What is Your Horse Thinking? How to Read Horse Body Language

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[YourAngelAndDevil]

Horse: flinches
Me: flinches
Her: cool like a cucumber

[Obsidianoak]

When you are aware you can get a feel even at a distance.

My horse I observe how he appaches the gait, how he's acting with his herd mates when coming up - he often is at the gate before I can get there so very limited ability to observe general pasture behavior pre visit.

His head set level of reactivity to stimuli vs normal, how he leads in, ears head and eyes and shift in weight.

If he's head low to level with back half a sleep and shifts weight to cook the other foot I take it different than flared nose wide eye ear change and lean away.

Also as he is a senior boy with a few known sore spots I've gotten good at seeing if he's not comfy during a trim by his eye. He'll change eye appearance, then head position then weight then last pull away. All very small shifts that my fellow horsey people missed. Thankfully we have a great Farrier that will work with the horse's comfort and by voicing this to her she related by allowing him to hold his foot a bit lower and he went straight back to a dozy state. Barring our first few months together when we worked on Farrier manners and his comfort/ confidence having his feet trimmed this is a horse that will free stand for the Farrier for the last 15 or so years. Not something I want to jeopardize by expecting him to just deal with pain he can be spared.

This guy is also something of a 'comedian' he's one to engage and explore. Playful vs stressed eye are very different to me, and it has been very useful as well as fun to use his pension for shenanigans to work through a few things : afraid of that empty bottle? No biggie you stay here I'll go have some fun join if you like! He's got such a playful side this worked with almost everything

[fahadalameri]

Last year I bought an Arabian mare with her filly. They were score 1 (2 to be generous). I noticed an injury on her back, but didn’t worried me so much. Few weeks later as she started to be strong and healthy she showed a very aggressive behaviors. It took me months to build a trust between us.

Now she is 16 weeks pregnant. All trust that we had is gone. She is over over protected. I’m not sure what she went through before. Watching your channel and listening to you made me noticing the small signs she shows me. I working very hard to release her from that stress and show here the respect that she deserve.

I would like to thank you and thanks everyone who shared his/her story that helped me to improve my understanding and awareness.

[RaagaA]

This seems a really important point: if you can read the tiny sighs of equine body language and if you can "answer your horse" in a way that your horse will both understand and accept, an accident will become really much less probable.

[emerwatchorn]

Thank you Caly, he is a gentle giant. Hes very trusting. Bless him.v

[Thinklikeamillionaire_mdc]

Thankyou! Im working as a Volunteer at a rescue farm HerdHarmony in Tyabb and noticed the relaxed signs...i got a hug and forehead kisses 😊. With a different Horse she got a bit frustrurated when we tried to rug her and noticed the head going up ears down pinned backwards then decided to remove rug and let her go.

[indigoeye]

Thank you for this video. I struggle quite a bit with correctly identifying the horse's emotions and intentions and I have definitely had moments where I completely misjudged them. With cats or dogs etc. it's much easier, because you see their entire body. But with how big horses are, you usually only see a part of them and not the whole picture.

[gerrycoleman]

So many horse people don't have the slightest clue about how horses communicate. Thanks for making this knowledge available.

[jobond]

Very good video. I was brought up in the era when kids were just thrown on a pony and left to their own devices. Yes i learnt to ride. Now days there is so much research done on all equine matters from food foot care harness what happens physical when someone sit on a horse to cognitive studies. I wish i had this information when i was riding. I cannot say never there has to be a positive way to achieve communication with the horse.

[drelenashirleydvmcvama]

I love your style and been watching your channel often on for several years. I feel so blessed because I have a great horse relationship with Sarge, but every time we’re together there’s more subtle learning for me :-) can you really present outstandingly and in very digestible bites of information

[jimmyyounger]

I'm never sure if nearly all the horses Callie works with are huge, or if she's just that tiny. 😄

[aunt.minna]

Thank you! My niece is learning to ride and when I greet her horse, I wasn't sure if the horse was comfortable with my attention

[NathanLGrossman]

Awesomely informative and clear video!

[Lilian]

Is he TB+Shire\Clydesdale cross by any chance?😅 So big and beautiful😲

[muscles_not_included]

thank you for this information. how did you learn all of this?

[jerrianderson]

I have a anterior tilt and have trouble finding my seat bones without going into the chair position. I came off today because of it. our trot went I toa canter and I went over the should and did a very unimpressive roley poley. I only have a all purpose saddle, I've seen alot of videos that work with dressage that I don't have. does the saddle itself make a difference with the friend pulling me out of the saddle?

[duaneschultz]

I was wondering, what type of horse is that draft type that was used in the main part of the video it’s a paper? Please let me know. God bless you and your family. Merry Christmas. Duane

[gerrycoleman]

Knowing the horse's language (body language) is huge. Then one must become an effective communicator with the horse.

[the_nicest_guy]

jesus that's a MASSIVE horse
Love u videos <3

[gerrycoleman]

It is all about learning the horse's language (body language).