I’m often asking people to ask themselves, where is your horse, mentally? Is he here with you or is he mentally back at the barn or with his buddies in the pasture? There are a number of things we can look at which give us clues as to what the horse is thinking about. Let’s say you are longing. The obvious things are eyes and ears of course. We can also look at the head and neck. A kink in the neck and or tension are also give aways that the horse isn’t really OK about being on this circle with you. Another ‘tell’ is the feet. You have to look closely but where are the toes pointing? If they are pointing to the outside of the circle then this tells us that while the horse may not have acted on his thoughts it is probably only because he’s tied to you via the longe line. If the line were gone, most likely he would be too.
I was inspired to write this post because of something interesting I read today. It was an article written by a Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. titled, “The Feet Don’t Lie“. In it she talks about how to tell if someone is interested in/receptive to you and/or what you are saying. How to tell? Look at the feet! If they are pointing at you then you know you are welcome. If not, not to much.
An interesting and fun fact. Although given my experience with horses, not too surprising!