Focus ....
.. Demos
and Training Days
LEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF HORSES
So lets take a look at what this really means...... Language in this context
means a combination of both body and verbal language. Horses communicate
85% through their body language and 15% through their verbal language.
Horses are a social animal, choosing to live in a herd with a stallion
and lead mare. The stallion's job is to mate, to threaten or fight off
competition by other stallions and he also helps the lead more by pushing
the stragglers of the herd along from behind by trotting up behind them;
snaking his head and nipping at their rumps if need be. The lead mare
decides the direction of the herd, where and when to eat, to drink, to
sleep.... Her job is also to keep order and know at what point to intervene.
So when we choose to own a horse we need to become the equivalent of the
lead mare in our relationship with them. All they are aware of is that
someone has to lead the way and if the human doesn't then they have to.
Whether they ore worthy of the job or not!
So how can we manage this? Well, to get good at something you observe, question. research, study, make some decisions and get practising!
If we observe horse play (dominance games) we can simulate similar patterns.
Obviously we need to find the equivalent of ears back and swishing tails as threatening poises and we can; by using consistent and effective phases of firmness that the horse understands. We can observe that they use approach and retreat, that they smell each other first, that they give very little eye contact and that geldings will play more than mares. They will also groom each other, especially after a dominance game. They very rarely make hard contact with each other: it is mostly a game of bluff as an injured horse is usually a dead horse in the wild. It is an interesting thought that a shod horse, due to the extra weight in his leg will inadvertently throw his leg further when kicking out, so that on intended miss (their aim is very specific) can become a contact kick. This is not the intention of the horse, but the weight of the shoe and often why the horse gets injured.
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Horses also have great focus, a huge amount of patience, lots of subtle manoeuvres, great judge of distance and are very intuitive. Nature dictated that they better know the difference between a hungry predator and a full one otherwise they would always be too busy running to eat. So taking the job of the lead mare we have to get really good at some of the following:
FOCUS can you out focus your horse?
FEEL can you feel your horse's stride... Can you feel his intention....Can you feel when to ask and when to give?
BODY LANGUAGE Can you draw a horse to you and ask it to change direction without using your voice or lunge line, using your body in such a way that he understands?
PHASES Have you got phases of firmness that are consistent and effective?
INTENTION Are you clear enough with your objective, so that you can make it clear to your horse?
LEADERSHIP FEET Have you got
them or does your horse constantly get you to move yours?
Now read Focus
