As the current Insider Circle and Extended Circle course is closing, I would love to have my students, as well as my readers, add something to my blog in regards to leadership and what you have gained with the connection and feel with your horses.  You are also invited to add a poem to my poem.

In my online course, as you may recall, we started Sharing Territory with my guided meditations to help you on your journey. This is so important to bring forth the 5-heart felt strings of connection.  I want to end the course with a poem because I believe that it will keep you close on the path in harmony and unity with your horse going forward.

Am I aware?

Who can my horse be now?

If I am aware of my horse’s changing moods, he is more respectful and it draws him to me and I know more in how to respond to him with my leadership and direction.

Is he always the same or is he always growing and becoming?

Am I growing and becoming? Of course I am, this is what it is to be alive.

If I do not acknowledge my new … Read more

Once Carolyn and I started talking about horses more in depth regarding her method things got interesting. Anyone who knows Carolyn, knows her poignant questions.  She reads people and horses like a psychic.  It is an amazing skill that I see from working next to her in the classrooms as she is coaching students.

One day while we were talking about some funny new thing my horses had come up with, Carolyn asked me, very cautiously, how I felt about my relationship with my horses.  I told her that I was very happy.  My horses loved me, I loved them and we had great times trail riding and spending time together.  It seemed like an innocent question, but I could tell I had just stepped into the “Carolyn Zone” and my life was getting ready to be changed.

I remember talking about … Read more

Horses do not see us as family members to be trusted until we give them reason for their trust. They do not always like our agenda. They like us, but they generally have to put up with so much from us, that it can get in the way of how easy it is to train them. We are generally in a hurry and we can forget to make a connection with them before we tell them what to do. We tend to use tack in a way that makes a slave of the horse. Many times we make them go to events when they do not necessarily want to be there.  When a horse shows his spirit we are uplifted, but was the horse feeling this dance or only frightened? When things go wrong we often look for a quick fix. I see less than a few people taking the time to become a true horseman and this for me is the best part of life.

I see that people are resonating to my method and it is raising the consciousness in how … Read more

The “Waterhole Rituals” are the tea ceremony to develop a harmonious relationship with a horse and with life. It is a continual practice in awareness and being present to the moment.

The Waterhole Rituals create a deep friendship with a horse and a working bond that is the foundation for all equestrian pursuits. The Waterhole Rituals develop a horse that wants to learn and perform the task at hand while creating a feeling of well-being in a horse along with an optimistic attitude for what he does – the opposite of a trained bear.

What I find is that horses in general receive their well-being from sharing companionship with one another and enjoy this kind of relationship with humans too. However we do a lot to spoil this by not fulfilling their companionship need by the way we house them and the way we go about training them.

All the Waterhole Rituals are focused on developing a certain quality of connection that is present in a relationship where the bond is deep. I call these separate qualities of connection that each Ritual develops in a horse “the heart felt strings of connection” because they are the vibrations that exist when … Read more

Taking Territory – the 3^rd Ritual of the Waterhole Rituals:

I no longer teach this Ritual in my online courses for a couple of reasons. One thing is that I have developed many games that will get the same result and require less skill. I still use this Ritual myself, but seldom.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Third Ritual, Taking Territory, its purpose is to create respect and it raises your position in the pecking order. You can gain the right of passage to be accepted in the horse world as a leader.  Taking Territory is not about chasing a horse around; it is about Taking Territory away from your horse when he is not paying attention to you.

All animals in nature experience the loss of territory in social interactions and it is what builds their character and social behavior to fit in and be responsible in the community.  You can Take Territory easily with a horse by surprising him in order to initiate his flight response.

The Proper Guidance:

This ritual is a ritual which is seldom used without … Read more