Communicating to the Horse With Body Language

To Face You Fully and Latch On

When the horse is in the stopping/facing me position, I like to use a kissing noise when walking parallel to their hindquarters and asking for the turn, to get them to pivot around and face me. Kissing noise is an additional pressure. At the same time, I have an empty open hand out (the one closest to their face), coaxing with my fingers in a "come here" way. This way, I'm beginning to plant a cue to come to me (the kiss and the hand gesture), whether they understand it at first or not. Used repetitively each time I'm encouraging the hindquarters to move away from me (with my other hand that contains the now-bundled rope) and the front end toward me, the horse pretty quickly gets the cue means: come to me, face/head first, hind end away.

At this point, when I'm kissing and inviting the head to come and instructing the hindquarters to move away with my other hand, I bend my head and body slightly to the side – tipped in the direction of the rear of the horse while I pulsate my hands (like you're performing small bent-fingered karate chops in the air). It's important to see the value of your head and neck-stretch tip-to-the-side at this point. Horses are very acutely conscious of neck and head movements/directional placements, because they indeed primarily use their own heads and necks to communicate and direct others in their herds, as well, even from a distance, so you are speaking language they are born understanding!

Ever see a higher pecking order horse in pasture or in the wild move another lower pecking order horse away from food or water so Number One can eat or drink instead? And have you seen how quickly and respectfully Number Two reads those body language directives instantly and moves over, away quite swiftly? This is indeed what horses do to each other to establish hierarchy dominance: stretch the head out longer and assertively "push" with their head and neck, even from a short distance without ever making body-to-body contact, to move that other horse's hindquarters away and off.

We take advantage of this prey animal psychology knowledge in natural horsemanship. My head, neck and slight body bend in the direction of the hindquarters, along with the pulsating hand pressures, lets the horse know which direction I wish them to move those hindquarters: away from me.

Important: When inviting the horse to come in to me from afar, my hand which is directing the hindquarters away usually is stuck farther out, my elbow straight/less bent, while the hand which is inviting the head towards me is closer to my body, that elbow bent, hence showing the horse in body language which specific direction I am asking for the bend: head towards me, hindquarters away. Horses are that highly perceptive to pick up this exacting body language message, and they pivot accordingly.

Again, always keep a safe distance there, well out of kicking range! We are parallel to the horse at this point, not in too close to the hindquarters! When you walk parallel to their hindquarters, and make the kissing pressure noise, and are directing with our hands as described, keep it up without a pause (no release yet of the kissing noise or pulsating hand pressure!) until the hindquarters pivot away, then release, stop asking.

If the horse refuses to move those hindquarters away, simply increase the pressure; use your hand that is even with the hindquarters, with the now-gathered rope in it, and hold the rope arm up shaking it higher and more assertively, while still mirroring the bend you want with both hands and your head. That shows the horse you fully expect those hindquarters to pivot away, no matter what. The pressure is now increased on the horse to do something, not just stand there.

The horse will either pivot to face you or leave moving forward. There's nothing in between. Only a white zone and a black zone. No gray areas. In the black zone, leaving gets them sent with a rope toss to the back feet, and another lap or two (work!). Pivoting as requested reaps your instant back turn – release of all pressure.

But it's important to embrace baby steps here, rewarding each baby step try on the horse's part in the right direction, with all pressure removed from them at those tries, and allowing them the moment to think, to digest their success/release, even for the baby steps, and that gets them there faster. So...that means, even a tiny step or muscle move in the right direction (the thought!) to pivot toward you at that decision point reaps a complete release of all pressure and back-turn on your part. And a horse rest pause for a minute. Stay highly perceptive for this! Horses learn far faster if we reward with our release of pressure for the smallest try, the slightest change in the right direction.

If the horse did leave (choosing the black zone), and you were then required to simultaneously up the pressure and send them, putting them to work again briefly, you will want to use your body language to again encourage the stop. It's not hard to do. If you want the horse slowing down there, to start encouraging the horse to get back to where it was before when stopping/turning toward you, simply slow down your own body language – go softer, more passive, while still facing the moving horse, but much like you yourself are suddenly moving in slow motion. The horse will instantly mirror that/you and slow down. If you position yourself parallel in front of the horse's shoulder and hold a front blocking arm out if necessary at the same time as the horse is slowing down, generally the horse will then stop.

My arm closest to the horse's head (in this photo, that would be my right arm) instructs the horse to stop. Immediately turning my right shoulder to the horse while simultaneously swinging my right arm across the front of me in a kind of self-hugging gesture, will usually bring the horse's head around fully to face me, and the hindquarters pivoting behind the horse.

Tip: I find novices at this point forget sometimes that they don't have to follow the circle arc like the horse does. You are not required to mirror the horse; the horse is required (and knows how!) to mirror you. You yourself can quickly short-cut to the other side of the round pen at any time you need to in order to meet up with the horse suddenly on the other side (where he was headed, but you beat him there!). Do that if and when you need to get ahead of the horse to slow them down or even to turn them. A horse can outrun a human any ol' day! But short-cutting to meet them on the other side of the arc, while still remaining face-to-face, keeps you in the director seat. Try to remember that, because if you don't, you'll find yourself stuck on pointless horse-chasing mode, from behind always, when that is not at all necessary nor what this is about. You are the choreography director, standing in the middle of the stage, directing each step of the dance recital. The horse's directional (follower!) rules are to keep moving at your precise instruction, but you write the rules for yourself – cut across when needed!

Quickly the horse realizes that the bolting out of the stopped position (or even turning their rear end toward you, and refusing to move it away from you) gets them more pressure, or sent. And horses by nature when given two choices, will pick the easier, less energy-expending choice. They are energy-conserving animals. And usually very quickly they are choosing to pivot to face you at the stopping point instead of leaving. (It's easier – no pressure is put upon them there!) And all horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not the pressure itself. Worth repeating there!

Communicating to the Horse With Body Language

To Face You Fully and Latch On (Continued)

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