As humans, our primary source of communication is the spoken word. While many people use voice cues with horses, we encourage you to develop your body language first ... learn to be aware of what your body is doing and communicate as horses do. Later on, we will use voice cues as a refinement of our skills. If we rely on them too much early on, our body language becomes inconsistent and can be very confusing to the horse.
Many times we have had people show us how well their horse understands voice cues. While this may be true, what most people do not realise is that when they say ‘whoa’ – whether when riding or on the ground – their body energy relaxes. The horse, who is extremely perceptive to body language and body energy, responds to the relaxation of energy and learns the cue to slow down.
In the Quantum Savvy horsemanship programme, Basic Skill 3 – ‘No Contact Yield’ – is based on the way in which horses use their body language to yield each other. Watching horses together will really help you to understand how this works. The herd tends to take their cue from the Alpha Horse. If she is calm and grazing, chances are the whole herd is the same. If her head comes up and she suddenly leaves, watch all the other horses take off without even knowing why. If she decides that she wants someone else’s feed, watch her walk toward them, focused on where she’s going with that ‘get out of my way’ look on her face and see them all comply happily. If any of them is not happy to do as she wishes, a whole range of other body language is quick to follow!
Horses have a different range of emotions from those of humans. They can be fighting one minute because someone didn’t move quickly enough and the next happily grooming each other. They hold no grudge, do not harbour anger, or have any malice. They can be assertive without any aggression. They say what they mean, mean what they say and are done with it. These are qualities that we, as natural horsemen need to acquire in order to become successful with horses. This can prove quite difficult for some humans. Women especially, find it difficult to be assertive. Men can often find it hard to not become aggressive. We tend to be at opposite ends of the spectrum and must learn to find the middle ground in order to become great leaders for our horses.
Being a wimp around horses will get you trodden on, being aggressive will get you nowhere, most likely you’ll just frighten your horse The key is to be as soft as you can be and as firm as necessary. Learning to master your own phases and body energy will greatly help with this.
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- By Meredith Ransley, Quantum Savvy.