?
In horsemanship, eye contact is one of the most critical points of the
communication that happens between human and horse, because it is
the most natural way the horse uses in relating with others.
horsemanship accordingly, knowing that anything you do
in their sight is going to affect their opinion of you, and your
horsemanship.
More than worrying about whether to make eye to eye
contact, we should behave in a coherent way, and move
in a natural manner, because the horse knows that what
we look at is the object of our attention. They can tell from
our posture if we are pretending to not look at them, by
how our body goes in a certain direction and our eyes do
not follow. This is always something that alarms them and
for which they would keep a distance with us.
Given that we are behind the horse’s head while we sit
in the saddle, unless we are giving him a treat from the
saddle after he has done something great, we do not want
to attract the attention of the horse to the point that he
would like to look at us.
In the saddle I like to concentrate our horsemanship in
being one with the horse, and an important part is to be
aware of our environment at the same time as the horse.
How we effectively do so is by looking at the same slice
of space, between his ears, which are also an indicator of
what the horse is paying attention to. Being one with the
horse is not a spiritual thing, like many want to assume, it is
a physical state of being, where our bodies biomechanically,
physiologically and temporally go together.
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58 www.EliteEquestrian.us
Continued...
EYE T O EYE
The role of eye contact in horse handling has many different
positions, and is an issue discussed between human
beings and other species, domesticated and not. It is a
general idea that in case of predatory species making
“eye to eye” contact can be perceived as a threat, while
with prey animals it is perceived as a warning.
Despite the latest trends aimed at finding a true communication
channel between human and horse, unfortunately,
the prevalently used mode is still to condition horses to
respond to a cue, implies the use of tack, containment
structures, and sometimes of coercion. Furthermore, these
facts go unnoticed. What happens between men and
horses is a monologue, because the horsemanship techniques
are always implemented in a human dimension
that appears to be foreign for the horse, and often even a
source of fear.
True relationship between human and horse should be a
spontaneous fact, having nothing to do with how well the
horse is trained. Relating happens when the communication
works both ways without having to first train the horse
to respond to our actions.
Human Horse Sensing is a method to interact purposefully
and spontaneously with any horse, focusing on how it
uses his senses, and in a situation where the horse is free to
move. It can also be a very useful tool in training because it
gives everyone of our actions a meaning that the horse understands
immediately. Working with Human Horse Sensing
gives the chance to experience that there is much more
to the meaning of eye contact, and of whether or not we
should make it with horses.
For obvious reasons, it is necessary to distinguish between
interaction done on the ground, and in the saddle. From
the ground we can make eye contact with another
individual. While in the saddle, obviously we cannot do so
easily, since we are sitting behind the horse’s head, out of
his field of vision. Regardless of our position, the communication
through the horse’s eyes matters, when we relate
through behavior.
I have never seen a horse being shy of looking at another
one. Horses use sight as their primary detection device;
they always try to see what is happening around them.
If you can see their eyes, you need to assume they are
watching you, and therefore you should to manage your