Last Saturday, my friend Kendra and I attended an At Liberty Clinic hosted by Susan Smith who is trained by Carolyn Resnick. If you haven’t heard of her before, you can check out her website: Dance With Horses
Bailey and Apache all loaded up and ready to head to Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe Rodeo Grounds have rows of shaded stalls that were available for our horses to use. Bailey and Apache’s stalls were side by side, #10 and #11.
There’s my girl!
There were between 8-10 of us attending the clinic, along with 6 horses. Carolyn Resnick’s books, DVDs and website explain her method much more in detail, but basically, what we worked on with our horses was the: Seven Waterhole Rituals:
The 7 Waterhole Rituals are:
1. Sharing Territory
2. Saying Hello
3. Taking Territory
4. Leading From Behind
5. Eye Contact
6. Magnetic Connection
7. Come Up and Go Trot
For more info on the rules and guidelines on these rituals, you can visit this site: Carolyn Resnick Waterhole Rituals
In this photo, Kendra is preparing to Lead from Behind, her horse Bailey.
But first Kendra is Taking Territory, as in “This is my hay pile”
Here Bailey is thinking about what just happened and is paying attention to what Kendra is going to do next.
Bailey decides that Kendra can claim the hay piles, but he’ll grab a mouthful as he leaves.
Bailey, looking gorgeous and enjoying the soft deep sand, while taking a break from the pressure.
When he comes back to claim a pile of hay, Kendra prepares to Lead from Behind, while Susan Smith coaches.
Bailey walks over to Susan Smith and she Says Hello.
Soon Bailey connects with Kendra and they begin to Companion Walk At Liberty
Notice as they both relax and live in the moment without being distracted, how even their steps match one another.
They walk right through and past the hay piles, and Bailey chooses to stay with Kendra.
Sharing a moment of affection.
And then it was time to work with my Apache girl.
I don’t have any photos of me and my mare working together, but I did take some photos of this really neat Australian lady, named Varna, who wanted to work with my mare. Varna seemed very attracted to my girl, and called Apache a mustang even before I said anything about my mare’s background. I think Apache reminded her of the Brumbies that Varna is familiar with in Australia.
Apache is not very trusting of most strangers, so Varna was very gentle when Saying Hello to my mare.
But Apache wasn’t willing to get to know Varna better, at least not right away…and off she went.
Varna worked on Claiming Territory which caused Apache to pay closer attention.
And then Varna tried to Say Hello again.
It worked! Apache accepted Varna, and for a couple minutes they Companion Walked together.
It was a good first step. But Apache’s the type of mare that requires a close bond and a lot of trust in someone before she will allow her protective walls to completely fall. She also doesn’t trust whips, crops or sticks of any kind. The willow reed that we were given was never used to touch any of the horses. It was only used as an extension of our hand and as a way to convey energy. Varna was careful to keep her reed low and relaxed, but Apache always kept a close on it, just the same.
Apache and I were able to practice some of the Waterhole Rituals together for about 30 minutes and I feel that we made some positive, uplifting, forward strides. My friend Kendra took some video of us and I will share that when she sends it to me. But for now, I do have a video that Kendra created, of Varna and I Companion Walking with Kendra’s Bailey:
And if for some reason this video doesn’t imbed (I had to use the old code, which apparently isn’t supported any longer), then click on this link:
Companion Walking Video
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