The Horsey Language 1

(Credit: Google Images)

I love watching horses interact within their herd. These two horses seem to be sniffing at each other and becoming acquainted.  I have personally learned a lot by watching horses throughout the day to learn the dynamics of the herd and each horse's personality. Most "horsey language" is by body movement. It always cracks me up to watch horse movies and there is constant nickering and neighing in  the background. Who ever has that in their barn twenty-four/seven? I like to call these movies (especially the ones where a wild horse is miraculously trained in little or no time) the "as-if" movies. 

The horse expresses itself by where it places its body in proportion to others. I was auditing a Chris Irwin horsemanship clinic in 2010 and learned some new things. Every time the horse Chris was lunging passed by his girth area the horse would bow. I had never seen (or maybe noticed) that horses naturally will not pass a dominant horse (or in this case the lead person) through pressure areas without respect. I enjoyed Chris's clinic and gained new insight into the horsey language. You can visit Chris Irwin's site at www.chrisirwin.com

(Credit: Google Images)

This horse is clearly not happy. His ears are flat back and it appears that he is lunging towards "the thing" he clearly is not happy with, maybe another horse? Horses' ears are very expressive - they can tell us when our horses are mad by going flat back against their head or that they are listening to us with that one ear flicking towards us. Although every horse chick (and guy) out there needs to look at the whole picture, that is the entire horse. Ears are one very expressive body part. 

 

 (Credit: Google Images)

The horse's tail is also another great way to learn what our horses are 'saying'. These two pasture mates seem to be nice and relaxed and happy munching on their hay. A horse can show many things with the tail. Sometimes your horse is just swatting away nasty annoying flies while at other times your horse may swing its tail in annoyance or raise it up when it is frightened. 

The best way to learn the horse's language is to go out and study your horses in the pasture and in the barn to really become a "horse whisperer". You can learn a lot and become more in tune and more readily able to deal with your horse when you know how he/she feels.