ABSTRACT
Supposing you take one horse, wild or not, and ‘armed’ with only a length of rope, to act as an extension of your arm, you take that horse into a round pen. You then, standing in the centre ‘chase’ the horse away using your body language; you square up to the horse, wave your arms and make firm eye contact. Horses will flee this predatory stance as a matter of instinct. You continue to persevere with this attitude, and make them change direction. They will gradually, as you do nothing ‘worse’ start to listen to you. You will know this because they will lower their beads and snort at the ground; the ear nearest to you will turn in towards you. You start to change your body language, you relax your stance, turn sideways onto the horse and lessen your eye contact. The horse will pick up on this. When they actually start chewing and licking (honestly!) you know that they are starting to listen and think. You are asking the horse to join up with you; you are telling him that there is nothing to be frightened of. He is thinking that he’d like to be safe. These signals and responses are, in my experience, remarkably predictable. You then turn your back completely on the horse. They will step if they haven’t already. You back up to them, look down, lower your eyes. When you reach the horse you may reach out behind you and touch them on the shoulder or neck or forehead, keeping your back to the horse and eyes down. Then, after a few moments, walk in any direction you wish, slowly, and the horse will be following you! This does ‘work’ and with intermittent games or reminders it lasts over time.
