Speaking horse!

[Dry Rot]

No, not anthromorphising, nor even natural horsemanship, but simply interpreting horse body language.

Because I'm old, I get the help of young people to do the energetic stuff like riding. The fun stuff, like training from the ground, I like to get involved in.

I have the help of a very good young rider at the moment who has college qualifications. I suspect she hasn't had a lot to do with starting youngsters which is not a critcism as she is great with the ponies, just misses out on some things that are obvious to me. I suspect this comes from not being very good at reading a horse's body language. Do they even teach this in college?

I have been around livestock all my life and hardly even think about it, as I'm sure will be the case for most reading this. But if you didn't know, how would you learn? Are there any good videos out there? Another blind spot is understanding how a behaviour 'works' -- but that is not uncommon! Surely, if you don't understand the mechanics of pressure-and-release, how do you teach a foal to lead? Most behaviour patterns in a nut shell work on the same principles, something motivates a behaviour, which is then rewarded, so the behaviour gets repeated.

This is a serious question. The poor girl was so frustrated yesterday that she collapsed into tears with the remark, "But you make it look so easy and I just can't do it!" I keep telling her that it IS easy once she understand the nuts and bolts. The trouble is, I can identify with that frustration because I go through the exact same mental blockage filling up some damned government form or trying to use a new piece of software!!!

HELP!!!

 

[kinnygirl1]

Due to various issues with my boy, I ended up having lessons with a "Think like a Pony" instructor. It has taught me so much about body language of both horse and person and I find him so much easier to manage on the ground now as well as other horses. If there is one near you, would really recommend. Think they have a website.

 

[Mrs G]

I came from a completely non-horsey, non-animal childhood (well, not completely - we had gerbils for a couple of years!) and was taught the very basics at equine college eg about ears, tail swishing, head carriage etc, but its only from having my own horse that Ive really picked up the language (may have been the odd misunderstanding along the way and l'm still learning). I've also seen lots of 'horsey' people who still really dont 'get' it though; even some who have had horses for years; maybe its like people who move to another country and never really try to learn the language of their new country?! I think horses will teach you if you are prepared to listen.

 

[Overread]

Adding myself to this one because even when just attending events its body language of the horse that I'd be most concerned with just to understand what the heck is going on around ones self.

The very basics get repeated a lot from my, VERY limited, observations - but a deeper understanding never seems to make it into common parlance. I suspect partly because a lot of peoples understanding of animal language is unique to the animals that they interact with most closely. As such unique triggers/signs from one don't carry over to others - but it also means that from a limited experience pool most don't have the understanding to know what features do carry over - or which hold common themes.

It's a great oddity to my mind that even people within towns hold close relationships with animals and yet we have, as a people, very little actual understanding of animal language beyond the most basic, and often extreme ends, of communication on the part of the animals.


I also think that there are a LOT of people who do hold this knowledge, but who hold it rather like yourself Dry, in that its knowledge gained through life not formally structured or taught. Which I think jointly discourages some from writing it down (because they've no "qualification to do so) and also makes it hard to put into formal words things which are purely second nature - often because they've never really "thought" about what is going on they just know; in much the same way that we can all talk in English, but fewer of us could formally describe the full mechanics of the language being used.

 

[Barnacle]

A lot of animals share similar broad body language concepts - humans, dogs, cats, horses etc all make themselves small when fearful, start pitching forwards/shifting weight when about to move etc. It's fairly universal stuff (and for good, sound evolutionary reasons). So we do pick up on it instinctively if we allow ourselves to do so. The difficulty is getting people to react instinctively rather than focusing too hard on a single little thing. Just saying "follow your intuition" sadly does not cut it for teaching!

Mind you, I find a lot of the people who really cannot get to grips with communicating with horses also lack the ability to communicate fluently and empathetically with fellow humans...

Not a day goes by that I don't complain about how much easier it is to teach horses than most people! That may be partly my fault as I lack an appetite to teach people... But I do think it's partly because those people who need a lot of help with their horses are the same people who struggle to understand human-human communication and therefore cannot make the most of help when it's offered.

 

[Dry Rot]

Barnacle, how I identify with that! I have zero social skills and have always preferred the company of animals to humans. The trouble with these college trained kids seems to be that they've been taught how to do things but not that they also need to adjust what they do to how the horse reacts. My local WHW officer occasionally pops in for a chat. He is ex-mounted police and told me if, when in the service, any one got kicked or bitten, they'd be on a charge for not reading the body laguage! I like that!

 

[supsup]

I think it's a combination of a basic understanding of the horse's nature (flight animal, understanding how horses perceive the world with their senses, understanding the social structure of the herd) topped up with a lot of observation of the horse, preferably with a running commentary to explain what's going on. I think there's also an element of (human) personality to it. Some people are very good at reading situations and anticipating what will happen next (and deliver your next cup of tea before you've asked for it!) while others seem to be generally less aware of things around them.
I quite like the intelligent horsemanship approach because it encourages you to reflect on the situation, what motivates the horse and how you can make it easier for the horse to do as you ask. I think it tries to teach an awareness for the situation, and to make you as the handler reflect on why you do as you do. The best way to improve your horse handling skills would probably be to watch someone very competent while they are explaining how they read the situation and the horse in that moment, but that may be rather difficult to do. I think Kelly Mark's program "Top Marks" is still be available on H&C TV online (not sure if free). There's quite a bit of "fluff" in those programmes, but also some solid work with the horse plus commentary on it. I think Kelly's books are also quite good at laying that groundwork of understanding what motivates horses to act as they do.

 

[Caol Ila]

People like Buck Brannaman and Monty Roberts have built entire careers teaching people this.

I have done it; when I was teaching, the sort of students I had were usually newish-to-horses adults, who had serious communication problems with their horse and could not get it to do much of anything. I had a few students who had that natural empathy and understanding -- and they were pretty successful. I had others who sounded like the girl in Dry Rot's post. I wish I could say that I totally turned things around for these people and that I taught them great feel and timing, but the reality of it is that I don't think I was very good at it and we never got anywhere far.

What really struck me, when I was trying to help people, was the total lack of awareness of their bodies they had. I'd be saying, "If you stand like this to get the horse to back up, she backs up real easy." But they just had no awareness of what they were doing, or they'd say, "but I *am* standing like you say and it's just not *working!*."

 

[Dry Rot]

Well, I left the girl pretty much to her own devices today and she was very pleased to tell me that she'd backed one of the 3yo's for the first time. (I doubt that he was ridgen for more than five minutes as she is not stupid). She is a very good natural rider and this is not quite as extraordinary as it sounds as we did a fair amount of work (de-sensitising) on this one before the girl even started here. So, I asked how she had got on. Apparently, the pony seemed a bit confused....

Next time, I am hoping to impress upon her (again!) that the boring old stuff like lunging and long reining has a purpose! I gather all the ponies she has broken in the past have been started by 'just getting on and doing it'. Thankfully, I doubt whether the pony has been harmed in the least as he is a pretty laid back type anyway, but I think I'd rather start at stage one and progress in measured equal steps without too much leap frogging!