Sometimes we hear but don’t listen, and look but don’t see. I watched someone try and pick up a horse’s hind leg today and was not listening to what the horse was trying to say.

This horse is an elderly gentleman with a scarred fat hind leg from previous bouts of cellulitis. This person was trying to pick his hoof out but every time he lifted the leg, Salaam would struggle and put it down again. This happened twice.

Salaam was trying to tell the person that his leg was being lifted too high and he was not comfortable with it at all. The person was not listening and was getting a little frustrated, as it seemed like Salaam was just fighting with him. When I demonstrated by lifting his leg but only to the height of where Salaam was happy, Salaam was happy to stand and let his hoof be picked out.

The point I am trying to get at is, do we listen to our horses enough? Do we see and listen? Or do we just look and hear? And try to speak over the top of what the horse is trying to tell us?

When you do the girth up and the horse gets nippy, he is telling you that he is not comfortable with that. When you are grooming him and he reacts, he is telling you that maybe the brush is too hard or he is ticklish or he is sore. When you ride him and he does not want to go forward, maybe he is telling you that he is sore somewhere.

When we are rushing for time or busy or distracted, it is often easy to miss these signs… but our job as good horse people is to really take the time and observe, watch and listen carefully to what our horse is trying to tell us.