UNDERSTANDING AND INTERPRETING HORSE COMMUNICATION PART 2
UNDERSTANDING AND INTERPRETING HORSE COMMUNICATION PART 2
"Horses cannot speak to you and TELL you how they feel but they will always SHOW you"
In my previous article on this topic I provided some rules to observe common horse body language, gestures and behaviour so that a meaningful assessment could be made. In this second part I will now delve into specific behaviours. This is definitely not a complete list as behaviour can be diverse and unique but I hope that it will provide a guide and lead to discussion.
Before I start describing behaviour I would like to refer you back to Rules 3-5 of the previous article and remind readers that horses communicate with their WHOLE body, therefore you MUST examine the whole horse and never get fixated by a single behaviour or gesture. Also, you must consider and examine the context of what is happening to the horse or what is occurring in the horse’s environment to best assess meaning and emotional state because many behaviours have multiple meanings in different context. The example I used in the last article was a horse pawing the ground and how it can be a normal behaviour before rolling but can also be a behaviour the horse performs when it frustrated waiting for its feed to arrive. Therefore, some behaviours can be perfectly normal in one context but signs of stress in another!
While there are many ways to categorise behaviour to be able to interpret meaning I like to refer to the representation of the traffic lights and to categorise behaviours as either green light (relaxed behaviours), orange light (stress behaviours) and finally red light (extreme agitation and stress behaviour including the triggering of the flight or fight reflex) behaviours. I like the traffic light analogy because it helps represent a very important understanding – if stress is experienced by the horse as “increasing” or unrelenting you can observe horses going from relaxed behaviours and then display increasing levels of stress behaviours which can then escalate upwards to the flight or fight reflex being triggered….so they can go from GREEN, ORANGE TO RED…just like a traffic light. Also, when horses have been triggered into high stress behaviours horses will typically cycle back through categories of behaviours as stress dissipates….so they can go from RED, ORANGE and back to GREEN behaviours. Most people are aware of this last sequence and many would have heard people discuss a horse “licking and chewing” meaning that the horse is relaxing down from a period of experiencing high stress. BUT what is not known so widely is that “licking and chewing” can also be seen when stress is increasing! Therefore, many people who target this behaviour as a sign of relaxation can be mistaken and be witnessing a sign of increasing tension in the horse rather than decreasing tension! Needless to say it is why following the rules I have described in Part 1 of examining the whole horse and context are so important for an accurate assessment.
So now I will examine some common horse behaviours that are associated with green, orange and red light behaviours. To do this it is best to break them up into body parts and elements to observe.
First the GREEN light behaviours, these are the behaviours commonly observed in a horse that has very low tension and is fundamentally relaxed and calm.
GREEN LIGHT BEHAVIOURS
1. HORSE’S FOCUS
a) Easy to shift horse’s focus and attention and movement smooth and flowing
2. HORSE’S POSTURE
a) Relaxed, loose muscles
b) Weight balanced equally over 4 feet or resting one foot…no shifting of weight
3. HORSE’S MOVEMENT
a) Horse moves with rhythm and looseness
b) Transitions up and down gaits are smooth and relaxed, not effortful or rushed and anxious
4. HEAD AND NECK
a) Face relaxed
b) Neck muscles relaxed
c) Poll height is just above wither height or lower
d) Eating and grazing with slow rhythmic chewing
5. MOUTH AND NOSE
a) Mouth relaxed and slightly opened
b) No wrinkles on lips
c) Chin not tense or tight
6. EYES
a) Eyes show soft focus, not hard focus into somewhere in the distance
b) Top lid of the eye is rounded and not triangulated
c) No wrinkles above eye
d) Blinking not rapid or slow
7. EARS
a) Ears relaxed at the base
b) Forward to slightly to the side
8. TAIL
a) Tail held low
b) Hanging straight down
c) Tail still when at a stand still
Now, onto ORANGE light behaviours. These actually sit on a spectrum from the horse feeling mild tension up to a point where the feeling of stress they are experiencing triggers them into what is known as displacement behaviours. Displacement behaviours are behaviours the horse engages in when the horse is experiencing a motivational conflict – for instance, they would really like to not be where they are or doing what they are doing but they are restrained either physically or mentally via training. So the tension and conflict they feel about the situation they “displace” into performing another activity where they will really focus their attention on performing as a way of coping with what they are enduring. Humans display displacement behaviours as well. These can be behaviours that range from scratching your head in an uncomfortable situation, doodling with a pen during a meeting, checking your phone, biting finger nails or yawning. Some researchers consider that these behaviours represent an escalation stress experienced by a horse and that it is triggered into attempting to cope with the build-up in tension they are experiencing by re-directing that tension. The more intense or repetitively the horse performs the behaviour, the greater the feelings of conflict and tension that reside inside the horse. Interestingly, researchers have noticed that displacement behaviours are rarely observed when horses are interacting with each other and appear to be behaviours connected with interaction with people. I have highlighted which of these orange light behaviours are displacement behaviours.
ORANGE LIGHT BEHAVIOURS
1. HORSE’S FOCUS
a. All sense on alert
b. Focus can become hard and difficult to shift or when shifted is jerky
2. HORSE’S POSTURE
a. Tense, braced musculature
b. Weight shifting, can be shifted on hind end or front end
c. Can brace rear leg back
d. Difficult to stand still or can freeze and become difficult to move or appear “lazy”
e. Can body shake
3. HORSE’S MOVEMENT
a. Horse moves with tightness and choppy stride, hooves hit the ground hard, canter can dis-unit or cross fire due to muscle tension
b. Transitions up and down gaits become difficult, appear like they are an effort or rushed and anxious
c. Horse can become “rushy” or “lazy”, hesitant or quick in its movement
d. Pacing fence lines or barriers
e. Horse can paw the ground (Displacement Behaviour)
f. Rolling with quick haste and that can be repetitive (Displacement Behaviour)
4. HEAD AND NECK
a. Neck muscle become tense
b. Neck can arch
c. Poll height comes above wither height or higher
d. Head nodding
e. Neck Shaking, tossing or snaking
f. Face shows uneven tension
g. Turning head away
h. Very low neck focused on the ground
i. Very low neck that can involve sniffing the ground and nuzzling dirt, can also hold low neck near the ground in movement (Displacement Behaviour)
j. Eating grass by snatching with an increase bite rate (Displacement Behaviour)
k. Scratching head or neck on foreleg (Displacement Behaviour)
l. Scratching and itching other body parts (Displacement Behaviour)
m. Rubbing head on objects or trainer (Displacement Behaviour)
5. MOUTH AND NOSE
a. Mouth closed and lips tight
b. Wrinkles on lips
c. Chin tense and tight
d. Nostrils tense and flared
e. Licking and chewing
f. Teeth grinding
g. Jaw stretching and twisting
h. Nipping
i. Tongue out lolling with jaw twisting or chewing
j. Flehmen response
k. Yawning (Displacement Behaviour)
l. Biting at chest or shoulders (Displacement Behaviour)
m. Chewing or biting at objects like lead ropes or reins (Displacement Behaviour)
n. Licking objects or your hand (Displacement Behaviour)
6. EYES
a. Eyes open wide
b. Top lid of the eye is triangulated
c. Wrinkles above eye
d. Blinking quick or very slow
e. Eyes half closed or closing
f. Pupils can be dilated
g. Looking away and averting eyes from trainer
7. EARS
a. Stiff erect and forward
b. Rapidly moving back and forth
c. Tips of ears wide apart
d. Ears back but not pinned
8. TAIL
a. Tail elevated
b. Hanging with a twist or off to one side
c. Tail swishing with swishing connected to cues or when touched or approached
9. OTHER
a. Increased defaecation or urination
Finally, RED light behaviours…these behaviours are connected with high levels of distress, where the horse is highly agitated and wishing to increase distance between themselves and what is making them stressed either by the horse creating that distance by moving itself away or by chasing or forcing the stressor to move away from them. It can also be when an overwhelming feeling in the horse triggers its behaviour to be driven to return to where it seeks comfort and feels comfortable for example, separation anxiety or barn or buddy sour. These behaviours can also represent when the horse has been flipped into flight or fight which is a reflex reaction and represents the extremes of behaviour.
RED LIGHT BEHAVIOURS
1. HORSE’S FOCUS
a) Takes action into flight or fight
b) Highly agitated, unresponsive, fixated on moving away, chasing away or returning to comfort (other horses, barn, pasture etc.)
2. HORSE’S MOVEMENT
a) Barges forward or backwards
b) Animated movement
c) Lunges
d) Strikes out
e) Rearing
f) Kicking out or threatening to kick
g) Stomping
h) Chasing away
i) Bucking
j) Spinning away
3. HEAD AND NECK
a) Head held high in what is known as startle reflex posture
b) Head can also be held low, tucked in great tension in a threatening manner
c) Unable to eat or drink
4. MOUTH AND NOSE
a) Mouth clenched shut
b) Teeth exposes threatening to bite
c) Biting, snapping
d) Nostrils very wide or very narrow
5. EYES
a) Eyes showing the white (sclera) of the eye
b) Eyes rolling
c) Eyes can be wide open but can also be closed or half closed if the horse has shut down or dissociated which means the horse has entered a trauma state
6. EARS
a) Ears held stiffly back or pinned
7. TAIL
a) Tail raised high about the base of the tail or tail clenched
b) Tail swishing violently
HOW TO PRACTICALLY APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE
When I teach people to work with horses I encourage them to ask themselves the following questions continuously throughout the time they are working with the horse:
1. Out of 10 how stressed is this horse?
WHY?: To assess how the horse is FEELING
2. What signs is the horse giving that has made you decide it has this stress rating?
WHY?: To ensure that you are taking into context the WHOLE horse and not what I call signal hunting which is where people focus on one behaviour that can lead to inaccurate interpretations.
3. Where are this horses thoughts?
WHY?: When uncomfortable horses will always focus their thoughts and align their bodies with where they want to be and where they believe they will feel more comfortable. It might be aligned towards another horse, the direction of home or with their back to the rain. If you are doing good training the horse should begin to feel more comfortable with working with you and their thoughts will therefore begin to align with you.
4. What percentage of this horses thoughts are on you?
WHY?: This allows you to monitor the change and alignment of the horse’s thoughts towards you.
I select these questions because they encourage people to LISTEN to their horse, RESPOND to the horse and importantly MONITOR the training session. For instance, if the horse’s stress is increasing you need to adjust what you are doing and adjust your approach, slow down, back off, break down what you are asking for into even smaller requests or abort what you are doing and go back a step and deal with any fears or negative associations that might be overwhelming the horse. Next, you should be seeing improvement in the horse’s thoughts focusing on you. If they don’t it means again you might have to adjust what you are doing. It might mean moving closer to their place of comfort or it might even mean you are not being motivating enough to impact their thoughts. It might mean dealing with negative behaviour because as horseman Mark Rashid describes in his book “Nature of Horsemanship”, without establishing order emotional balance and harmony will not be possible.
I consider my job in the training interaction is not only to listen and monitor the communication with the horse but also to present MY communication to the horse, to set the rules of the game and to demonstrate to the horse how I communicate and to do so in a way that allows them to identify I am predictable and therefore reliable. This helps build a connection and trust between me and the horse. This is my main objective because it is this that will help give that horse the sense of control over what is happening to it and change the way it feels about working with me or how it feels about what is happening to it. As a successful training session progresses you should see the frequency of stress and discomfort behaviours decrease and instead become replaced by “green” light behaviours and signals that indicate the horse is feeling more comfortable and relaxed.
Finally, I am yet to work with a person that without a little direction and education on what to observe has not been able to learn how to interpret a horse’s behaviour quite accurately. This is because we have a tremendous natural ability to interpret behaviour and emotions in people and with awareness this ability can be transferred to horses. Before humans had language, we too primarily communicated with body language just like the horse. As described by Irene Claremont de Castillejo “Emotion always has its roots in the unconscious and manifests itself in the body” and we are very good at deciphering it and all we needs is for our eyes to observe the horse through the lens of its behaviour and this is what I have hoped to help with by writing this article.
References:
Justine Harrison. Equine Body Language Part 1 & 2. Horse Magazine, January 2016
Robyn Foster. Reading Horse Body Language: Green, Yellow and Red Zone Behaviors. Adaptive Animals 2016.
Rachaël Draaisma. Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses. CRC Press, September 2017
