Revealing Your Hidden Horse

// October 1st, 2011 // No Comments » // Books, Visionaries

An Englishman by the name of Mark Hanson has recently released a book that will benefit every horse that relies on a human for its care and well-being. It’s one of those books that once you read, you understand your horse—and mostly its needs—in a brand new way. The desire to change a few things about your routine care for your horse becomes exciting and automatic while at the same time feels like total common sense. I can highly recommend reading Revealing Your Hidden Horse: A Revolutionary Approach to Understanding Your Horse now available on Amazon.

Horses, Emotions and Personalities

// March 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Books, Visionaries

I just listened to a fantastic call on HorseConscious.com featuring Margrit Coates and Liz Mitten Ryan. Both women are very convincing about what horses have told them and would tell us, too, if we just learned how to listen. Both of them offer retreats and clinics to learn. But until you can attend one, fortunately, they have both written some very helpful books which I’ll get to in a second.

At one point the conversation touched on herd behaviors when equine ecological behaviorist Mary Ann Simonds joined the call, asking them if they could help her research by documenting the roles within healthy herds that appear to be necessary for the ongoing health of the herd. She noted that herds that have had key members removed are now exhibiting unhealthy behaviors in their society, just like humans do in theirs. The call also touched on the fact that horse training has misinterpreted the type of leadership horses need with behavior that uses increasing levels of dominance. Liz refers to lead mare behavior in her herd as coming from a place of “grandmother” energy, which is a very different energy from intimidation energy, one many trainers describe as “You gotta show em who’s boss!” and “You can’t let em win.” The grandmothers I’ve known who rule best are masters at using their hearts and wisdom. Liz Mitten Ryan’s book, The Truth According to Horses is written in the horse’s voice. And the horse doesn’t mince words.

Each horse is unique in personality, just like humans. Horses and humans may share traits in a defined set of personality quadrants (whether Parelli’s horsenalities or Myers-Briggs personalities) but no two will be alike. And Margrit Coates’ book, Horses Talking: How to Share Healing Messages with the Horses in Your Life is the one she recommends first for anyone most interested in understanding their horse’s emotional issues. I’ve just ordered it, and noticed it’s going to require looking in a mirror. Always does…

Just in case you have a skeptic in your life who might need more convincing around animals having emotions, give them scientist Marc Bekoff’s The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy – and Why They Matter.

The Training Continuum

// November 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // General, Visionaries

The more I study the various methods to approach relationships with horses, the more I see a continuum of thought in how to best do that with 1000 pound animal. Control is the priority at one end of the continuum while partnership is the priority at the other. Both ends seek respect.

Those closer to the control end put the onus on the horse to learn and behave within set human parameters; those closer to the partnership end put the onus on themselves to learn the ways and abilities of each horse before customizing the best form of partnership.

People like Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling and Carolyn Resnick, to me, are educating the horse world about the partnership end. Methods like Rollkur were established by those at the control end. There’s a huge industry in the middle based on developing gadgetry for various amounts of control. I give most horse owners the benefit of the doubt and figure they don’t even know the partnership approach is an alternative.

If asked the question, “Who would I be more likely to give my full respect and best effort to among the two approaches?” I’m real clear what my answer would be. And, it just tells me I have a lot to learn about horses.

Carolyn Resnick

// October 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Books, Trainers, Visionaries

Carolyn Resnick grew up in the desert in the 1940s with her own horse (with whom she had an amazing bond), few fences and a herd of wild mustangs roaming nearby. The book she wrote about her story of intently watching, and ultimately being accepted into the mustang herd, Naked Liberty, starts you on the path of understanding herd behavior. Her longing to be accepted into the herd was ultimately met with fascinating results. With her intimate working knowledge of herd behavior, she went on to develop and teach a method known as The Carolyn Resnick Method for many years. Out of this method came her popular Waterhole Rituals which create the strong, foundational connection between a horse and its human so that further training efforts are maximized. The Waterhole Rituals are rapidly spreading throughout the horse world via a successful teleseminar series and the help of YouTube videos. This is just a snippet about Carolyn from her site, which I highly recommend for further exploration! I learned so much from her Waterhole Rituals teleseminar I give it 5 stars, no question!

Her life with horses began in Indio, California in the 1940s. Riding alone in the desert as a child, she nurtured an intuitive bond with horses. In the beginning of what would become a lifelong passion for developing innovative horse training methods created from her interactive studies with wild horses, Carolyn spent three summers of her childhood gradually becoming accepted into a community of wild horses culminating in her riding the lead mare of the herd, bareback and without bridle.

What motivated me to start this blog

// October 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Films, Visionaries

Watching the Path of the Horse movie (trailer at right) compelled me to create this Web site to help evolve how humans view horses…

Stormy May is at the forefront of the groundswell evolution in our treatment of horses after years of training horses herself. She went on what I would consider a vision quest to interview and film other world renown trainers known for their special respect for horses in their training methods. Her film, The Path of the Horse (trailer below and to the right), explores the powerful horse-to-human connections these trainers routinely experience. I was fascinated as I watched the film and am a huge fan of anything that encourages the gentlest of approaches in training methods. The Path of the Horse challenges widely accepted training and riding practices in the world of equestrian sports and I’m hoping, with enough support, that it becomes a game changer.