I whisper, but my horse won’t listen!!

Recently, I was at a stable watching a young trainer working a horse. In the round-pen near the arena, a young girl was working with her rescue horse. After a few minutes she left him in the round-pen, came to her mother who was also watching the trainer, and almost in tears said her horse wouldn’t listen to her.

“He is being rude. He won’t listen to me. He only wants to look for and watch the other horses. I want to go home.”

I offered to help and they happily agreed. The young girl was quick to explain that every time she tries to do anything with her rescue horse, he pushes her, steps on her, pulls her around and is just plain rude towards her. How do you explain to a nine- year-old that her horse is not rude, but that they were simply not speaking the same language?

I asked her to think of this way. Suppose you are lead into a room by someone who speaks a foreign language and that the room is filled with people that also speak a foreign language. They brought you here and now want to talk to you. They are looking and talking to you, but you don’t understand. Some are speaking loudly, others are whispering, some are flailing their arms trying to get your attention. You don’t know what to think.

Then, somewhere in the crowd, you hear English being spoken. Where will your attention be? It will be focused on a language you understand. You stop looking at these people who brought you here and try to find those you can understand. Would it be fair for these people to consider you rude? Of course not. We proceeded to play with her horse and they both began to understand each other.

When our horse is not responding favorably as we wish, often times, it isn’t because he is rude, ornery, or even disrespectful (although, there may come a time this will be the case), initially, it is more than likely that we are not speaking in a manner our horse understands.

Horses are masters of body language. They use subtle cues at first (Active Body Language): pinning their ears, snaking their head and baring their teeth, swishing their tail are just a few examples. If standing near by, they may use steady pressure: invade another’s space: push with their neck and shoulder or turn slowly and push with their hip. The quickly escalate to driving pressure: they may rush at another horse, bite at them and eventually kick. They do this in rhythm and increase the volume of their whisper.

What earns the leader the respect of the herd is based on a few things: the consistency of the cues, the demand for the yield, and most importantly, the quickness in the release of the pressure when they yield to it.

It is incumbent to us to learn this language when we accept the role of leadership in our herd of two. We must be consistent in our body cues (active body language), the rhythmic escalation of pressure to get a yield, and most importantly, the timing of our release to gain our horse’s respect and willing attention.

- TOP

Tops Training Tips

I whisper, but my horse won’t listen!!