Horses can't talk, but as herd animals that live in socially vibrant groups, they sure do communicate.
A vital aspect of horsemanship is learning to recognize horse body language cues and knowing how to respond to them if necessary.
We can basically divide these signals into three general categories: comfort and acceptance, fear and tension, and anger or disrespect.
Let's look at each in turn.
Comfort and Acceptance When you're engaged in a training exercise with your horse, such as working her in the round pen, its important to recognize signs that she is telling you she gets it.
Perhaps the most important sign you can look for is a horse bowing or lowering her head.
When a horse drops her head, she is showing acceptance, trust, and relaxation.
In fact you can use this horse body language cue to promote calmness in your horse.
Spend some time each training session asking her to drop her head.
Do this by putting one hand on top of the head, and one at the end of your lead rope at the point attached to the halter.
Pull down with that hand and apply pressure with your hand on top of the head.
At first, your horse may resist, but when she finds the release and drops her head (even an inch the first time) then release the pressure.
At first it will be a bit of work, but you will find that with time she'll lower her head on cue.
A lowered head also indicates your horse is accepting you as the herd leader.
Another sign of relaxation and trust is licking or chewing.
Horses are herbivores.
If they are under threat, they can't eat.
If they are secure, they can eat and chew.
Licking and chewing occurs in a calm state of mind.
When you're working a horse in the round pen or trying to catch a horse in the pasture and she licks or chews, she's telling you she trusts you.
A cocked leg is another sign of relaxation.
The hind end of a horse is where the impulsion is, and if the weight is shifted to one leg, the horse can't take off forward.
If he's got a cocked leg, this usually means he's hanging out relaxed.
Fear and Tension Learning signs of fear and tension can help improve rider safety.
There are several horse body language cues you can look for.
For starters, where is your horse holding her head? We've already indicated that a lowered head is a sign of relaxation-so a raised head is a sign of tension.
A horse with his head up high and ears forward has detected something he senses as danger.
Other cues go along with this red alert state of mind-bulging, hard eyes, and a tense neck.
If you've trained him to lower his head, you can encourage him to relax when he's tense like this by asking him to lower his head (and get his mind off whatever is causing him anxiety).
Next check the tail of your horse.
When the tail is pinned down against the body and hard to lift up, that tells you that the horse is feeling tense or worried.
Anger or Disrespect Finally, lets look at anger and disrespect.
The first body language sign to look for in this case is a horse with her ears pinned back.
This is a threat display, you'll often see horses pinning their ears back at feeding time.
It might be all smoke and mirrors or it could mean the horse is about to bite or kick.
Which brings us to another sign of disrespect.
How does a horse kick? With his hind legs.
A horse that turns his butt on you may or may not actually kick, but its a sign of disrespect.