Take direct line thinking (human) as opposed to lateral thinking (horse) for example. If we want something, we go get it. It doesn’t occur to us to think about it first and look around us in a furtive manner to see if anything is watching and checking that we have a quick avenue of escape if need be. Unless we are a professional burglar of course in which case these things may form an important part of our behaviour!
Seriously though, if we want that red bucket, pen laying on the desk, pizza etc, we just go get it, generally moving in straight lines to match our direct line thought. Now ... to a horse - who recognizes the confident movement, direction and manner in which a predator moves - as soon as they see us moving about like this, they have us tagged as a possible threat and something to look out for.
Is it any wonder that some people have so much trouble catching their horses? They make the simple mistake of forgetting to turn off their ‘predatoriness’ before they enter their horse’s space.
We all need to be able to catch our horses, touch and groom them all over and generally get in to their space. If we do this in a direct-line manner however, we may encounter difficulties. Try to go about your horse politely. Ask permission to enter his space. Be aware of when he is feeling comfortable and happy with what you are doing and when he feels you are being a little intrusive. This applies to catching as well as handling your horse.
Next time you are interacting with your horse, see if you can distinguish where his comfort zones start and end in both his personal space (as when catching him) and on his physical body (as when touching him in sensitive areas). Rather than just barrel on in there, try a more relaxed and polite approach.
Let’s say for example that your horse is sensitive around the flank area. Rather than just getting in there and rubbing it with the attitude of ‘get over it’, find a spot that he does like to be touched and rub him there. Then gradually, without losing rhythm, rub a little closer to the flank for a bit and then retreat to where you started. Then approach the sensitive spot once more. Repeat this process as many times as you need to until you feel that your horse happily accepts your approaches. This time retreat less far and begin the process again, gradually getting closer and closer to the sensitive area. Remember to be rhythmical Pretty soon your horse will be happily allowing you to rub this formerly sensitive area, just because you approached it laterally rather than direct line.
I once had a lady in a 2-day clinic tell me that she could not, under any circumstances touch her horse’s ear. The horse was 20 years old and had quite a severe reaction every time she got anywhere near the ear. First we discussed the reasons for the ear area being so sensitive (see previous article on sensitive spots) which helped the lady be a lot more sympathetic in her approach to the horse. Then I taught her, along with the rest of the group, about lateral thinking and approach and retreat.
That weekend she got to where she could rub her horse confidently all over and up to a few inches away from the ears without the horse being worried in any way. By the time I saw her 3 months later, she couldn’t wait to show me how she could not only touch the ears, but also gently pull on them and rub inside them! After 20 years, all it took was a bit of compassion on the part of the human and approaching the task as a horse would – laterally!
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Lesson 3, Chapter 5:
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- By Meredith Ransley, Quantum Savvy.