Horses can only speak one language – energy. While horses can be trained to understand the meaning of various cues, a nondomesticated horse will communicate solely through its heartbeat. Since their heartbeat measures an electromagnetic field radius of up to 50 feet, we must understand their language if we’d like to learn about ourselves when with them. (Does a domesticated horse communicate differently? The callout is that they have to be trained to understand anything other than energy, as energy is their first and natural language)
Hearing
Horses have 16 muscles in each ear and rotate 180 degrees each. But that’s the boring part!! A horse doesn’t understand verbal language, so you could never accuse one of selective listening.
Their hearing is their most relied-upon sense for survival. If a wild horse hears a crackling sound in the distance, they sense something hiding in the bushes, looking at them as dinner. Crackling sounds = predator + danger ahead. They will then increase their energy and heartbeat to signal their herd that they must flee. This is quite similar to a human’s internal response to anxiety.
In an equine therapy session at Garret’s Promise, it’s important to know it won’t be what you say or even how you say it, but instead how it feels to say it. The tone of our voice indicates mood, which creates feeling, impacts breath rhythm, and ultimately dictates the force of our energy. And horses only understand energy, nothing else!
Smell
A horse’s sense of smell allows them to recognize each other. When a horse comes across a scene for the first time, they illicit a ‘flehmen’s stance’ where they expand and lift their upper lift to store the scent. As they store the scent physically, their brain also creates an associative memory.
To aid in connection during your equine therapy session at Garret’s Promise, you should know that your body produces different odors dependent on your mood. For example, when you’re relaxed, you release cortisol; when you’re anxious, you release adrenaline, both of which have their own odors. Quite literally speaking, a horse can smell your mood and energy. Perhaps you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of how your grief feels AND smells.
Sight
Each eye, positioned on the sides of a horse’s head, has monocular and binocular vision and functions independently from the other. Their left eye could look ahead, while their right eye could look to the right. The direction in which their ear points is actually the accurate indicator of where they’re looking.
While our round pen is 70 feet in diameter, you should still know a horse’s blind spot when in an equine therapy session with us. The three blind spots of a horse: behind the tail, under the nose, and under the belly. You likely won’t find yourself in those positions anyway, but we’ll be sure to remind you during your equine therapy session. You may even feel a similarity between how they survive with their blind spots and how we survive in grief. Even though a horse may not look directly at you because they are constantly on alert, know that when they do make contact, it is a very special moment.
Taste
Horses have an impeccable sense of taste. Their preferences are sweet and salty, and they don’t like sour! A horse’s sense of taste is actually their way of knowing what is good or bad for them in the wild. Sweet and salty signals the promotion of internal harmony, while salty will send a signal of potential danger.
You’ll work directly with a horse throughout your equine therapy session at Garret’s Promise, and while you may have the urge to give carrots and mints during your session, we ask that you leave the treats to us as many of our therapy horses are on special diets.
Touch
A horse is naturally sensitive to touch. When connecting with humans, some horses have learned that people are good, and others have experienced the total opposite. All of our horses at Spirit’s Promise associate people with food and love, so there’s no danger here! Please be gentle and mindful of their bodies; they will only return the favor with compassion and strength! No matter what brings you to Garret’s Promise, our staff, including our team of extraordinary empathic horses will help you in miraculous, unexpected ways…. That is our promise.
