Speaking the language of Horses
Horse Speak is both a science and an art. There is a science to the mechanics of moving your body in specific ways to communicate. The art of Horse Speak develops when a person becomes fluent enough to respond to nuance.
For horses to believe our body language, we must match our insides with our outsides. Trying to hide an emotion--- like fear, for example---will never work, because horses are uniquely clued in to the inner state of a predator species (that would be us). You cannot lie to a horse. It is, therefore, more useful to simply acknowledge and label the emotion you might be experiencing than to try to hide it or ignore it. Your horse does not care if you are feeling a particular emotion---he only cares that you are honest. Many of my students have found that by arriving at the barn and immediately telling the horses all about their daily stress, they feel better---and achieving congruency inside and out instantly calls the horses to them.
The “leader” of the herd is the horse with the calmest nerves, the most attuned senses and the sharpest mind. Horses do not thrive on stress; in fact, it wears them down. For a herd to be healthy,
