Episode 331: The Horse’s Mind: What Their Body Tells You About Their Thinking (Part 1)

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Speaker1:
This is why I love studying the horse's minds. Because it's not just about what they do, but it's about why they're doing it.

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. This is the third episode in a series discussing how I separate challenges into four quadrants. I call them the rider's mind, the rider's body, the horse's mind, and the horse's body. I find this helpful because each quadrant has something specific to teach, and when you strengthen all four quadrants, then you get real, true, lasting progress. Last week I discussed the horse's body, which is naturally the first thing that we notice. This week, I'm sharing with you how I see the horse's mind as a separate quadrant. I'll explain how when the mind is unsure, it shows up in the body, how a horse's behavior reveals their current level of understanding and their maturity level, and how your body is part of the environment or experience. This is my favorite quadrant. Yes, you need them all, but this is my favorite. So the initial challenge of this quadrant is remembering that this is their story, their viewpoint. This is your horse's viewpoint. In this quadrant, you are part of the environment. You are not the main character in the story. Your horse is and you need to see yourself from their viewpoint. The biggest challenge riders often face is twofold. It's putting down your automatic reaction long enough to see their viewpoint, and it's learning to pick a viewpoint that helps both of you move forward. So remember, although this is the horse's mind quadrant, we are challenged to interpret their mind through their body.

Speaker1:
The horse's body reflects the thinking and their emotions and emotions include big reactions like flight or fight, but also things like dislikes and preferences. A great example of engaging the horse's mind is teaching a horse to understand a verbal cue like, whoa! Now I'm going to contrast that with using the Rein, Q. Using the Rein, Q typically falls pretty clearly into the idea of using pressure and release, because the basic idea is that a rider who wants to stop is going to shorten the reins and begin to apply some amount of pressure, and that when the horse slows or stops, the rider is going to release the pressure. I say falls most clearly into this category, because your technique does matter. On how much the horse's mind can see the system and respond. I'm going to get into that in a minute. Now, if we look at the verbal cue, whoa, that falls more clearly into engaging the horse's mind, because you can see that the horse has used some level of thinking to arrive here. So the basic idea is when the rider says the verbal cue, whoa, the horse hears the cue and thinks, I know what that means, and then chooses to stop, which demonstrates their understanding on the surface. It's easy to think that the verbal cue woe is quote unquote better because it clearly involves their mind. But let's look a little closer. Earlier, I said, the horse's body reflects the thinking, but you need the skills to interpret what the body is saying.

Speaker1:
When you cue a horse to stop with the reins, what is actually happening in the moment, it's easy to assume that stopping is just a physical response. But when you look closer, you'll see that the horse's mind plays a huge role in how they interpret and execute that cue. So rather than telling you how this works, I want you to think it through for yourself. So I'm going to ask you a series of questions as you listen. Picture a horse in each scenario. How are they responding? What does it tell you about their level of understanding? Horse number one. Did they begin to slow as they felt the slightest movement? Or did they only slow after 5 pounds of pressure? Did they begin to toss their head as the rein, moved? Did they physically slow? But they began to prance and jig. Did they begin to slow? But they tucked their chin towards their chest and darted sideways. Horse number two. Did they notice the rider take the slack out of the rein and begin to respond before the rider applied any pressure? Let me pause. Someone's going to email me and ask me what slack is. So slack is when there is no contact, no direct contact between the bit and the rider's hand. The rein is loose or slack, and then when you take the slack out, that means you go from loose rein to contact.

Speaker1:
So let me say it again. Horse number two. Did they notice the rider take the slack out of the rein and begin to respond before the rider applied any pressure? Did they feel the slack come out of the rein? But they also felt the rider's legs were still applied. So they gathered themselves and collected or shortened the stride. Did they feel the slack come out of the rein? And then they shifted their weight over their haunches, because they knew that either collection or stopping was coming. Did they feel the slack come out of the rein and begin to gather their head and neck? Because collection is when the horse coils their whole body and it's reflected naturally in their whole spine. Can you see how even when we stay with a technique like pulling on the reins, that falls into the category of pressure and release, the results are still best when the horse's mind is involved. When I was inventing horse number one, in my mind, I was just thinking about all the ways that horses express their confusion, uncertainty, or lack of understanding. It's a mistake to think that prancing and jigging or head tossing just goes away. I've seen horses ridden for years by riders who'd never chose to address these behaviors, so the behaviors persisted the whole time. It didn't just get better. These riders just accepted this behavior as a normal part of their interaction. And it makes sense that these things would persist if they're coming from confusion, uncertainty, or lack of understanding, and no one helps them fill in the gaps.

Speaker1:
Now I want to share an example where it seems much more likely that the horse understands what's being asked, but the horse either disagrees or is expressing some sort of displeasure. Some of you may remember me talking about Amber back when I first bought her as a long yearling. Now she's almost three. Back then, when she arrived, I focused on teaching her basic groundwork, which for me involves leading, lunging, and tying. She had what I might call an unrefined idea of leading and tying. When I brought her home so she would lead, but she would resist. She didn't know how to lunge, and although she'd been tied, she would rear Repeatedly, pour incessantly and would back up to the end of the rope, not running backwards or rushing, she would slowly back up and stretch her own neck and lean on the rope. And then she expressed one other thing that's even more unusual. She would walk forward and then look straight down at the ground and push down through the halter, essentially lifting her front legs off the ground. But by pushing down through the halter, not by rearing. So pawing and rearing are common complaints that people will give about their horses when they're tied, walking back to test the rope. It's less common, especially because she wasn't panicking. She wasn't running backwards and freaking out. She was walking backwards and testing and feeling it.

Speaker1:
That's a little less common, especially when it doesn't have the panic, but the pushing down really hard that is actually in the category of rare. This is good information though. This is how Ember was telling me about her knowledge level and her thinking process. The one moment that I want to highlight in this podcast began happening, after I'd been consistent with her for a little while. Consistency means she was able to see or recognize what was coming. So I would go out and I would catch her. I would bring her inside, I would lunge her around me, then I would tie her in the stall. After a certain amount of time, maybe five, ten minutes, I'd take her back out. I'd lunge her around me. I'd lead her back in, tie her in the stall. After another 5 or 10 minutes, I'd take her back out, lunge her around me, bring her back in, tie her in the stall. So again, these sessions, each one of these repetitions was only maybe 5 or 10 minutes long. Five tied five lunging or five lunging. Ten tied. The point is, I wanted her to see my pattern of behavior. That way she could decide how to respond. I would, for example, untie her the moment she stood still for a second, and I would continue with these cycles until she settled into the routine. So at the beginning, I might do this over and over and over again. But as she got more in tune with what was going on, she would settle into the routine quicker and quicker.

Speaker1:
She also began showing signs that she was seeing or recognizing these moments. For example, if I was lunging her and she looked in towards me instead of looking out of the circle and away when she would look in, I would predictably respond by taking a step back. Over time, she started testing this more and more frequently by looking at me more and more often. That's how I know that she's testing this or seeing this. Then also, when she was tied, she began to notice that I responded when she stood still. Then this happened. One day as we were headed to the stall, she stopped about seven feet from the stall door. She'd never done this before. She just stopped and as I was leading her, it went from 0 pounds because she was with me to. She stopped and I walked to the end of the rope and I pulled. And let's just say that I had 5 pounds of pressure on the rope. And there we stood. Can you see how, in this example, it seems much more like a horse that clearly sees what's about to happen? If I put myself in her mind, I imagine her thinking, Stacy's going to lead me into this stall. Then she's going to tie me up. I don't want to be tied up, so I will not go into the stall. Hold that thought for just a moment, and let's go back to the Rein, example.

Speaker1:
When I'm interacting with a horse, I always want to give them the benefit of doubt. It's very important to me that the first place my mind goes is to a lack of understanding, especially in a situation like riding, because that entire system is much more complicated or nuanced. So listen again to my examples from horse number two or the advanced horse responding to the rein, cue. Listen, they notice the rider take the slack out of the rein, and they begin to respond before the rider applies any pressure. They feel the slack come out of the rein, but they also feel the rider's legs were still applied. So they gather themselves and collect or shorten the stride. They feel the slack come out of the rein,, and they shift their weight over the haunches because they know that either collection or stopping is coming. They feel the slack come out of the rein, and they begin to gather up their head and neck, because coiling their body is reflected throughout the whole spine. Can you hear how the horse who is mentally engaged has it showing up in their body? I switched to the stall example with Ember to illustrate a horse who's expressing an opinion because leading her into the stall doesn't have a lot of nuance. You can't say it was the way I was sitting, or the combination of my rein and my legs. It's more clear that she's expressing an opinion or a thought, although I still like to call it asking a question.

Speaker1:
I can even still say she's expressing confusion, uncertainty, or lack of understanding. And if I do that, I am much more likely to still teach her using good techniques. Personally, I can say that Ember is disagreeing with me or showing her displeasure because when that happens, my reaction to her stopping. I laugh because I'm viewing it from her standpoint. I can see why she's viewing it like this. I can see why she's making this choice and it also seems child like. So if I assume she doesn't understand, I'm more likely to slow down and teach if I assume she disagrees with me. But I can also see that it is a immature or childlike response. I again am going to respond with teaching. However, if someone assumes she's resisting, they're much more likely to shift towards making corrections. And this mindset difference in the human will often shape the horse's future responses. So where I see this becoming a problem is that when the horse stops like Ember did, and the rider labels it as disagreeing, and then they decide to use harsh techniques, or the rider or handler themselves becomes braced or confrontational, which the horse will notice and remember. So when I laugh because I picture Ember like a tiny human with their arms crossed and a big pouty face, my emotions and my body stay open to her interpretation of the situation. She sees it as, uh, yeah, I think I'll just.

Speaker1:
No, not even go in there Or I should say, she saw it that way back when she was a long yearling, without much training and with little understanding. That was her opinion. Now she's amazing, quiet as can be. The rearing, the pawing, the resisting, the backing up, the testing, the pushing down. All of it's gone because she's learned a lot and she's not in kindergarten anymore. This is another reason why, if you're a long time podcast listener, you'll have heard me say things like, they're in kindergarten, they're in elementary school, they're in high school, they're in college. It helps people remember that there's an educational and a maturity aspect to training a horse. Now, let's stick with Amber and the stall and discuss how riders or handlers are part of the environment or the experience. So just like horses learn whoa through repetition, they also learn to read the rider's unconscious patterns like your hesitation, your fear, your frustration, your anger, or your joy. They feel that, and you or whoever is handling the horse is basically part of the environment too. Just like a tarp on the ground or another horse running around in the field, you are another piece of the environment. So let's go back to Ember, stopping before walking into the stall. But let's this time say that whoever's leading her decides that she's being disobedient. They think she should know this by now. She's just being a brat and I'm going to show her whether other option is.

Speaker1:
So they start jerking on the rope and because she wasn't leading forward and a doorway is a tight space, they probably aren't going to get her to go forward. So they're probably going to go backwards. Or maybe she'll go spinning off sideways and after the person is satisfied with jerking on her. Let's say they lead her back up there again. Now try hard to drop the judgment on the jerking and just look at Amber before she was approaching and her focus was on what? When I was leading her, she was focused on the process she saw ahead of her being tied for ten minutes. She was focused on the halter and the rope. She stopped and she felt the pressure and she was thinking she was deciding. Let's say she was weighing her options, which meant she felt the pressure on the rope. She knew one option was to come forward, but she also knew that option involved being tied up. So she was reflecting on all of this. Now switch gears. She walks up there, she stops. She's reflecting on all of this. But now suddenly a person is moving towards her. How else is there going to be slack in the rope to jerk on it? You can't jerk on a rope that's got 5 pounds. You got to let go to jerk. So suddenly this person has released. The pressure is moving towards her, and without her moving, the rope went slack and then she felt jerking.

Speaker1:
Now she's startled. She's moving away from this person who is radiating some kind of an emotion, I would guess. Frustration or anger. She is now alert and she might even lead into the stall after that. But don't be mistaken, that's not the end of the story. It's just the beginning. In the same way that a horse ponders what whoa means when you first say whoa, they don't know what it means. You say, whoa, you back them up. You do that a hundred times. When you say whoa, they start to go, you know, the last 99 times they stopped me and backed me up. Let me give this a try. So in the same way that a horse ponders what whoa means and then tests it and draws conclusions. Amber would ponder this string of events where the person lost it and started jerking on her, and one of the things that she would be sure to become highly attuned to would be the human's negative emotions. Because right before the person switches gears and decides to jerk, the emotions they're radiating are going to switch. And then technically, they released while she was standing there, not moving, but even bigger than all of that. What I see as a massive problem is that this horse was thinking, pondering, and now when she gets to that same spot and she's going to have to make a choice, these are the three that tend to be on the table.

Speaker1:
One ponder and try to figure this out. That's what she was doing to begin to ponder even earlier. Avoid this spot altogether. So basically, the original problem spot, which she didn't want to be tied. She moved it to seven feet out. Then somebody jerks on her in my imaginary story. Well, now, instead of it being seven feet out, she's even more likely to move it to 10 or 12ft out. Or the third option is she doesn't ponder it. So she showed that she wanted to be a thinker, but she learned there's no time for that. Just react. And so maybe her reaction is to go backwards or left or right. Or maybe her reaction is to launch forward and almost jump on top of the person. And maybe that person even thinks, good, she got the lesson. But I would say, yes, she did. And the lesson she got was don't think jump to conclusions. For me personally, I want my horses to be thinkers. But in the situation where someone starts jerking them around, now the horse becomes a reactor. Now I'll say this. There are many horses, many temperaments, many responses. This is just an illustration of one of the ways this can go down when you look at it from the horse's point of view. For a horse like Ember, that person would become the scary thing, like the unpredictable plastic bag that they need to keep an eye on. A spooky bag makes a horse move too, but not in a thoughtful kind of a way.

Speaker1:
If you've ever personally been learning something and you needed a minute or two to think, but someone rushed you for a faster answer, you'll recognize how that shuts down your ability to think around that person. So reacting might get you a quick response now, but for some horses, this will backfire because for some horses, over time, this is going to create a horse who has learned that the human reacts before the horse has had time to process. But just as frequently as this is a problem, its counterpart is also a problem. Let's go back to Amber stopping before walking into the stall. But this time, let's say whoever is leading her decides that she's afraid. Lots of people do this with horse trailers. They decide that the horse stops because they must be afraid. Let's stick with the stall though. Let's say that they're coming up to the stall. Amber stops and the person decides that Amber is emotionally uncomfortable or afraid, and the person decides that what's needed is comfort or consoling, so they release the pressure and walk back to her and pet her to let her know they're not a threat, and that they only want good things and that the stall is not a problem. And then they try to lead her forward again. Or maybe they decide she needs to walk around a bit more outside before going into the stall. Either way, what Ember can see is also that she stopped.

Speaker1:
They stopped the pressure and released, came back and scratched or petted her. For a lot of horses this is like ding ding ding. Good job. That's what was wanted. Ember, who was 80% sure that halter pressure meant forward, but she was still looking for other spots where maybe this isn't true. Thinks okay, got it. This is mostly true. So now being logical, she's thinking halter pressure mostly means go forward, but not always. Which means that she doesn't test it everywhere because she didn't say this absolutely means never go forward. She said it's just inconsistent. So she starts testing it in different places. So sometimes if she's thinking about dinner and someone goes to lead her in, she appears to lead well and sometimes she stops to test it during lunging when somebody asks her to reverse directions because again, she stops to test it, and then again the person releases out of fear of being unfair and holding the pressure. And again Amber thinks, okay, I was right. There are more options to this pressure. Let me continue to explore. But in this example, sometimes she reverses directions just fine because she's distracted by other horses, or she's particularly fresh and she wants to run. So there appears to be no consistency in these questions that Amber in this make believe world is asking because it comes and goes. But there is consistency. She's consistently inconsistent in her responses to the halter pressure, which is actually perfect because in this make believe example, her handler is inconsistent about the application.

Speaker1:
I freaking love this stuff. I could spend all day watching horses and seeing their minds at work. There's another huge component that's in this quadrant, and it's the idea that horses can learn to control their emotions. Or I could say it this way they can be trained to be emotionally elastic or flexible. I'm going to make the entire next episode all about that topic, but I'll leave you with this. When I look at the horse's mind quadrant, the two questions that fit the best here are. Is my horse reacting from an emotion like fear, or does my horse simply not understand? It is my belief that both of these are issues in the horse's mind. A horse like Amber, who stops when being led into the stall, is expressing her thoughts and emotions, and it's expressing her understanding or lack of understanding to the halter. When I view her as not fully understanding the halter pressure, and I see that she's expressing her thoughts and testing the system, I can express both empathy and still hold her accountable. I can systematically answer her questions and take challenging moments like this and turn them into teaching situations when I consistently do this. The horse has the opportunity to be fully themselves. Amber stops and thinks and she gets to see a fully integrated version of me. I'm consistent despite her choices. I don't react to her reactions. This is what makes me the consistent piece.

Speaker1:
And while it might seem like a really small moment here, this is how the bigger moments get built. One small moment at a time. This is why I love studying the horse's minds. Because it's not just about what they do, but it's about why they're doing it. And the better you get at seeing that, the better you can get at helping them navigate this world with us. So here's my challenge to you this week. The next time you're with your horse, notice when it seems like they're thinking their way through something, or when they seem to be jumping to a conclusion or guessing. What patterns are you seeing? What does their behavior tell you about what they're thinking? In the next episode, I'm going to take this one step further because we also have the ability to shape their emotional responses. Horses can learn to become emotionally flexible, just like they can learn physical skills. And that's what I'll be talking about next time. If you want to understand which quadrant you and your horse are in right now, I've actually created a quiz that can help you decide that it's over on my website, and if you take it, you'll get a specific result one of these four quadrants. Plus, you'll get a lot of this information in writing, so you can see how these ideas apply to your horse. Until next 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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