(upbeat uplifting music)
- Welcome.
Today we're gonna be talking about
horse behavior and body language.
Horses communicate primarily through body language.
So we're gonna be talking about
how this is gonna keep you safer
when you work with your horses,
and help you to build a stronger relationship.
So first let's look at a few body language examples.
Here's some signs of relaxation.
We've got a horse that is enjoying the sunshine.
He's got a nice relaxed neck and tail.
If we take a closer look at his facial expression,
we can see he's got a soft eye,
droopy lower lip, and relaxed nostrils.
So if we look at his overall posture,
there's no tension in his top line,
and he's in a nice peaceful state.
Next, we're gonna take a look at signs of tension
or worried state.
So here there's Zoloft, which we're gonna zoom in on him,
and take a closer look at what he's telling us
with his body language.
His legs are positioned to run to the left here.
He's got a raised neck and a tense top line.
If we take a closer look at his facial expression,
we can see his ears are focused forward
on what he's worried about.
He's got a tight jaw and flared nostrils.
So his overall posture is telling us he's worried
and ready to run.
Now, we're gonna look at some dominant and testing behavior.
Here we have Legend and Crosby.
And Legend and Crosby usually go out together in a herd.
But today I turned them out in the round pen
to let them enjoy the sunshine some.
And Legend is the most dominant in his group.
So you can see him coming up
and push the sides a little bit.
And Crosby is doing some posturing
and kind of warning Legend away from him.
So Legend comes up, checks him out.
(Crosby neighs loudly)
Right there Crosby is warning him to move away,
but you notice how Legend just kind of stays there
and keeps the pressure on a little bit.
Even though Crosby is warning him to move away
because Legend is little more of a dominant guy.
(Crosby neighs loudly)
And most of the time,
a horse's posturing and warning ends peacefully.
So in this case, this ended very peacefully.
Legend goes up here and pushes Crosby the other direction,
but it's good to be aware of these signs
and just pay attention when you see them.
Next, let's take a look at some aggressive behavior.
Here we have Zoloft who you saw earlier
in the spooking example.
And he is a horse that was rescued from a feedlot,
and has some fear and aggression around other horses.
So I'm gonna lead Legend by
and we're gonna see what happens.
(horse neighs loudly)
So as we take a closer look at Zoloft's posture,
we can see he's got a tense top line.
As we look at his facial expression,
you can see his ears are pinned flat back.
He's got a clenched jaw.
And he's got creases around his nose which show irritation.
So his overall posture is one of aggression.
Next, let's take a look at some playful behavior.
Here we have two horses enjoying a beautiful day
and playing together,
and sometimes this can be mistaken for aggression.
But let's take a look at some key differences here.
So first off, we have lifted tails
which is a sign of excitement and playfulness.
And we have a nice soft eye on this horse
even though he's rearing up.
And you can see how his ears are not pinned back.
So now that we've seen some different scenarios
of our horse's body language,
let's talk about reading the horse
based on the environment that they're in
and the circumstance that we're approaching.
So sometimes we'll see two body languages
that look pretty similar,
but actually mean different things.
So let's talk about two examples of this.
So here we have aggressive versus listening.
And if we look at these two postures,
they can look kind of similar at first glance.
But if we take a closer look at the eyes
and nose, and overall expression,
we can see how different these two positions are.
Here we have a horse who's being saddled
and she's swishing her tail to get the flies away.
You can see her expression is nice and relaxed
as she's having the saddle be put on.
Now we have the same horse,
but this time when she's being saddled,
she's swishing her tail out of irritation or possible pain.
And we can see that,
because the rest of her body language
is displaying discomfort.
So now we've talked about a few examples of body language
in different scenarios and how body language
can differ in different situations.
So how does this help us with our safety
when we work around our horses?
I'm gonna show you a couple of examples.
I'll be working with the horses in the ground,
and showing you how I'm handling them
based around how they're displaying their body language.
So in a minute, Gidget the cat is gonna come
running around this corner.
So I'm walking with Meg and right here,
she displays some tense, worried behavior.
So I'm gonna back her up, ask her to relax,
and there she goes to graze,
so I'm gonna get her attention back on me.
Reassure, and then walk off with her.
Here I'm working with Zoloft.
We talked about earlier, he's a rescue horse,
and he has a tendency to bite when being handled.
So I'm just working on being able to approach him
here on his side without him biting me.
So I'm using the stick to kind of tap my shoulder
and wave a little bit in front of me
to prevent Zoloft from coming in and biting me.
And you can see how his body language is leaning forward
into my space and he's kind of threatening
to come in and bite me.
So I'm staying in a nice, relaxed posture and just blocking.
Got a nice loose line there.
And right here, Zoloft relaxes a little bit
and lets me go up and rub him.
So I'm just petting him with my stick here,
and he's relaxing.
And then I'm going to walk away to reward him there.
Once we understand how to read
our horse's body language on the ground,
and we've developed a good skill set there,
we're ready to move under saddle.
When we're under saddle, we can't see much
of our horses body language.
So how do we communicate with them under saddle clearly
so we can work together as a team?
The way I communicate with my horse in riding
is through feeling.
Since I can't see him,
I'm feeling what's going on underneath me.
We can feel everything from where their attention is.
Here Legend is slinking forward a little bit.
And then if I put my leg on him here
that's gonna move off my right legs.
I'm checking in with him there.
So we can feel everything from where their attention is,
to how their emotional state is.
If they're tense, if they're relaxed,
if he's in balance or out of balance.
So when we ride our horses, that ability to feel with them
is the way we have conversations
and keep our connection throughout our work together.
When it comes to developing your feeling,
this is something we're always improving as riders.
I'm still working on improving my feeling,
and a couple of tools that have helped me
are one, having a knowledgeable professional
watch you from the ground
and give you some feedback in the moment.
This can help you to be able to understand
what you're feeling better,
and if it is really the direction you wanna be taking.
If it's accurate.
The other thing that has been a great tool for me
is riding a really well-trained seasoned horse.
And this can really do wonders for helping you to understand
what a good balanced horse should feel like,
and help you to be able to give your horse better guidance
and direction when you ride.
If you guys have anything to share about body language
that you have observed in your horse,
or any further questions that you have,
you can let me know in the comments below.
Have a wonderful week.
Enjoy your horses.
I'll see you in the next video.
(soft uplifting music)