Episode 311: The Silent Conversation: Three Hidden Challenges in Understanding Horse Language.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
Episode 311: The Silent Conversation: Three Hidden Challenges in Understanding Horse Language.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Oftentimes as a horse becomes more well trained, they become less animated. Just because the horse is less animated does not mean that it has been robbed of its feelings.
Speaker2:
Podcasting from a Little cabin on a hill. This is the Stacy Westfall podcast. Stacy's goal is simple to teach you to understand why horses do what they do, as well as the action steps for creating clear, confident communication with your horses.
Speaker1:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy and successfully train your own horses. In this episode, I want to talk to you about reading your horse's body language or misreading your horse's body language. I'm going to share a few reasons I see this happening, and a tip that you can implement today to begin to shift that a huge part of understanding a horse is your ability to accurately read their body language. When I say huge, that's an understatement. Here's the challenge with people. You have body language and the words they say. So there's a double communication that's happening. It's a challenge, but it also gives you two points of reference. You can hear what someone says, and even if you don't totally understand, you can also look to their body language for clarification. Oftentimes, the combination of the two not only helps you figure out what the other person is trying to communicate, but it also gives you clues into how that person is feeling. Maybe. However, it's also possible for you to misread their body language for you to misinterpret their body language and for you to label it with an emotion that is not what they are experiencing? Have you ever had someone say to you that you look frustrated and that was not how you were feeling? Now let's think about the challenge of listening to our horses. We have body language. That's it. They can't use words to help clarify.
Speaker1:
Have you ever read a poem and then shared it with someone? Because the author captured the words so well, you could not find a way to express it. But by sharing those words with another human, you are able to express something the horses don't have that. They just have body language and our interpretation of their body language. This is why it's such a big deal for you to recognize how you are labeling your horse. In last week's podcast, I shared a story about my year and a half old son. Well, he's in his 20s now, but back when he was a year and a half old, he was communicating his frustration or anger when he didn't have all the words. And I used that moment to compare it with the behavior of one of my new horses. And this is what got me thinking about the challenges that horse owners often face when they're learning to speak horse. And that's the same thing as learning to read the horse's body language. So to help clarify this for you, I want to share three challenges that I commonly see. Challenge number one with reading the horse's body language is that some horses are naturally stoic and other horses are naturally animated. My more recent horses would fall into these categories. Ember and Enzo are more naturally animated and Luna is more stoic. Now, just to double check how to define this, I googled it, but I'm not sure if I should give credit to Google or AI.
Speaker1:
But here's the definition. Stoic describes a person or thing that is calm, emotionless, and accepts what happens while animated describes something that is full of movement or energy. Stoic A person who is calm doesn't show their emotions, especially in difficult situations. For example, you might describe someone as stoic if they remain calm after a loss or a loved one's success. I would like to amend that Google AI generated definition to say stoic doesn't display the traditional movements or actions or body language as compared to the animated category, but both the stoic presentation or the animated presentation can be experiencing the emotions. One's just experiencing it more on the inside. Animated will express it more on the outside. It was interesting because when I was double checking some of this stuff, getting ready for the podcast, I came across a study where schoolchildren in the United States were asked to draw someone happy, and the same thing was done with students in Asian countries and in both places, the children drew smiles. But the kids in the United States drew much bigger and more animated smiles. This doesn't necessarily point to one being happier. It points more to the idea that one is more animated than the other. This dovetails with challenge number two that I often see, which is people misreading horses as they become more well trained. Oftentimes as a horse becomes more well trained, they become less animated.
Speaker1:
Just because the horse is less animated does not mean that it has been robbed of its feelings. If you think about a child and then you know that same child as an adult, they're going to express their animated emotions in a different way when they are children than they are as they're adults. They might be feeling the same exact emotion when they're five or when they're 25, but they're likely when they're 25 to have more context for the experience. And a more nuanced Vocabulary. So instead of mad, they might realize that they feel irritated. So they could be expressing the emotion. Maybe they really are mad when they're five, and maybe they really are mad when they're 25. They could be expressing that emotion differently, or they could be realizing as they age that there are more emotions that can be experienced. I believe something very similar happens for the horses. I raised a horse named Newt. Some of you who followed me for a long time will remember seeing YouTube videos of him, and I'm going to post a link to one of those YouTube videos over on my website with this episode, because Newt was a horse that I raised and trained, and he's very much like Enzo is right now. He was very expressive. And yet, as Newt learned more and more nuances of communicating with me, he spent more and more time with a focused look, especially when he was learning something new or performing something challenging.
Speaker1:
This didn't make him less animated in other moments of his life. It just meant that he knew how to go to work or he knew how to focus. He also had more context as he had more training and life experience. The YouTube video link that I'm going to share over on my website is one that I made when Newt was learning to do something new, and I will warn you ahead of time, you should go look at it. But it's like watching paint dry. So although he was a naturally animated horse, what I videotaped on this day was his focus face, which was a very serious, contemplative, thoughtful look on a horse's face. Now, again, to contrast this, I want to remind you, just because he learned how to move into that way of being. It didn't rob him of being fully him. I also remember a time when I was showing him and the Aqua Ranch classes were new. That's when I first started showing Newt, and the very first time that I showed him in a ranch class when I entered the riding arena. Newt noticed the trot over logs, which are not present in reining arenas. So as I was performing all the other maneuvers before I got to the trot over logs, he did excellent. But he kept looking at the logs. When it came time to go over the logs, I felt him as I approached them at a trot.
Speaker1:
I could feel him gathering himself up. His ears were radar pricked forward and he was very animated. Imagine a horse approaching a tarp and they're very animated and you're wondering if they're going to jump it. That's how he looked. And in that moment, as I was trotting towards those trot over logs, I quickly assessed him. Animation doesn't have to mean emotionally out of control. It often will point towards that, especially in the untrained horse. But I knew him well and I could feel that although he was very animated, he was also fully with me and fully animated. So I asked him to trot over them and he trotted over them easily with really high knees. Imagine jogging in place and making your knees come up to your waist. That's how high he was lifting his knees in this very animated motion. And I happened to be the last horse in the class to go. And it was a big class. There were multiple judges, but because I was the last one to show, the judges were getting up and walking out of the arena as I also left the arena. Keep in mind, these judges are very experienced, trained professionals, and there were multiple judges because it was a really big class. And they said to me, laughing, we were taking bets on if your horse was going to jump those. And I laughed and I said, I would have been making that bet too, if I hadn't known him so.
Speaker1:
Well, animated doesn't necessarily mean out of control. As a side note, we won the class because he contained the ultimate of both the control and the expression at the same time. The mistake that's often made is that you have to choose one or the other. Which brings me to the third challenge I frequently see. And that would be the similarities or the clustering of behaviors that you expect to see between groups of emotions. So look at knew in that moment he looked very animated, and for a lot of people, that would trigger the feeling of a horse out of control and in a green horse. A horse I didn't know well. A horse with not very much training. I would also make that bet. So it's this natural tendency that we have to cluster behaviors that you expect or desire together that I want to talk about for just a minute. So let's look at the animated horse for a moment. When you think about what a playful or happy horse looks like, how would you expect that to be expressed? I googled it to make sure that it wasn't my bias that was bringing these things up. And Google says playful horses exhibit a variety of behaviors, including nipping, nudging, head tossing. It's usually harmless and a sign that the horse is happy. Horses may run or buck to release energy.
Speaker1:
They may play with objects like balls or reins or grooming kits or rugs. One horse may Canter around the group, inspiring the others to chase it. They may bump into each other or nip, and they may toss their heads. This is what's associated with the playful or happy horse. Now let's contrast that with some of the things that come to my mind around the idea of stoic or focused. Serious. Bored. Disinterested. Contemplative. Thoughtful. Focused. The challenge that I see when people cluster behaviors around groups of emotions is that often times, without even knowing it, you may desire your horse to feel happy and exhibit playful behavior, and you may accidentally Reward behavior that you don't want, like nipping or nudging or head tossing, or any of the things that fall into the playful expressions that horses can have. And the contrast of that is very often when people are learning how to train their own horses and they start to see a focus look, they start to see what I read as contemplative or thoughtful, and they read as bored or disinterested. It makes the human feel like they're doing something wrong. Remember to be careful when you're clustering behaviors together, and especially when you're grouping them with a certain emotion. I covered a lot of ideas in this podcast, and maybe I'll go back and put it more into context in the future with one of my horses. But my number one recommendation for you today to implement what I'm talking about would be this say out loud what you think you're seeing in your horse.
Speaker1:
If you think your horse looks bored, say out loud you look bored. If you think he looks content, say out loud you look content. Whatever it is that you think he's experiencing, say it out loud. Because the first step in improving your ability to read your horse is to recognize that you are already labeling his behavior with an emotion. And when you say it out loud, it's going to bring it into your awareness. This works with people too. If you've ever had someone say to you, you look very fill in the blank and your response is, that's not at all what I'm feeling. You'll realize that we can make this mistake with other humans. We can definitely make it with our horses by saying out loud what you think your horse is experiencing, you will begin to crack the door open for you to find more nuanced language around what he could be experiencing. If you notice that you use the same word over and over and over and over again, then it's time for you to look for more nuances in his body language so that you can find a more nuanced way of looking at your horse's experience so you can understand his experience better. That's what I have for you this week. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.
Speaker2:
If you enjoy listening to Stacy's podcast, please visit Stacy Westfall. Com for articles, videos and tips to help you and your horse succeed.
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