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Over 25 Years Spent Studying Equine Sign Language Out of necessity to achieve my goals, air scent locating gave me the perfect opportunity to learn the horse language because when you are riding during air scent locating, the horse has to communicate with the rider as to when and where it has to go in order to achieve its goal. Through sign language and sometimes using verbal communication, the horse will let the rider know if the scent is close, far or has disappeared all together.
If you ask any group of horse people what it means when an equine shows a pawing action with its leg, their answers will be as follows; As a rule, 40% will say that the horse wants something. Another 40% will say that it means the horse is nervous. The last 20% of horse people will usually say it can mean two or three things. Now a behaviorist like myself will tell you that the horse's paw has a wide range of meanings and uses, different combinations and types of movement translate the pawing action into separate meanings; The Meaning of a Horse's Pawing Action 1. Please or beg are sometimes referred to as a point - The front leg is held up off the ground with the head in a medium to low position. This is usually seen when the horse is really begging for water or food. 2. Nervous/Upset - The pawing is a quicker more sporadic action. The horse head is usually in a medium position. Many horses will use this sign while tied short or in a trailer. 3. I want - The pawing is slower and more evenly spaced with the head in a medium to low position. Many times this sign is used when you are late with their feedings. 4. Check it out. - The paw is softer with head in a low position. This sign is usually seen when a horse wants to roll in unfamiliar ground, it is checking the ground condition. During scent locating, some horses will also communicate with their riders using this sign. 5. Tool/Weapon - The pawing type action is used as a tool to move, break or hurt. This sign can usually be seen when the horse is moving something in order to get your attention, moving feed around or breaking ice in order to get water.
As you can see, a paw is not just a paw with a couple of simple meanings as the majority of people thought. The paw sign provides a full spectrum of meaning, some completely different than others. This is what I do as a behavior specialist. I break down the meaning of different signs that the horses naturally give us.
Licking of Lips Licking and Tongue Signs - Many forms of equine sign language have been misunderstood or previously undiscovered. One perfect example of this is licking of lips, many people feel that that the "licking of the lips" sign falls into the meaning category of resignation, acceptance, or understanding of training that is being given. My research and tests on this type of sign shows different meanings in the majority of test results. The vast majority of tests that I have done on a variety of horses indicate that the licking, chewing, and tongue signs fall into the following catagories: Category #1- Feeding Time Many times you can see a licking sign when you are approaching your horse with feed. This sign is a great example of the physiologist. Pavlov and his classical conditioning. He had an experiment with bells, dogs and their food. Pavlov would ring a bell, the dogs would come and expect their food to be given to them and then the dogs would salivate. Soon the dogs would salivate immediately when the bell was rung. Category #2 - Not Understanding, Stress, and Confusion. This sign is well documented and self explained by the picture on the right. In this sign the primary sign would be the long length of tongue sticking out. Many times a secondary sign of a elevated neck position can also be seen. Category #3 - Excessive Training Pressure or Stress. Many times a horse will display this sign while excessive training pressure is being applied, when the stress and pressure is lessened, or taken away completely. In this case the primary sign is a smaller portion of the tongue being displayed along with some mouth opening movement. Many times a secondary sign will be a lower hanging neck position. The secondary sign in this case can change according to how tired the horse is and if the handler is artificially influencing the horse by training pressure or equipment like tight reins. Category #4-Submissiveness Submissive horses will give a mouthing signal to more dominate horses to say that they pose no threat and are willing to take a low position on the hierarchy scale. In this sign the mouth opening is more pronounced. Sometimes a noise from the teeth is heard and other times horses intentionally do not make teeth contact. This gesture is often referred to as clacking or mouthing. Why People Misunderstand Equine Sign Language People have a tendency to try and lump a wide range of equine sign language into a couple of simple meanings, when in reality they have many meanings. The following is a example; Have you ever seen a person use human sign language with their hands to describe eating? If we used the same thought process with human sign language as most people do with equine sign language all human sign language would describe eating. As we know when the hands are used for sign language humans can carry on a full conversation. Equine sign language is similar to human sign language with the difference being the equine has no hands so they use a combination of movements to get their messages across. An excellent example of how they use combinations of movements can be found above where I described " The Meaning of a Horse's Pawing Action" Innovative Training Tool I have taken the information that I had learned from observing horse behavior, developed it so it could be used as a innovative training tool. Learning to read the horse has served me well in improving my horsemanship skills. Now I know that you may have heard or read a thousand times that a certain trainer's methods are the best, right? My question to you is how do you know their methods really work if they have never proven themselves or their methods in the real horse world, which is competition. My innovative training methods have been proven in a wide variety of different training and competition areas.( For more information on how I proved my methods, see the Trainer Experience page) For Information On Equine Sign Language Clinic go to - Clinics & Training page |
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The following is an example of how I break down different horse
movements, which are sign language and translate them into meanings humans can
understand:
6.
Demand/Show of Dominance - In this sign the horse's head is held in a higher,
many times in an arched position. The paw type action in this case is a hard
stomp with the leg moved in stiffer position. Usually seen when horses meet for
the first time. Sometimes seen when horses are early in training and
are trying to determine their herd positions with the trainer.