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PART 2 - Ground Activities You Might Be Doing With Your Horse That Can Create Aggressive Behavior and a Loss of Control From the Saddle

Last week I discussed how there are some ground activities that you may be doing with your horse that could create aggressive behavior in your horse. This week I am going to share with you about a fun game that can go wrong if you are not careful. 

Aggressively Playing With A Ball

Playing with a ball is an excellent exercise for horses. Still, if a horse is allowed to play too aggressively with a ball, with ears pinned back trying to kill the ball, it can create hormone changes that can alter the horse’s behavior to be more aggressive toward you. Charging instincts can develop where you might wind up playing the role of the ball in your horse's eyes. You can stop this behavior. When your horse gets too aggressive, just take the ball away from him for the rest of the day.  

The above blog header photo displays a horse happily playing with a ball. The photo below demonstrates a horse aggressively playing with a ball.


Undesirable behaviors can be turned...

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Ground Activities You Might Be Doing With Your Horse That Can Create Aggressive Behavior and a Loss of Control From the Saddle

Over the next few weeks, I will be discussing ground activities that you may not realize are creating aggressive behavior in your horse. These behaviors can create a loss of control from the saddle. 

This week I am sharing how allowing your horse to move around when grooming can cause you to lose your leadership, connection, and control of your horse.

One of the places you may not think about losing connection with your horse is when you are grooming. While grooming, it may seem innocent enough when all you do is follow your horse around, but, there can be a hidden danger. It is important to keep a horse in one spot. If your horse causes you to follow him around to groom, he learns that he has moved your feet. 

Horses in nature are constantly changing rank by moving each other’s feet. When a horse understands he has moved your feet he could lose respect for you. Allowing a horse to move your feet can lead to a horse crowding into you and not listening to your...

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Direct Your Horse at Liberty to Follow Your Lead Like a Herding Dog

I have had horses all my life and started training for competition at the early age of ten in Indio, Ca. on my family's ranch. My approach was to bring a horse along in creative ways.  Before I started a horse in training, I made them a family pet from the ground first, and then I creatively developed the horse for riding and showing. It was easy for me because of the bond I shared with my horses. By the time I was 14 years old, I had trained and showed three horses successfully — Mustang, who was a Mustang, in Western pleasure, Muretta Marjolaine, an American Saddlebred mare, in three gated park horse classes, and Rizeta, an Arabian mare, in English and western pleasure. 

I would have never thought of teaching my training methods to others if it hadn’t been for my experience working for Augie Handley at Shadowland in La Jolla, CA. When he hired me, my job was to start off-the-track racehorses for junior riders and give hunter and jumper lessons in equitation....

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Achieving Resonance With A Horse

We realize the sensitivity of horses; we also see that horses are resilient with a powerful spirit. We horse lovers have been drawn to horses for centuries. Horses possess a freedom that we humans search for. From our connection to horses, we strengthen our spirits. 

Through the ages that horses and humans have shared the world, horses have overwhelmingly suffered because of humans’ self-serving nature. 

A new consciousness is growing to give horses a better deal by taking a deep look into a horse's emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Rather than attempting to harness their soul in an afternoon, there is more interest in taking time to get to know a horse’s personality and developing a heart connection by keeping company with your horse to get to know him or her better. 

Meditation in the Company of Your Horse at Liberty

I have felt that meditation in your horse's company brings a sense of well being to both the horse and human, which opens...

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Ending Weaning Trauma

Last week Nan wrote a blog about how to help horses get over herd-bound behavior/separation anxiety. I wrote this week’s blog years ago. Many people around the world have used this method of weaning and have had much success, so I wanted to share it again today. This way of weaning a foal will help a horse begin on the right foot at the beginning of life and hopefully be less herd bound as he/she grows up. This exercise can also be modified and used to help herd-bound horses. 

Years ago I developed a way to wean foals that did not create trauma. I used the approach for over twenty years. During that time, I learned that horses that grew up being weaned in this manner were smarter and had a deeper sense of well-being created by the trust they had in human beings.  I feel one of the biggest opportunities we have to build trust with horses can be accomplished at weaning.

There were two reasons that I did not want a foal to experience trauma. The first being my...

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Connecting with Herd Bound Horses To Help Them Get Over Their Separation Anxiety

Herd bound horses can be difficult to deal with if you force the horse to separate from other horses that he does not want to leave. For this reason alone it is important to help a horse to get over the overwhelming need to be with the herd.

Also, when working with horses at liberty, herd bound behavior needs to be removed from your horse to help him focus on you and allow the connection between the two of you to grow. When I first began Liberty Training in The Resnick Method of Horsemanship my horses were extremely herd bound and it was difficult to work with them individually, so Carolyn shared some exercises with me to help them get over the fear of being separated and now I am going to share them with you. These exercises are a fun way to train your horse to give up herd bound behavior.  It is certainly more enjoyable for horses to play these games rather than having to accept the conditions of being separated by force. In the Resnick Method, we are always looking to find a...

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Communicating with Horses: Eyes, Facial Expressions, and Body Language

As a horse trainer and breeder most of my life, in my late thirties (oh, to be that young again!), I discovered something that I was not ready to accept. It was something I read in Robert Vavra’s book, Such is the Real Nature of Horses. He wrote that horses communicate through eye expressions. As a student of horses, studying the social behavior and culture of horses, I couldn’t believe that this could be so. I thought horses read facial expressions and energy but I hadn’t thought about how the eyes alone could play a part in communication.

I had a mind for details, I found how wild horses in nature create harmonious herds through a code of conduct that had yet to be discovered. It took a comprehensive effort to pay attention to the slightest nuances for anything a horse might be doing as a way to communicate. I was also aware that horses and I were communicating better than most people do with each other. I didn’t see the value of the eyes playing an active...

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Conscious Connection With Horses

 
(Nan Zintsmaster and Pericles share their first dance after just 8 weeks of practicing The Resnick Method of Horsemanship)

Conscious Connection With Horses

I love the term 'conscious connection’ with horses and I feel that it is spot on with what we at The Resnick Method of Horsemanship teach our students. Over the years, as people have become more evolved in their understanding of how to gentle horses safely and humanely, horses are slowly getting a better deal. Whenever I ask someone what drew them to The Resnick Method they usually say they were looking for a kinder and gentler approach to horsemanship. Although these same people know that they want something different, they don’t always know what that looks like, or how to achieve it. 

So, what is a conscious connection with horses?

Creating a sacred space, only interacting with horses when our entire being is focused on the horse, having the awareness to read the horse’s responses to your requests, and a...

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Here Are 5 Tips To Create An Amazing Relationship With Your Horse And ROCK 2021!

 

 

Had a rough year? Really, who hasn’t?

For those of you with horses, hopefully, you have been able to spend time with them and got some reprieve from the isolation of this crazy time in 2020. 

Many of you may not have been able to spend as much time as you wanted to with your horse and feel that it is time to make a change.  

2021 is almost here and it's a good time to plan to have the best year ever with your horse. Try these 5 tips and step into the New Year with success!

  1. Create one or more rituals.

Rituals give structure to our time, especially when we often only have limited time with our horses each week. You may already be practicing a ritual of meditation, or exercise, or spending quality time with your family. Double up on tasks and include your horse. Use the time you go to your horse to meditate, or read a good book, or listen to podcasts that you want to catch up on. Creating a regular time to spend with your horse during the week is...

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Having Trouble Leading Your Horse to new places?

 

In last week's blog, Carolyn shared how to stay out of trouble with our horses and gain a strong leadership position. I want to expand on this subject based on an observation I have had of students when I am teaching clinics. 

It is so important that we are consistent in our leadership with horses. It is much like raising a child. The horse needs to know that he can depend on us no matter what the circumstances.  Often, I see students at my clinics do amazing things with their horses at liberty once they have an understanding of how to interact with their horse in The Resnick Method, but I see them enter and leave the arena leading their horses with zero leadership or awareness of the horse because they have a rope in their hands. The horse's mind shifts into fear and uncertainty because of the shift in the student's energy. I have noticed that people take their horses for granted because they feel that they already have a great relationship with the horse. They do not pay...

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