give you the ability to have a way with horses. But the jury is out in how to approach what is fair just and moral. One thing I do know is that we… Read more

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