Part One : Sounds

By Marie McRae

Imagine a small group of horses in a field in summer. They graze and lounge. Occasionally they run and buck and toss their heads. But they are, for the most part, silent. Now think about the times they do vocalize. A mare calls softly to her foal. The one left behind calls "hey where did you guys go?" as she runs to catch up. Perhaps one of the underlings gets too close to the patch of good feed the dominant horse has found and there is a squeal and threat of ears laid back to send him on his way again. All are short and sweet - very specific communications, quickly understood.

Enter a human. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. We chatter on about the weather, the footing, about how slow or fast our horse is walking, about what we are going to do when we get to the barn and get prepared to go out, about ... well you get the point. We create a fog of words. And just as vision is obscured in fog, the words that might be meaningful cues to the horse are lost, obscured by the flow.

One way to better communicate with your horse is to be quiet. Listen to the body language that goes on in your interactions. For example, quietly find those good rub spots while you are grooming and together just enjoy the pleasure of the moment - without words. When you are training, use your body action more than your mouth, it will mean more to your horse, and the silence will allow her (and you) to concentrate on the things you really want her to learn.

Which is not to say that words, sounds really, are not useful in our communication with a horse. But, as in horse-to-horse communication, they need to be short, sweet, and to the point. They also become more effective if they are uttered in a tone that mimics what you want to achieve. There are a few (almost universal) facts about sounds : short, quick, upbeat sounds tend to get feet moving, drawn out sounds, or low, bellowed sounds tend to stop movement. High pitched sounds tend to come from small animals (think domestic cat or small dog) while low sounds tend to come from large animals (think lion, or Bernese). If you are a prey animal like a horse, you take larger animals more seriously. Which is why, when mounted on a misbehaving horse, your throat constricted with tension, hollering a high pitched series of "whoa!whoa!whoa!", each word rising higher in tone than the one before, only worsens the situation. The horse, hearing the tension/fear in your voice, then believes there is something really to be afraid of and moves her feet faster to get out of the vicinity. If however, you use a drop-dead low tone to say "WHOA." just once, you are more likely to get the stop you wanted.

Not possible you say? You were born with a high squeaky voice and when you are in a stressful situation it gets higher? You may never sing bass, but you can practice getting your voice lower by using your diaphragm to push the sound out of your lungs. Try this: hold your breath tightly in your chest and say "hi". Notice what that sounds like. Let your breath out, now inhale and, using your abdominal muscles to push the air, say "hi" again. The second try should sound lower. Say "eeeeesssssyyy", allowing your voice to fall at the end of the word and you've got a calming cue. Say "hup!hup!" quickly and tightly and you have a move-on cue.

The words you intend to have meaning for your horse (whoa, trot, easy, to name a few) should be spoken singly and clearly, with emphasis placed to echo the behavior you would like. It makes your horse's task of following through correctly with the requested behavior so much easier if those words are not buried in the middle of a spoken paragraph.

One side benefit of silence is finding your ability to notice other things, such as your horse's body attitude, the warm breeze on your face, the songs of the birds, or, to get this into the correct season, the feeling of snow flakes landing on your face.