Here is a video of Tino and me working together using techniques I learned last June on a trip to Liberty Horse Training at Robin Gates’ beautiful Rising Moon Ranch in Sonoma, California, about an hour north of San Francisco. Liberty Horse Training provides a truly revolutionary, entirely positive approach to working with horses. (By the way, can you believe this is the same Tino as in the earlier post?)

Robin’s training is based on her years of study and friendship with Carolyn Resnick, a renowned leader in the field of horse communication. Carolyn developed her knowledge of horses through interacting with wild horses in their own environment. You can learn more about Carolyn’s work and philosophy here.

The wand in my left hand is actually a basic horse whip. However, in this form of training the whip is never used as a punishment device. Rather is it used to guide the horse as you would use a treat to lure a dog into a behavior, or to create a visible barrier that adjusts the space between the horse and handler, or occasionally to serve as a noisemaker to mark behaviors as a clicker would. You will also notice that I use my right hand as if I’m holding an invisible lead. This technique creates a magnetic connection between the handler and her horse.

It may be hard to believe, but this video was taken after only a few hours of work with Tino. He took to the method completely and seemed to yearn to learn and interact with me on a deeper level.