I have tried to send him away before with the go trot motion in the WHR video, after doing companion walking, but he just looks at me. He will back up for me, move his hip, etc…but even with a whip in my hand, he stays near me like in companion walking. A friend had free lunged her horse before mine and I asked her for some tips, but she only need to snap the whip on the ground for her horse to go.

I went to the side of Yowahtee and tried to send him away, he came closer, so I made a small snap of the whip, realized I had backed up, and moved forward, snapping it again, with my arm open pointing a direction, he pawed a hoof at me~! which turned on big energy in me, pure position assertive energy and I moved to him snapping, opening my arm to the side telling him to go very definitively and he finally went! I put the whip behind me and wandered while he cantered around, eventually he looked at me with both eyes and I invited him to greet me, he came and I gave him a carrot. Now this was fun, because he caught on quickly and I did not hardly need to even show the whip and he would go, paying attention and return when invited. We did this several times. Each time I would reward him with a carrot.

I then put some carrots in a feeding tray and placed it in the arena. He became pushy and I sent him out, it took him awhile to figure out he needed to forget the carrots, and he then returned to me and we walked to the carrot bowl in companion walk…he got pushy again and I sent him away without a carrot. After a couple times, he was paying attention and would come to me, companion walk with me, walk to the bowl and halt, or even back up if I moved my arm back when getting the carrot from the bowl. The last time, we arrived at the bowl, he halted and I then moved the bowl to him and let him finish them.

It was feeding time, so I groomed him while he was munching hay after being fed.

I really felt like this was a breakthrough for us. We spend much time together, just being, sharing territory, walking, saying hello, etc…but tonight, when he pawed at my request to go, I had not yet earned the respect of leader. I think this changed tonight, and am just amazed at all the insight I am gaining. Now I must remember the energy feeling and learn from it to maintain my step towards a closer bond with him. Just fabulous! and I know there is a lifetime of learning and that this will continue to be a fascinating journey.

I love using the rituals every visit, even if it is just sharing territory and saying hello, whatever the day brings with where we each are in the moment. It is so much more about being in the moments than arriving with an agenda. It is wonderful to find myself on this journey. It is changing me, and my relationships – animal and human:)! My poor husband, I found myself backing up as he came at me with a request the other night like I worked for him and I realized it and stode forward confidently holding my ground, not inviting the attitude – changed the whole atmosphere…so interesting!

Thank you!

Connie

Thank you very much for replying to my question!
I will read it a few times again in the following days, to let it sink in.

My first reaction: your suggestion
” One way to do this is to feed him is favorit food and take him a short distance for it and turn him loose and send your horses strongly to it with your body langage and driving aids with a “whoopie” with a joyful expresion.”
made me smile, as it is exactly the opposite of what I was doing, driving her away FROM her favorite food, when she wasn’t paying attention to me.
I like this ‘flipping it over’, I will do it.

And I can see that I might need to be working first on being able to get her energy up and her being more responsive to me asking her to trot or move away quickly. I haven’t been working yet on ‘go and trot’.
Sometimes her energy is high up, mostly when she is ‘in heat’ (I don’t know the correct English term). But generally she’s about saving her energy. When other horses are running all over around her, she usually just stands there watching them, sometimes she trots a little.

I would like to join the inner circle, but it is still not clear to me how it works and if I can join as I live in the Netherlands. Can you tell me?

By the way, I’ve noticed I do have a more magnetic connection with my mare after doing the eye-contact ritual.

Thanks again, best wishes!

He had been acting very different, contrary, sometimes a precursor to aggression with mad shaking of the head, things like that. I thought it had to do with being in a new (although better) pen, or the stallion in the next pen, and had been mustering up words for a phone call to you, Carolyn, to try to assess what had gone wrong.

I’d still like to visit by phone yet it looks like I have my former horse back. In the new pen, there were divots in the ground where trees had been planted, then died, the ground sinking as their roots shrank. It made my situation such that in order to do our liberty work at anything faster than a walk, I had to watch the ground carefully in order not to trip.

Today my husband came over with wheelbarrow and shovel, and together we filled all the trip hazards in, firming over the surface with gravel. Once we were finished, the first thing Capricho did was to tear around the lot at a dead gallop, bucking and leaping, occasionally coming right straight up to me (he stops when I puff up my body posture towards him), come over for a pat, then went tearing around again at breakneck speed. We had not seen him doing this for awhile, and he loves to run the way you described Serpico madly chasing some phantom. Capricho loves the new surface treatment.

Then I broke the carrot strike, and put some in a bucket outside the fence after first giving him some. He was very happy to work with me at liberty again – companion walking, trotting circles around me, doing go trot/come back at my command to circle a tree, backing up, standing still while I walked around him (per UE), finally getting a treat when I ran over to get a carrot.

The big difference? Eye contact. I had learned before (and evidently forgotten) how important that is to him when working with me. If I so much as avert my glance for a moment while we are doing something together at liberty, he will stop, shake his head, maybe run off. This is particularly true of the “come back” part of “go trot.” If I break eye contact for an instant he will stop in his tracks and stare at me as if to say, “What?” This horse wants eye contact with me. Because I no longer have to carefully watch the ground, I was able to do that. I haven’t seen the Black Stallion movie yet, but I don’t think a horse could do a wilder and happier dance than I saw him do this afternoon.

My method handles many ways to apprach this matter with out having to be aggresive. YOu are not banishing your horse from you, you are getting him to run. By the time your are working on this last ritual you will find it very easy to accomplish. Put your energy up, YOUR DANCING SHOES ON and let your horse see that runing is fun.
Start out in increases his speed slowly it should work really well for you.
you could start by working on this on a cold day when your horse is excited this would be a good time to get your horses energy up. There are lots of way you can teach him this. I could help you if you take the insider circle program on developing this last step so you can gets what you want with out agression.
One way to do this is to feed him is favorit food and take him a short distance for it and turn him loose and send your horses strongly to it with your body langage and driving aids with a “whoopie” with a joyful expresion.
Practice this and you will have it will out feeling any concern at all. It is fun for a horse to learn to run when asked. Think of it ths way you are not being aggresive you are being expresive and enthusastice.

It takes no time at all to teach a horse how much fun it is to run and when they learn this it is one of their favorite games to be sent away and to come back like a dog that retrieves a ball.
Any thing can be taught to a horse gently with respect that is natural to them.
Thiough I have seen horses that do not want to run.
If this is the case then you can work with him at the pace that suits his nature.
Remember horses live in a world with each other where chases and driving is natural to them that strengthen the bond.

A horse that is free is a horse that enjoys the adventure we bring their way.
you need to not thing of the things you are asking from him as an aggressive move because the horse will precieve it in that way. PUt in your mind joyful playful toughts and send her the message on a day that she want to run and she will pick is up very fast.
Become the boy in the moving in the Black Stallion.
Let me know it this helps you.

The last posts and comments have given me again so much food for thought, thank you all.
I really admire how you Carolyn, and other people to, can put into words what it’s all about in live and being with horses. It makes me think for instance about the ‘give and take’, the ‘ old school’ which is sometimes still inside my head – and is all around me – and about: ”As humans we need to play many parts, sometimes we are the leader, sometimes the student, sometimes the teacher, sometimes the follower and sometimes the banished.”

For me it is all about developing my instincts and observation skills and being in the moment and recognising and accepting what is possible and not possible now. And enjoying all the wonderful moments and things that happen as result of this.

I look at the WHR’s as tools that can be used to learn the grammar, style, vocabulary of the horse/herd language. Using this horse-language lessons I’m learning to listen and speak to my horse. This conversation changes all the time, depending on our mood or situation.

As I’ve become more aware of me being sometimes unpolite towards my mare, and of the rudeness of my mare when food is around, our conversation has been including this isssue during the last days. One of the things I’ve been doing is the eye-contact ritual. The first time I already described in a post. The second time I was surprised when after we just started she really did shift her body to keep looking at me. She’s not consistently doing it yet. So I ended up behind her a couple of times and drove her away. I have to put a lot of energy in this, because she’s not impressed easily, as a lead mare. After been driven away she took it better this time though, settled down quickly and very polite waited to be invited to the food again.

However the driving away with a lot of energy does give me mixed feelings. It makes me feel like I’m the dominant lead horse, when I really want to be the passive lead horse. I always want to avoid being aggressive, and using force. And here I am, doing…??
It‘s not that she can’t take it, she’s a dominant lead horse herself. But does that mean I have to act like one to?
I try to solve this confict to put an energetic I’m-taking-my-space intention in it instead of a I’m-chasing-you-away intention.

I understand the need to set boundries and establish respect. But there’s such a thin line between being powerful and clear and being forceful and aggressive.

I would love to hear ideas and experiences regarding this thin line from others and pherhaps from you Carolyn!

best wishes to all

Connie