The act and proccess of communicating is something we all do every day but yet we take it for granted. Most of us only hear the words but not the message. A person trying to get a point across with out being offensive might not say things very clearly. A person trying to sell you something might not tell you the whole story. And we all know that politicians have hidden agendas.
Many of us learn to speak different languages. Some will learn many. We are all capable of learning a new language. We are also all capable of creating our own secret language or code. Just read a text or a message from any teenager and you'll see proof. Every sport or specialized activities will have their own little special phrases so to simplify communication and to let people of the same activities know how well you understand this activity.
People in the horse world have developed their own bunch of codes, cues and signals to help them communicate with their horses. Most of which are pretty universal and make sense. They work well when the signal is clear and tbe horse has learned what it means. This is an example of the horse learning our language so they can understand us. But shouldn't we also learn their language so we can understand them?
Anyone who has been around a horse can see some of the basic body language, acts and expressions a horse makes to say certain things. But how many of us know a horses language well enough, that they can speak to the horse by only using the horses language? Not many at all unfortunately.
When I work with some people and their horses. I often get asked things like. How did you get them to do that? Sometimes when I ask them to try something, I often warn them about something seconds before it happens and they ask how I knew? Or after I tell them, I am going to ask for this. Then after the horse does it. They will say something like. I didn't see what your cue was. This is because in many cases, I speak to the horse in their own language and not through cues that I taught the horse. Sure I do teach every horse I work with all the commonly used cues and gestures used in the horse world. But when I first start working with a new horse, I want to speak to them in their own language before I try to teach them ours. Its my way to show them that, I will listen to them, and that I can understand them. It is a much faster way to earn their respect. They learn to accept us much sooner and then they start to appreciate us.
So your all probably wondering what this Equine language is. Some of you already know part of it is, body language and expressions. But the real in depth secrets are through thought and energy. Often described as "Feel." This is not very easy to explain. It really needs to be experienced. But by knowing what you want, and applying or creating energy in that direction the horse will go their. The same can be said for seeing or feeling a thought the horse is having. It will soon become an action. One might say, "where will this action take place and in which direction will it go?" If you understand the thought you will know what sort of polarity the energy will have, a push or pull polarity. Then within a few seconds it will be an action and will go where the energy will go. If we are communicating well, It is very possible to address the thought before it becomes an action.
Thought and energy can be felt from great distances. Many times a thought or energy is felt without a response. This in most part is based on how much significance they have. Little to no significance will get little to no response. Most horses who are extremely anxious are like that because they feel energy and don't know if they should or how they should respond. We humans have a way of putting out stagnant energy. Sometimes we put out energy that a horse responds to, then we repremand them thinking they are misbehaving. If you have an anxious or aggressive horse, or one that just won't respond for you, there is a good chance you are doing things like this and your horse just doesn't know what to do. A confident brave horse will get aggressive and a nervous anxious horse will get flighty one that is well balanced and in between these 2 will most often just be non responsive. But all 3 horses usually are experiencing energy they don't know what to do with.
You see we are always saying something to our horse at every moment. Just because we don't know what we are saying, doesn't mean we are not saying it. We are, and they hear and feel it. Our being oblivious to it makes them lose confidence in us. This is why we get misbehavior. If you can be more in tuned with it so you know what you may be saying inadvertently and so you can understand all the suttle things your horse is saying to you. Then your horse will start to relax around you, because now everything makes sense.
These are the things we teach people here. We don't spend to much time on methods, techniques or cues. We focus on thought and energy. How its felt and perceived, and what to do with it. This way we not only make sense to the horse but the horse makes sense to us.
If you would like more information on any of this please feel free to contact us. Thanks for reading.
