Those are the three core words that guide my life with horses. This is a story about the invisible feel and bond between my beloved Cisco and I.
Fancy is in round pen training with Cisco and I. Cisco and I show Fancy how to respond to my “language”. My desire is for the horse to come to me from several feet up to 20 feet from me. My signal is to bend my head to the side and focus my eyes at the flank area. My focus should communicate my desire that the horse turn towards me. Then I walk backward with shoulders positioned back communicating my desire that the horse come to me. As the horse walks to me, I turn around and walk away from the horse. The hope is that my horse will understand my language, feel the leadership and want to be with me. We end up walking side by side. Yes, it is magic.
Cisco and i demonstrate this to Fancy. Her attention was not riveted on us. Then I started communications with Fancy. We broke down the process to its small components. I could tell Fancy was not intrigued with my attempts at communication. I mistakenly thought the process was working. I told Fancy to move around the roundpen fence. Then I made a breathtaking Olympic non verbal body language communication with Fancy and was completely ignored. Fancy did not turn toward me nor made any effort to join me. I tried again with a gold medal performance when I felt a presence next to me. It was Cisco! He had come from behind me.
Even though I was not directly communicating with Cisco, he recognized the language. He came to me and stood next to me.
Oh Lordy, I love this horse. We have Love, Language and Leadership..