by Kristine Adamsone
My name is Kristine Adamsone and I come from the country called Latvia. I have been around horses since I was small girl but only later in my life I decided to really turn my passion into the life journey and dedicate my life to learn as much as possible about horses and their life in a herd.
When I started to go deeper into horse world I started to look for different ways how to communicate with them. I knew it’s going to be one of natural methods, because I have seen and red too many horrible things what’s been happening in a horse industry,so I decided when I am with horses, there is no space for anger, violence and too much domination.
And it led me to Carolyn Resnick and her Waterhole rituals. I immediately felt this is what I was looking for and it would help me to make bond and trust with horses!!!Carolyn Resnick has such a deep knowledge about horses and their world and I am amazed by the work she has done studying them. And now she is trying to show and teach the world that there is better way how to be with the horses and train them in non violent way.
What I like about this method is that everything happens at liberty and using little or no tack. That allows the horse to choose if he wants our company or not. They are allowed to show their feelings and express themselves free not being afraid to be punished. This method makes us study horse body language even more and learn to pay attention to the smallest details when we are around them. Though there are 7 Waterhole Rituals which teach us how to connect with horse and understand him better, this method is still so flexible. You don’t have to take one ritual after another and follow specific order, because all depends on a horse mood on a particular day, his energy and connection you have on that day between two of you. So before I work with my horse I always make sure I have connection with him and only then I can ask the horse to do something with me. To my mind the core of this method is all about observing your horse body language doing nothing, being flexible, being respectful and being fair leader to your horse.
I started to look for a place where I could learn Carolyn’s method and I found one of her instructors Stina Herberg who lives on one of the Caribbean islands called St. Vincent and runs Richmond Vale Academy. She offers horse working student positions for people who want to learn different horse training method and experience true Caribbean lifestyle. When I came to St. Vincent and saw the island with my own eyes I was amazed by its beauty. It is a very small island, but nature there is so wild, untouched and green. Every day you can see beautiful sunsets and colourful rainbows. I thought to myself that this is the perfect environment to study horses. Stina Herberg has 7 former wild horses, she found them on island when she came. They were abandoned and abused and didn’t want to interact with people at all. But using Waterhole Rituals those horses changed and became her best friends.
Before I came to island I didn’t have lot of experience in horse training,so I was eager to learn as much as possible while I was there.
Maybe at the beginning it was more like a technical thing to learn all those rituals but after some time I discovered that it is not that much about doing all of them and accomplishing them all but for me it became a journey- the journey to self discovery and discovery of mysterious language of horses. Sometimes they challenged me and made me step out of my comfort zone and so many times they shared with me love,joy,sad times and good times I had there. They were my best friends and wise teachers. They taught me what true leadership is all about- and it is about being firm and strong when it is needed and being gentle and soft when they ask for it. True leadership for me means when I am in peace with myself and confident about what I do and trust my inner guidance, knowing when to pause and when to be flexible and inventive-all those things are leadership for me.
This method in my opinion is not just about how to make better connection with horses and how to understand their language but it is amazing method for discovering who you are as an individual.
This method changed my life completely, I learned so many new things about myself. I became more confident and learned how to set boundaries with horses as well as with people. Horses taught me to work as a team, close together. I listen to horses they listen to me, I read their body language they read mine, I respect them they respect me back. All this has to be in balance and flow free between us. And when it happens we can finally experience the magical connection between interspecies.
Horses always live in the moment and I learned to do it myself-stop, breath and listen to my inner voice, feel the life’s energy around me. Life to me is about enjoying the journey not to try to get to the end of it. Life is all about presence, not past or future, because in the present moment we create our future, the future where we all share peace, love and joy. That is when you realize that Earth is an incredible place to live on and how lucky I am to share it with all other species.
I haven’t met Carolyn Resnick in person but I think she is doing amazing work for people and for all horses. Her method not only change horses but also people lives. People like her make us realize that there can be magical connection between animals and people and that we all can speak the same language, share and walk the same ground called Earth.
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