Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship: Liberty Horse Training

Hello, I hope you are enjoying this holiday time with your family. Today we are going to continue our exploration of the Uberstreichen Exercise by learning to use the first Exercise to recognize when the neck begins to form a true arch.

When a neck comes shorter it does not always arch, most of the time it just bends or lifts. As you practice, you will start to recognize when the neck arches and later to recognize when the shoulder raises, from the arching of the neck. You will learn more and more to see subtle shifts in the horse’s whole body that are needed for collection.

Before you start the practice of forming the arch in the horse’s neck, there are two new things to practice within the first exercise with the horse, when his poll is relaxed in a floating hold. So far we have been working on relaxation, cooperation, training the horse to accept us holding the halter with consistency, lowering and raising the head and neck, tipping the nose, along with straight and lateral flexions of the neck created when we rock the horses head from side to side. Now we are going to start… 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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Hi again. Today we will be moving on with the Uberstreichen Exercises.

When your horse will stand on his own then you are ready for the next step. Put your hands on each side of the noseband of the halter and do not but in fingers or thumbs inside the halter in order to prevent injury to yourself your horse should jerk his head up. Don’t but your head above his for the same reason. Hold the horse’s head straight, breathe deeply, and relax. If the horse turns his head one way or the other gently bring it back to straight and then float with him holding his head. Do this for a short time as the horse will tolerate it, then let go slowly and walk away and disconnect. The disconnect is very important to practice. The horse is learning to give and to stay put. He is learning to be responsible without you having to police him. This teaches your horse to stay focused in a hold as well as in a disconnect. Self-carriage of the horse’s gaits can only occur when the horse is free from the rider’s active influence. This exercise starts the journey. Self-carriage creates… Read more

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The Uberstreichen Half-Halt Exercises school the horse from the ground to respond more effectively to your half-halts when you ride.

(Half-halt is when you ask the horse to stop and he responds immediately and in the moment you know that the horse will stop you ask him to go forward and he does this whole-heartedly. The purpose of the half-halt is to prepare the horse to listen for your next request. It prepares the mind and body of the horse to be able to respond easily and promptly.)

There are about 10 different reasons one asks a horse to half-halt. Keep in mind that a half-halt is a message to a horse that you will be asking him to perform something different that what he is doing in the moment. From your half-halt you may be making a request to halt or go forward or change pace or gait become more active, lengthening or collect or soften or change direction or to bring a horse to straighten. I am not going to go into the minutia of the benefits of all the exercises because it will not really help to create better result. If you need more explanation… Read more

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Hi there. Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to remind you about the call I am doing on Sunday at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern on the subject of the use of rollkur in dressage and why I think it’s not only wrong but unnecessary. You can find out more about the call by going to the DressageDisgrace site. Here is the link: http://www.dressagedisgrace.com/teleseminar-carolyn-resnick

I invented the Uberstreichen Exercises to help me train dressage horses and then Arabian show horses for my junior students. They helped me produce more relaxation, performance and consistent collection at the shows for my junior riders. Libby Ouellette suggested the name Uberstreichen Exercises and I thought it was appropriate. She was a Hilda Gurney student at the time who was also a student of mine and is now a long time family friend.

Uberstreichen is a term used in dressage that is a test to see if your horse is in self-carriage or leaning on the rein for support. You release the contact rein and if the horse stays in frame without the reins for a few strides he is in self-carriage. If he falls immediately, he is leaning on… Read more

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Hello. Today we’ll continue with my discussion of the Uberstreichen Exercises and why there are so useful.

The Uberstreichen exercises will benefit any form of riding. I created them for all kinds of equestrian pursuits from a dressage approach from the heart of dressage when the horse is trained only in unity and harmony without force. Once the horse is schooled in the Uberstreichen Exercises for your work to translate to the saddle you will need to be a seasoned rider because you will need the same connection, tact and authority on your horse’s back as you have developed from the ground. The Uberstreichen’s can most definitely empower a person to ride more effectively but nothing replaces experience under saddle.

The exercises have so many elements to their purpose. Try not to think of them as half-halt exercises which might confuse you particularly if you are a pleasure rider who does not think they are necessary for your riding. If you feel that the term half-halt is too hard to understand, let’s think of them in plain English. Think of half-halts as the smallest request you can ask the horse in order to get the most response. Whatever your… Read more

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I first want to say thank you to all of you in the class for your interest by enrolling in this course. In doing so you show that you care for the quality of life a horse faces in our hands throughout his life, and in his training.

I would like for people to think of training as something that enriches the life experiences of the horse. In nature horses are always in a class room! Bringing the horse new experiences raises the quality of life for the horse, as it deepens your connection, which in turn adds meaning to the horse’s life.

Everyone that as enrolled is eligible for the course. The one exception is the person that has the 33 year old horse which would need a doctor’s approval. For the rest of you, you will know if the exercises are right for you and your horse by how much benefit you and your horse receive from your practice.

I’d like to ask you to please sign in every time you read an instructional blog during the free instructions. The amount of enrollment in each blog will let me know how we are doing. I… Read more

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