To Know What Your Horse is Thinking, Learn Their Language

Most folks don’t speak horse, but can learn if they listen carefully. Some folks may believe that a horse should speak human—they won’t. Most try to some degree, but they are horses, not humans. Speaking to and listening to your horse is like learning French, German or any foreign language, just without the words.

Horses are very honest creatures, and any one of them worth their salt will know you before you ever touch them. Being so honest, they will tell you what you are doing wrong or that they don’t understand you and if you don’t listen to them things can go from bad to worse.

There’s a saying in the horse world: Green on green makes black and blue. It often makes sense, but not always. What it means is that anyone new to horses should never purchase a young horse. Just because a horse is young does not mean she is going to misbehave. If a person is honest and kind and patient and makes an attempt to learn to speak horse, and does a fair job of it, nearly any horse will become a friend.

If that person is not all of those things, is dishonest, unkind or impatient, it won’t matter how old or experienced the horse is—things will not fare well for either horse or owner. Notice I said or, not and—there is a distinct difference. Even experienced horse owners will pay the price if they are not all of those things. Ignorance is not bliss in a life that includes a horse.

A perfect example of what can happen if one does not “speak” horse:

I was watching Americas Funniest Home Videos the other night with my daughter and there was a child with her horse. The child standing before the horse in the video looked to be about 10 years old and the horse looked in his teens—not young, in other words. The child was chastising the horse over something, swinging her finger with angry body language (there was no audio) and the horse was very obviously telling her he didn’t like it and she’d better stop.

I told my daughter, “Uh-oh, she better watch it.”

My lovely child is not a horse person and asked why I said that. I pointed out the horse’s clenched jaw and the position of his ears and the way his eyes pierced forward. My daughter didn’t see it.

Alas, the girl in the video did not stop, in fact her assault became a little more violent and she swatted the horse on the side then on his chest. What do you suppose the horse did? Well, he grabbed her by the hair with his mouth and threw her to the ground in two seconds flat, then ran away.

The child was shocked. I wasn’t.

I was very thankful the horse was only correcting the child as he would a disobedient young horse in his herd, however it could have been much worse. The audience laughed. I did not.

Think about it. Horses are huge compared to most people. Horses have a flight or fight instinct just like us but it is much more developed because horses are prey animals, humans are predators. A horse that can run away from what it perceives as dangerous will most of the time. A horse that is unable to run will fight.

Horses have four hooves that are as hard as a sledgehammer, and if they slam one into you it feels just like the mythical Paul Bunyan was swinging that hammer. Horses also have a mouth full of teeth, and yes they bite. What makes a horse bite so painful is that their teeth are flat, so they squash rather than puncture, kind of like putting your flesh into a vice grip that you have no control over.

Horses have four legs and can stand on one or two at one time, either the front legs (called bucking) or the two rear legs (called rearing), and send the other two right at you. They can send you flying with a flick of their head, which can feel like a heavyweight boxer delivering a knockout punch.

I had such an experience as a 12-year-old still learning how to speak horse. I was longing a horse named Star, a black quarter horse who was feeling lazy. I was tapping her on the hind end and did not watch her reaction, or my position to her, and wham–her hooves slammed into my chest, knocked the wind out of me and threw me backward about 20 feet.

I ended up being fine after the bruises healed, but boy, talk about the school of hard knocks. This did teach me a lesson, and that has not happened since. I was obviously not able to speak horse at that time. I've continued my education on it.

There are ways you can learn to speak horse. Watch horses interact with each other. Watch videos of horses together if there are no horses around you. Get some lessons and talk to reputable horse people or get some horse-training videos. 

Horses are constantly communicating with each other. Their body language speaks volumes. From an ear twisting sideways, to rigid posture with ears forward, to quickly nodding their head just once.

They even have the “evil glare” or “death stare” or “stink eye” if you prefer, like your mom would give you when she wanted you to stop whatever annoying thing you were doing: eyes squinted, head down, mouth pursed, ears back hard (at least on your horse, maybe not on your mother). Jane is a pro at the “stink eye” and the others respect her and stay out of her way.

Think about it—if you went to a foreign country and did not speak the language and someone tried to force you to do something you perceived as dangerous like jump off a 300-foot bridge, or tied you up to something and you just didn’t understand what they wanted, how might you react? Then maybe they hit you a few times in order to seem more forceful, what do you think your response would be? Would you do it? Would you run away? Would you knock them out of their boots?

This is where I believe the saying “green on green makes black and blue” came from. Maybe it was meant to be “mean and green make black and blue” or “fear and force make black and blue.” I’ll have to think on that for a while.

Horses are amazing and enrich my life more than I really can express—and they are dangerous, too. I always keep that in mind and never convince myself that I know it all. I am learning and listening all the time and appreciate everything my horses have to teach me.

If you learn to understand the meanings of a horse’s movements and body language, you’re way ahead of the game and your horse will be ever grateful.