Many horse owners are familiar with talking to the horse, but also know the feeling that the horse speaks back. Actually, sometimes you can get the feeling that the horse is trying to tell you something or send a message via nonverbal dialogue. But is it even possible?
From the moment you fall in love with your horse and you know that it is going to be yours, an unexplainable connection forms between you. Strong emotions grow inside you and you know that your horse is much more than just a horse. From that day, it is your most precious soulmate and even protector. Or a small child within a large body whose strength it does not even know yet.
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The horse is a prey animal, an expert in communication and receiving signals from its surroundings. Maybe that is why we often feel a form of active communication between our horse and ourselves, even though no words are used.
In training situations you might experience that the horse almost speaks to you as if it says: ”I want to play with you, but it is really difficult to bend to the left."
Trainers use sentences like: “The horse almost speaks to me. It says that it really wants to balance itself, but is unable to because it is not able to connect its hind limbs with the rest of its body.”
What is really going on when we as humans interpret that the horse can speak?
Animal telepath Ditte Young has educated more than 400 students in Denmark and sees a growing interest among horse owners within the area of nonverbal communication.
”Telepathy is actually quite simple. It requires that you use your senses, shut out the world for a moment and trust that your horse can transfer its energy, feelings and even physical symptoms to you. Riders are realizing that horses are affected by the riders’ energy. That there is a transfer from the riders’ seat to the horse,” Ditte says and continues:
“It is also a well known phenomena that the horse reacts to the state of mind that the rider is in, like stress. Why in the world is it so difficult to believe that it can be the other way around? From the horse to us. A large number of riders have told me that they were unsure if it was their shoulder that hurt, or the horse’s, but they were applied the pain. Some riders have also described that they had stomach pain a couple of days prior to their horse being diagnosed with a stomach ulcer by the vet. How do you explain that?” Ditte Young asks.
There has been done quite a lot of research on the topic of nonverbal communication that arises between a human and a horse. For instance, it has been proven that a horse can recognize a face and therefore a person. A horse can also recognize and react on being shown a smiling face and an angry face, even if it is a still picture.
Scientists behind some of the studies are especially impressed by horses being able to read emotions across species. It is not new fact that horses are sophisticated creatures, but it is relatively new knowledge that they are able to know the difference between positive and negative human expressions.
Something else that horses are good at perceiving, are our intentions. They often know what is about to happen before we even know ourselves. This is something that has been the focus in several studies, and researchers have found that horses connect behavioral patterns based on experience as well as the rider’s physical and mental state.
In other words, a lot of nonverbal communication is going on when we are together with our horses. Horses are experts at this, and there are great advantages in it for us, if we actively and consciously communicate with our horses.
During a regular conversation and therefore communication between your horse and yourself, several things happen according to Ditte Young. Even without you thinking about it. When you say something out loud, you automatically visualize it.
Your tone of voice towards the horse shows which type of energy you send your messages from. Your horse can sense if you are angry, nervous or cautious and can react on that. Your horse is being prepared mentally on what happens around it because you tell it about it. Many riders walks with their horse while saying: ”In a minute I will prepare you for going hacking.” This makes the horse feel safe because it knows what is about to happen.
When you tell your horse what is about to happen, you automatically prepare your horse for it. Your voice reveals how you feel about it. And the image that you unconsciously create of a forest, your horse recognizes. This calms it because it now knows where you are going.
According to Ditte Young, mental preparation is the most important work a rider can do. She says that there are more and more sensitive horses out there who assume all sorts of things, because they do not know what is going on around them.
They might throw themselves to one side, run off with you or have an inappropriate or potentially dangerous reaction, if they get scared.
”Some riders still assume that it is the horse that has a behavioral issue,” says Ditte Young. But according to her, the horse is in a world based on its mind and psyche, its temper and therefore personality and not least, which experiences it has had in the past, which it instinctively reacts on in its nerve system.
Depending on how skilled you are as a rider at understanding these mechanisms, your horse will react in one way if it feels safe, and in another way if it feels unsafe. If it feels unsafe, some might interpret it as if it has a behavioral issue.
“Most behavioral issues can be solved, but it takes time,” says Ditte Young.
Thus, communicating with your horse might be what helps your horse – and yourself – through situations that otherwise could be difficult or even dangerous. According to Ditte Young, it can certainly improve the relationship and trust that you and your horse share.
Ditte Young is a writer, speaker, therapist and clairvoyant. She has worked with animal communication since 2000. Ditte is a trained claivoyant, psychotherapist, Cranio Sacral Therapy practitioner and Healer.
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