Listening to the Horse with Warwick Schiller

system and hand the reins over to us to keep a lookout for danger.
This in turn provides them the ability to get that REM sleep and come back down to the restanddigest state of homeostasis as opposed to always being in fight or flight.
A couple of years ago I was able to work with some Barb stallions in Morocco. Almost all of them were distracted unsettled pushy and even a bit nippy. When I worked with each of them I turned them loose in a round pen. I didnt want to be close to them due to the fact they displayed some bad habits that could easily place me in danger. All of them ran to the fence whinnying at the other studs back in the barn. All I worked on was attracting their attention with a flag. I didnt drive them nor ask them to move their feet I just got their attention.
As soon as their attention moved to me or the flag even something as small as an ear flick I would take the energy out of the flag and put it down. All of them soon became very relaxed and settled. Once they were settled enough to no longer pose a major threat I allowed them to come up and engage with me. The distracted pushy and nippy horses became connected respectful and calm.
I even joked with the Moroccan trainers that I had invented an invisible halter and lead rope. I tied the fake knot picked up the fake lead rope and those Barb stallions followed me around like a wellbehaved horse on a lead. I think the humor was lost in translation we had a professional translator with us but they were all impressed by the rapid change they had seen without any forceful methods. Now

I try to plant the seed in peoples minds that theres a different way to do all this horse training stuff. Its respectful peaceful and powerful. It produces horses that are relaxed willing to do the work and connected to us.
However listening to the horse is harder than it sounds. We have to swallow some uncomfortable truths. Maybe your horse isnt ready to hit the trail without another horse. Maybe you need to work on separation anxiety on the ground before attempting to move on in your training process. Refocusing your priorities to put your horses mental state first takes
some adjusting and your horse will be unsure of it initially as well. When you start having the breakthrough moments that Ive now been having for the past four years youll soon realize that theres no going back. Youll end up listening deeper and deeper. Youll become deeply connected to your equine partner and who knows maybe itll end up improving your human relationships as well.