Words, body language, leg and rein aids, and weight shifts .
Would you say you’re always aware of what you’re saying to your horse?
I dropped in at a friend’s office as he was dictating into his computer. We’d chit-chatted and swapped a few stories, before he realized he’d forgotten to turn off the dictation feature.
It was awkwardly funny to hear him read back our conversation from his screen, word for word…
Random, rambling thoughts, recorded in black and white.
I think I’m more intentional about the signals I send to the horses I ride than the words I speak in casual human conversations!
In teaching about thoughtful conversation to our horses, I often ask clinic participants to describe, exactly, the aid they use to request a leg yield, left lead canter, lower the neck or to shorten the stride. Riding techniques may vary but if we can put it into words we’re likely communicating clearly to our horse.
Coaches would likely agree – because it’s our job to describe the aids clearly, it tends to make us better riders. As a writer, I have to describe and record riding concepts in black and white!
Would we speak any differently to one another (or about one another) if our words were recorded?
It might make for more gracious conversation in the barn aisle or the office hallway…
“Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but the unwise are swallowed up by their own lips.” Ecclesiastes. The Bible