The world of horse training today is about getting tack onto the horse to keep a horse under control, rather than seeing that this control is not needed, and that using tack slows the training process down because no foundation was given to socializing the horse to accept human leadership and developing the horses desire to learn and perform.
Training a horse at Liberty requires that a horse feels bonded with his trainer. This is easy to achieve as horses naturally like people, but time must be given to further developing the bond that has a leadership component in it.
Horses engage in important social interactions when developing a unified family while grazing and traveling in a herd where bond, trust, respect, and cooperation are developed. We would like a horse to feel the same kind of connection while under our charge.
These interactions create a tight nit society where community continues to grow to such proportions that their communication system is far greater than our own. Training a horse with these herd interactions, I call Waterhole Rituals, lays a foundation where a horse easily accepts training where tack is only a communication tool that never shouts out, “you better do this or that”.
My mother taught me to enjoy helping others. She kept me enthusiastic, powerful, flexible, kind, strong and loving. What I learned from my mother is how to empower others like she empowered me. Think about empowering your horse to become more enlivened and giving him a dance that brings more purpose to his life, and in the process you are doing the same for yourself. Today I make an effort to help create this well-being, and to be able to give people the results they want, through my online courses and everyone’s story is different. This makes the classes extra rich and informative.
Learning how to train a horse is an organic experience and everyone’s experience is different. The first step is to accept your horse and how he feels about you. This way you will know better how to grow the relationship from that point. The first purpose of Sharing Territory with your horse in this course is to find your authentic state of being. This will bring your creative instincts for training alive. Sharing Territory you will naturally find the point of connection so leadership will arise quite naturally.
The first thing to do before you influence a horse, in each interaction you have with a horse, is to find a point of entry. This is the point where you can share a connection with a horse, because this is where a conversation can take place that is fruitful. It does not come for the point of departure. Being authentic in how you choose to use leadership at Liberty, where a horse may have a say in what he will and will not accept, brings clarity in what is working and not working for you. Being authentic opens the door to see what you need to work on. Maybe a person is too strong, too weak, too needy, there is bad timing or incorrect judgment, or whatever. Fixing these excessive oversights is very healing and empowering to your ability to connect and be able to train your horse at Liberty. Working a horse at Liberty, with my program, is designed so you can learn the truth of who you really are while training horses. You will learn the greatest well kept secret in horse training and communication today, which is to know how to find the point of connection with a horse and keep it.
Training horses at Liberty in this state of freedom you are communicating with your horse naturally and focused more on the development of the relationship and an open line of communication than on the performance of the horse. This way the performance of the horse shows up unexpectedly and is much better than if you focused on training the horse for performance. From the freedom you give to your horse and the freedom you give to yourself to make mistakes, a deeper well being is obtained and a wealth of knowledge is laid on your doorstep in knowing how to go about using the Waterhole Rituals of life.
When I got older and started showing horses at class A shows. I loved showing. My experience of showing was unique. My horses and I were a team. I had trained my horses for competition myself when I did not know what I as doing. I did not care if we won because of the magic the horses and I felt for one another. This put us in a state of joy and empowerment. I loved having something to do with my horses and the energy that buzzed around the grounds fueled my enjoyment, so wining was only a recognition that I was learning something. If winning is the goal, a child having a horse trained to show is most often a shallow experience. This is where horses most often times receive a raw deal and so does the child. The child learns that horses are loved, used, and sold.
Gloria White comes to mind, when I think about this. She was around 14 years old. I will share this story in my next blog where this was not the case, but just the opposite. If you would write back to me and share your experiences growing up and then how your experiences have impacted your life and relationship with horses today. Let’s enliven the comment section of the blog since we can not spend the day with our horses because it is winter. I also might add that you still can Share Territory, stand in the box, practice the Uberstriechen exercises, the intimacy bucket game and head up and down or just enjoy quiet walks in nature during these winter months.
Have a great weekend! Be on the lookout for new horse and human sightings and may the horse be with you.
Warmly, Carolyn
