THE BODY READ – understanding BIO-MECHANISM, BODY LANGUAGE and EXPRESSION Yes he is WINKING at us in this picture because he is so happy and proud of himself – or is there more to this. Are his emotions and intellectual expressions meant to communicate? The answer should read something like -ok, either he PROTECTS his eye from being hit by the blue string or water drops or it is caused by the shake of the head during the grab or he has already a small water drop in the eye or…..pragmatic after all.
It is a very essential fundamentally important portion of training to learn THE READ. Whether you have direct body contact (horseback riding – BODY FEEL) or indirect through ongoing OBSERVATION – you must be intuitively sharp all the time. You have to learn the body of your partner and have to know the features required for success. Become aware of even the smallest resistance and tension areas, the ear play, the eye expression, back hind and front end activities, neck displays – EYE EXPRESSIONS.. tail positions and activity, licking and or tongue displays, grinding teeth, neck and head positions. proper rhythm and gait regularity, elasticity, stride length and ground cover, elevation and push, even body use, hesitance, shying, fear versus joy versus play versus defense or aggression or resistance.
An animal is not to be HUMANIZED in its behavior, intellectual processing or its ability to express itself on a ratio level that we just take for granted. It has its own way of talking. It is trainable because it can follow PATTERNS that are given by nature to be able to exist and survive. We than convert those patterns into activities at OUR LEISURE. We make decisions at times they normally would not even make – like placing them into distances towards jumps that will always force a half stride departure, an unwanted add on or a hop or even a stumble. Those than lead to reactions and performances that are for sure NOT FULL POTENTIAL and at times being so UNCOORDINATED even a DANGER of injuries.By just knowing the correct stride length, choosing the correct distance to place and take off, feeling/seeing the correct rhythm we can create security, COMFORT and NATURAL outcomes and make our decision making A GOOD and SAFE ONE.
There truly is way to much to say about this topic – way to much to do it any justice in a small write up. But as we all know a tiny intellectual seed planted can turn into a very strong tree.
