Hi Everyone – Todd Johnson here from The JBIT Ranch, LLC to share with you a natural horsemanship concept I like to call – The Whisper in the Wind.
Have you ever been out with your horse and all sorts of commotions are going on in the area, but he spooks at a bird or a squirrel or the neighbor’s kid coming around the corner of the barn? Why didn’t the people and the traffic and the rest of the commotion bother him, but the tiny out of nowhere stimulus did? Because horses are conditioned to hear the Whisper in the Wind.
Maybe you’ve watched the Discovery Channel and seen the zebras grazing out on the Serengeti and the pride of lions on the hilltop just a few hundred yards away frolicking and playing or maybe sleeping and rolling and wondered why the zebras weren’t running, but then one lion rolls into a crouch and looks at them with an intentional stare, and – 40 pairs of eyes and ears snap to instant attention. They just tuned in to the Whisper in the Wind.
Have you ever been stuck in a levels task and the bigger you get the less it works? The harder you try, the more distracted your horse? You’ve tried to make effective use of your phases, but all you accomplished was to beat the popper off of your Savvy String? This could be with your bombproof buddy or your ‘in your pockets’ pony. It’s quite often with a horse that’s already going pretty well, but doesn’t seem to be progessing.
What’s happened?
For those of us parents of youngsters, we know the answer. When my first born was 1yo, as long as he was making plenty of noise and I knew what the noises were, I could relax – and maybe even type a blog post :)) – but if it got too quiet, or the wrong sound, even if ever so faint, occurred – I was tuned in! Just like my horse, I just tuned in to the Whisper in The Wind.
Horses, like us, are conditioned to tune out the big, loud, overt noises and pressures that generally mean nothing at all, but are highly tuned to the slightest sights or sounds that need our full attention NOW! Many of us can sleep with the TV on and the kids playing but are on instant alert if someone whispers our name.
Next time you play with your horse, try this: Get Small —– Whisper!! Be big and loud and overt in your friendly games (and be creative with them) but when it’s time that you really need your horse to tune in, get physically much more quiet, but mentally far more focused, deliberate and intense – Become The Whisper in The Wind. You can always get bigger if you need to to elicit a response, but you can never get smaller than you start, and, if you always start big, your horse will tune you out.
So don’t be the Wind. Be the Whisper.