"How many languages do you speak?"
I first asked the question 'How do horses know what we want and mean them to do?' when I was 14 and taking riding lessons. It amazed me then, and still today, how a horse understood that when I slightly moved one of my legs back a bit the horse knew it meant to canter. It blew my mind away.
The awe I felt then (and still remember feeling 35 years on) hasn't died with age, years or experience. Thank goodness!
This weekend a friend and I spent time lunging our respective horses and coaching ourselves through it. I was explaining how Grace understands two different "languages on the lunge". First is the more 'traditional BHS language of whip, triangle position and tone of voice'. The second language is the Parelli language of 'chi, no voice, levels of asking and lots of hind quarter yields', (as examples).
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| A 'parcelmouth' speaks snake! |
Having decided to use the BHS approach with Grace on Sunday, the significance of having a choice of which language to use when working with her, and what I was therefore saying, was clear: Grace is multi-lingual!
To me it is pretty impressive that horses can retain and recognise two different languages, when used separately or in combination, and not appear to get confused. As a contrast I used to speak fluent French and Spanish in my teens and twenties. Nowadays, I get my tongue tied and end up saying things that I don't even think are legitimate words, and can't remember if they're French or Spanish! (To think my mum had her heart set on my being a tri-lingual interpreter in Brussels for a living)!
What's even more great about the language of lunging is that you are only limited by your imagination.
I shared with my friend how my horses and I have been developing our fluency levels in both languages:
Step 1 : Was to find the voice commands and tone of voice I would use consistently, for signalling faster, slower etc
Step 2: Was to coordinate voice and whip so that the horses will respond off either
Step 3: Was to rely less on voice and whip and to substitute both with my body language and how to use both it and the space between me and the horse with differing effects
Step 4: Was to introduce breath based commands - taking a few lessons from Jenny Rolfe and others who connect with their horse through breath control - inhalations and exhalations
This is the Step where Grace and I have currently reached.
Step 5: Will be to move from breath commands to intention. Meaning I want to start changing my horses gait by thinking it - nothing more! No voice, body, whip, back up! To just send out the intention of walk, trot, halt etc.
Step 6: Will be..... I don't know yet! When we get to step 5 maybe step 6 will emerge..... that's what I mean by we are limited only by our imagination.
As most of us Harry Potter fans will know - being able to speak parseltongue makes you a parcelmouth which although normally entails lots of hissing like sounds, absent from my horses most of the time thank goodness, working with them does feel a kin to magic and wizardry!
I'm not sure if my carrot stick or lunge whip is quite as potent as Hermione's wand but I am convinced that horses are bright, quick to learn and fluent translators. All we have to do is communicate clearly, be it in one or two tongues and our horse will compute and conform.
It has me spell bound every time!
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