Horse Training : “A Whisper of Understanding”
It is a cold windy day. The woman shivers in her coat as she walks quietly through the forest. Her eyes are intent on the hoof prints she follows and her ears are tuned in to every sound. The wind rustles the leaves as she climbs the next rise. She breathes lightly, her eyes searching the clearing at the top of the hill. Then their eyes meet. The woman freezes and forces herself to stand calmly. The little mustang mare looks back at the human. Her neck held high, nostrils flaring, she takes in the human’s scent. She thinks of fleeing, but this human “feels” different. Her ears prick forward as the human’s lips move and she picks up the sound coming from them. She feels a momentary flicker of fear but then the human turns and walks away. How strange that this human is fleeing her. Instead of bringing ropes that hurt and trap her, she moves away. Curious now more than frightened, the little mare slowly follows her path. The woman keeps talking softly while moving slowly away from the mare. Back down the hill and through the woods, the little mare follows, drawn to this human that seems different. They walk for several miles until they reach a pasture. The woman enters the pasture slowly. The little mare stops. Could this be a trap? No, the woman is still leaving her, moving away. The little mustang enters the pasture. Roberta Dziemela, author of “Then Came Holly” a true story of her wild mustang mare, is a horse trainer that would never call herself a “Horse Whisperer.” It is clear to many who know her however, that she possesses an incredible gift to communicate with the horse. Natural horsemanship is considered a fairly new phenomenon, but its history dates back as early as the 1800s. It is in fact a method or horse training. Today some call it ‘horse whispering.” The 1800s were a time of “breaking” and “forcing” a horse, bending it to the humans will. At least that was the case until a man named John Rarey was summoned in 1858 to the Windsor Castle in England to calm a horse belonging to Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria had heard of the young man’s gift and watched in amazement as he gently laid her nervous horse on the ground and lay on top of him, resting his head against the horse. Now famous, the people wanted to put his gift to the test and they went out to find the most ferocious horse in all the land. These qualities were found in a racehorse stallion named “Cruiser.” He was fast but he was mean. Known as a man killer, Cruiser’s owners planned on blinding him just so they could breed him. With many people looking on in fear, Rarey let himself into Cruiser’s stable and shut the door. Three hours later he emerged leading a docile Cruiser who was no longer wearing the 8-pound muzzle that had been crafted especially for him. Rarey went on to travel all over the world helping troubled horses but most of all helping people understand them. Since the time of Rarey, many great horseman and horsewoman have followed in his path showing truly amazing bonds with the horses they ride. What is it that enables such communication with an animal that does not know our spoken word? In one word I would say, understanding. The horse is by nature a “flight” animal. Instinctively it flees from danger rather than fight it. Its first inclination is one of self-preservation and it is this self-preservation that causes the horse to spook, to buck, to bolt and to rear. Instead of fighting with this self-preservation of the horse, Rarey and other great horseman, learned to respect it. They learned to work with the horse, communicating with it through body language, telling the horse through gentle firmness and understanding, that everything will be ok. Today’s great horse trainers also follow this same principle. Through understanding of how the horse thinks they ask the horse to complete a task, keep asking while the horse figures it out and then reward the horse by giving it a break from the asking. In the mind of a flight animal even the approach of a human can be a predatory and frightening pressure. Horse Whisperers or trainers eliminate this by asking and then when the horse gives, they give back by taking any pressure off the animal. This release of pressure can come in the form of a submissive body posture from the trainer, a dismount and unsaddling of a horse that just completed a sliding stop or simply the trainer walking away. Since horses can’t learn to speak English, people had to learn to speak horse and horses do most of their talking with their bodies. The harsh breaking that occurred years ago is no longer necessary. A person can form a much stronger bond of communication with the horse if it learns to see things through the horse’s eyes. Only by seeing things through the horse’s eyes can we ever hope to get them to see even slightly through ours. Many trainers will tell you that though they may teach the horse to respond to them, the really learning occurs not in the horse but inside himself or herself. For when a person trains a horse it will show them what’s deep inside them. If a cruel person trains a horse, the horse will know how to be mean. If a nervous person trains a horse the horse will very likely be jumpy. The greatest reward though is when a person can see their flaws through a horse and become a better trainer and person. It is truly a miraculous partnership. The human trains the horse to be useful and work with people, but the horse teaches the human about life.
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