How to become a horse whisperer
The horse whisperer, intuitive equine communication, understanding signals of the nervous system and why a one size fits all approach doesn't work. But this can be very confusing for someone who doesn’t spend every waking moment with a horse - heck, for some people that DO spend every waking moment with horses, they still miss it.
It is part of the reason we have spent decades developing and fine tuning the Holistic Horse Handling Methodology for our students.
One of the first exercises in the Holistic Horse Handling Methodology is reading signs of stress and relaxation in the horse's body. For some this is intuitive knowledge. Sensitive, empathic people that are often told they are too soft. For others, they have to actively learn how to see and pay attention to these subtle signs of the nervous system. They often say a big dangerous behaviour seemingly came out of nowhere. They blow right through a horse's threshold of stress unknowingly which can result in big dangerous behaviours.
Part of reading the nervous system is being able to read how a horse is feeling before they react and that is our opportunity to offer support. This paves the way to our second module inside the Holistic Horse Handling Methodology: Compassionate Leadership.
"I see you are stressed, here is how I can help you."
And now we have a foundation of communication based on a sense of security. It is all non verbal.
The trouble is that while you can see signs of tension-holding and signs of relaxation in one horse, it doesn't mean it looks the same in another horse. This is where understanding the language of the nervous system is so helpful. What tense and stressed looks like and relaxation looks like can look different in different horses however, the nerve pathways are similar.
We can know that signs like
the head coming higher than wither,
the tail locked down,
the jaw and lips shut tight,
Are subtle signs of stress. We can see the rigidity in the body, and know the horse is stressed close to the threshold of coping, without the horse having to exert big behaviours.
We can know that signs like:
the whiskers starting to twitch,
the head coming lower than the wither,
the ears relaxing and wiggling out
the jaw softening,
the tail lift and swish gently
are all signs of the horse starting to relax and feel safe.
That, in essence, is the starting ground for becoming a horse whisperer, and we share and support our students all the way through the Holistic Horse Handling Methodology so they can start their own journey of intuitive equine communication that allows them to not only read their horses better, but read all horses.