I found a clip that shows a lot of calming signals :)
The trainer in the clip makes several mistakes because she is not aware of the signals, and there are some other issues with her body language that I would like to address, too. And before anyone thinks I am trying to talk badly about another trainer again, I would like to point out that the trainer is myself :)
And that makes it so much easier, now I don't have to worry about anyones feelings :)
Some of you have written that you feel bad about having missed these when working with your horses, and I want to say that I think we ALL have. All we can do is the best we can based on the information that are available to us, and it is far more important to think about what to do next than what has already been done. I feel bad about my mistakes that are so clear in this clip, too, but the most important part is to use it for good now, that is to learn from it and make it a better deal for the next horse.
This DVD came out in 2002 and this was before I was aware of these signals. I have thought about not selling this film any more, but I think that even though I find several things I would do differently today, I still think that it has some value. I guess I just need to make a new one before I discard this one…
OK back to the point :)
I think the easiest way to analyse a clip and talk about what is going on is to use time codes, so I'll go through it and write about the things I see. There's always a lot of detail when communicating with horses, so I guess it is going to be a long winded analysis, but the whole point is to notice all the little things that can be hard to catch live.
If there are things you notice that I don't mention, or things I describe that you think are wrong, please let me know! I really want peoples inputs on my commentary to the videos here, if I get questions and comments I will be able to look at things with fresh eyes, and that is always a good and useful thing.
0:19: When I approach the horse he is clearly insecure (notice stiffness in his body and his ears position. His ears are pointing out to both sides in is a typical insecure expression.) He moves over and is not ready for me to get on his left side. Since I just keep going he moves over more in order to keep me on his right side, and then he gives me a very clear calming signal (0:22). Since I keep going he lifts his head and turns the neck as far as he can in order to still keep me on his right.
Since I am not looking right at him, he is not too upset, but at
0:29 I turn my head and not only look at him, I am looking at his left hindquarters, and judging from my expression I am also clucking. This causes him to move his hindquarters away from me. I turn my front away from him again (release), but I am still moving towards his right side.
0:36 He is still giving me a calming signal, but I don't understand that, so I continue using pressure on him. He is giving me an even stronger calming signal; now he is walking away from me with his head on the ground (calming signal) (and as you can hear me say I think it means I don't have his attention, but I obviously do, I am just not reading him very well.)
0:39: I am continuing to put pressure on him and not giving him a response to his signals, and I am thinking that he is ignoring me so I get up right behind him and even flap my arm a bit. This is not only "not responding to his signal" it's worse, I am saying that I really AM after him. He runs away from me and as soon as he can he resumes his "I don't want to have a conflict with you" calming signal.
What's great in this footage is that it is so easy to see that he is NOT trying to eat or is really focusing on the ground, at the same time it is easy to see how this can be confused with what the horse does when he really IS finding something interesting to smell… in fact; if they can find something to make it more convincing they often do. Notice that he stops and smells the poop at 0:45, but moves on right away because I am still putting pressure on him.
0:53: Apparently I thought that he was just ignoring me, so I increase the pressure (not the right thing to do) by lifting my hand towards his hindquarters. At the same time I am walking in a direction that crossed his path, in effect blocking him from going forwards. I am behind him and looking on him straight on the side. On top of all that I am very close to him and since the arena is round the pressure from this increases, it makes the way I am cutting off his path even stronger.
The problem isn't the pressure with the hand, it's the sum of all the different pressures I am using that makes it too much, and most of all; the pressure is pushing in all directions. There is no opening there. So he stops and looks very tense (again; check his ears).
His step backwards comes from my increased pressure in front of him since I continue to step in that direction. Horses will mostly react to where you are heading, they see the direction of your path. If you look closely you can see that I curve a bit right before he stops, my direction changed from going after him (parallel to his path) to curving in front of him. The curved path that the round-pen caused him to make would "collide" with mine a couple of meters in front of him, and that pressure is stronger than the fact that I am physically behind him.
0:55 His last backup step is taken away from the fence, but it's not from him trying to come in to me, he is trying to get away from the pressure I am creating with my direction (still in front of him, so he can't go that way - the fence is blocking the direction he would like to go in, and I am right behind him… ). If I had turned around so that my front would be directed a bit behind him, he would probably have moved in to the center, but I am still blocking him. When I retreat to, like I say in the clip, invite him in, I am facing the wrong direction. With doing this I am giving conflicting signals; I am walking away from him (and that's the right thing), but I am still facing him (wrong). When my body isn't facing the direction I am moving in it confuses things; where am I heading?
I am trying to get him to move, but at the same time I have him kind of trapped (and it's easy to see that feeling in the way he is standing: stiff body and insecure ears)
1:06 I up the pressure and when he looks at me (not sure what to do) I give him a release and pull far enough away for him to be able to move in from the fence. That he is not really coming to me the way I probably thought he was is shown by his calming signal right after I have moved away from him.
1:13: Right after he stops and do his calming signal I stop to for a moment, and then I take a step towards him. Notice how he immediately starts turning his head away from me, again increasing the calming signal.
1:15: I am now so close that he lifts his head and starts to prepare to leave. Notice how his shoulder is leaning away from me? that's the easiest place to see when the horse is shifting his point of gravity and will be a pretty certain indication of where he is thinking about moving at that point.
1:16: I do something right! yeah :) I am now moving away from him in an arc away from his front, and this time I am not facing him at the same time. My body isn't completely going in the same direction as I am moving in, but neither my direction or my body is pointing right at him at that point. And that's all it too for him to follow me. I think that he really wanted to be with me, but that I was making him insecure and blocking him from doing so. For three whole steps I move in the right direction and that was enough. Then I turn towards him with my body again, and even if I am still moving away from him that is enough to stop him from coming closer.
1:20 a change of scene. Since this is already pretty long I think I will stop here.
I will go through the rest of the clip if you want me to, but first it would be nice with some feedback on what I have written so far. I am not sure if what I am writing here are things that you find useful and interesting, or if most of this is like old news to you.
