Author Archives: Jutta Wiemers
How to Navigate the Blogs: Wie man durch die Archive steuert: Dear Blog Readers! Blogs will be published whenever I have time to write them. This is how to navigate the archives of articles previously published: In the top right hand corner …
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Equestrian Vaulting Handbook revisited – Chapter 3 – Blog 04 – How to train the vaulting horse
February 27, 2023Dear readers, I get many questions still about the Equestrian Vaulting Handbook, which as you can see, has been out of print for some time. I am flattered that folks still want to read it. This book was written in …
Training & Learning – Part 06 – The “chips” Training & Lernen – Teil 06 – die “Jetons” In the last Blog we finished on the note of pure fun with an enthusiastic and self-motivated pupil. Good! It is clear that a …
Training & Learning – Blog 05 – Rewarding like a Pro – Part 1 Training & Lernen – Blog 05 – Belohnen wie ein Profi – Teil 1 In the last Blog we discussed the role of punishment for training …
Posted in Training & Learning
Tagged Rewarding like a professional! Belohnen wie ein Profi!
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Training & Learning – Part 04 Training & Lernen – Teil 04 Reward & Punishment In the last Blog we started talking about the ABC of Learning and explained its “A” – the “Antecedent”. We found out that the horse’s …
Posted in Training & Learning
Tagged Belohnung und Strafe beim Lernen, Reward and Punishment in Learning
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Training & Learning – Part 03 – The ABC Training & Lernen – Teil 03 – Das ABC So what was it that the horse in the first picture of the last Blog says? The solution was in the series “Understanding your Horse” …
Training & Learning – Part 02 Training & Lernen – Teil 02 In the last Blog we touched upon the differences between the human and the horse’s brain. Naturally this has huge consequences on how we have to structure our …
Posted in Training & Learning
Tagged How the best trainers do it, wie die besten Trainer es machen
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Training & Learning – 01 – Introduction Trainieren & Lernen – 01 – Einführung We are training our horses, because we want them to learn something – something NEW, obviously, something they have not understood yet. This does not need …
Posted in Training & Learning
Tagged The science behind Learning, wissenschaftlicher Hintergrund Lernen
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Obituary on Beau Nachruf auf Beau My darling Beau, the last of my rescue horses, is dead – and leaves a huge hole in my life! For over 35 years I have never eaten an apple of which I didn’t …
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 17 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 17 Only two commands are left to be discussed from the learning list for guide animals – and since the information on the training of minis was so …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged horse training intelligent disobedience, Pferdetraining intelligenter Ungehorsam
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 16 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 16 After learning a lot about obstacle avoidance in the last Blog, we now get to Point 10 on our learning list of voice commands for a guide …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged commands for guide horses, Down! Platz! Sit! Sitz! Come! Komm!, Kommandos für Führpferde
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 15 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 15 As promised in the last Blog, now that we are putting obstacles in our way, things become interesting! Any normal horse that is not blind himself, would …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged Blindenführpferd, Guide Horse for the blind, obstacle avoidance, Umgehen von Hindernissen
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Your Horse’s IQ – Part 14 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 14 In the last Blog we ended by setting our guide pony into motion with the command “Forward!” Now we expect our guide to take the leader initiative …
Your Horse’s IQ – Blog 13 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 13 As the blind person must totally rely on his guide, the important command # 1 “No!” (our “nein!”), is used more in training than later in his …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged Blindenpony Kommandos Bei Fuß, guide horse commands Heel Stand and Forward, Steh und Vorwärts
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Your Horse’s IQ – Command Nr. 1 “No!” – Blog 12 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Kommando Nr. 1 “Nein!”– Teil 12 3) voice command association: In the last Blog I recommended to review the part 03 of the lungeing series, …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged Assoziation von Stimmhilfen, Kommando "nein!", the command "No!", Voice association
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 11 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 11 In the last Blog we talked about housebreaking a guide animal : to control his “elimination” and even to announce when the time to go is, is …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged association of voice commands, Blindenpony, guide mini horse, horse leads human, Master position, Pferd führt den Menschen, Stimmhilfenassoziation
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Training a guide Mini – Housebreaking Ein Führpferd trainieren – stubenrein After learning so much about the scientific side of our horses’ thinking capacities I now wanted to proceed to the practical side of it – the application of how …
Your horse’s IQ – Part 09 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 09 We have talked about the different ways of learning and the role that memory plays in the process – and have come to the conclusion that offering …
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Beau turned 34! Beau ist 34! It gets harder to believe from year to year – but he is still hanging in there! Beau had a very happy birthday, for which even the sun came out! All our best wishes …
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 08 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 08 In discrimination tasks the horse has learned that only one stimulus, and not another, will result in getting rewarded. In the last Blog we talked about the astonishing …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged Horse memory, Mengenbegriffe, object retention, Objektpermanenz, Pferde Gedächtnis, Understanding of voice commands, Understanding quantities, Verstehen von Stimmkommandos
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 07 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 07 One’s intelligence has a lot to do with memory – if you don’t retain, what you have learned, you won’t get far. Memory is the faculty of …
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Tagged Gedächtnis, horse intelligence, Intelligenz der Pferde, memory
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 06 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 06 In Blog 04 we started talking about Associative Learning, but then had to take a detour. We needed to stress the importance of how the horse perceives …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged Association, Assoziierung, Auslöschen, Extinction, How the horse learns, Lernen des Pferdes, Operant Conditioning, Operante Konditionierung, pos. and neg. reinforcement, pos. und neg. Verstärkung
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Your Horse’s IQ – Part 05 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 05 In the last Blog we started looking at the sensory equipment the horse has for his perception – for if we don’t even know, how he sees …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged die Wahrnehmung des Pferdes, Gehör, Gesicht, hearing in horses, sense of vision, Tastsinn, the horse's perception, touch
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 04 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 04 In the last Blog we started looking into the activity of learning, beginning with Habituation. We saw that habituation, the process of exposing our horse repeatedly to …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged das Auge, das Sehen des Pferdes, Desensibilisieren, desensitize, Horse IQ, perception, Pferdeintelligenz IQ, vision, Wahrnehmung
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Your Horse’s IQ – Part 3 Learning – Habituation Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 3 Lernen – Gewöhnung I regard the achievements of guide ponies, whom we mentioned in the last Blogs, as a certain pinnacle of horse intelligence. …
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Tagged horse intelligence, learning by habituation, Lernen durch Gewöhnung, Pferdeintelligenz, Psychologie des Lernens, Psychology of Learning
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Your horse’s IQ – Part 2 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 2 In the last Blog we have seen an impressive list of abilities, which guide animals must have to properly do their job – and we now know …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged cognition, intelligence tests for horses, Intelligenz Ihres Pferdes, Intelligenztests für Pferde, Kognition, Your horse's intelligence
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Your Horse’s IQ – Part 1 Der IQ Ihres Pferdes – Teil 1 From all my previous Blogs you know how convinced I am that playing with my horses and training them with nothing but positive reinforcement (according to the …
Posted in Horse IQ
Tagged Intelligence of horses, Intelligenz der Pferde, Minis als Blindenführer, minis as guide horses
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Party Games for your Horse – Part 09 Partyspiele für Ihr Pferd – Teil 09 The Tyre-Tower! In my book „From Leading to Liberty“ the horses learned in Game 30 (on page 136) how to place their feet individually and …
Posted in Party Games
Tagged games for horse sure feet, Games for horses with tyres, Spiele mit Reifen fuer Pferde, Spiele Trittsicherheit der Pferde
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The Mikado Game – Part 06 Das Mikado Spiel – Teil 06 In my book „From Leading to Liberty“ the horses learned in Game 30 (on page 136) how to place their feet individually and on command. We mentioned that …
Posted in Party Games
Tagged Füße auf Kommando setzen, Setting feet on command, Trust Games for your horse, Vertrauensspiele für Ihr Pferd
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Party Games for your Horse – Part 05 Gesellschaftsspielchen für Ihr Pferd – Teil 05 “Over the Whip!” In this game we broaden our horse’s understanding of the ordinary “send and call” games, which you were introduced to in the …
Fun on the Lunge Line – Part 04 Longierspaß – Teil 04 In the last game we introduced our horses to turns and rope aids in a playful manner. These games also taught us to become more adept at handling …
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Tagged Fun on the lunge line, games with horses, Spass an der Longe, Spiele fuer Pferde
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Party Games : Dancing the Waltz – 03 Gesellschafts-spielchen : Walzertanzen – 03 In the last Blog we visited the Fast-Food together – so this time we have to lose a bit of weight. So we will go dancing! In …
Posted in Party Games
Tagged Dancing with horse, Games for Horses, mit Pferd tanzen, Spiel mit Pferd, Spinning, teach turns
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The Take-Out –Blog 02 Straßenverkauf! – Blog 02 In this series I want to suggest a few little games which will give your horse a sense of achievement and will therefore be fun for him. Teach your horse to “Touch” …
Posted in Party Games
Tagged mit Pferden spielen, Play with horse, Target training, Zielverfolgung
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Party Games – Part 01 Party Games – Teil 01 In this new series I want to suggest some little games for your warm-up or cool-out time after your work with your horse. I have always played with my horses …
Posted in Party Games
Tagged Games for Horses, Horse backing up game, Spiel Rückwärtsrichten Pferd, Spiele für Pferde
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History of the Horse – Part 22 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 22 Christmas Gifts for your Horse! For quite a few Blogs now I have had the feeling that I should be more positive about the History of our …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Christmas gifts for your horse, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, Weihnachtsgeschenke für Ihr Pferd
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History of the Horse – Part 10 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 10 Our times 10: We have now looked at the significance of the relationship between horses and humans over the last Blogs – how it is or how …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged equine neglect and abuse, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, Misshandlung und Verwahrlosung der Pferde
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History of the Horse – Part 20 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 20 Our Times 9 In the last Blogs (starting with Blog 17) we looked at the economic influence that the horse industry in general has today, culminating with the …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged das Zuchtgeschäft, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, the Breeding Industry
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History of the Horse – Part 19 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 19 Our Times 8 Pro or contra horse racing? I already stated in the last Blog that I am personally not a friend of racing. Horses are rarely …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, Pro oder Kontra Pferderennen, Pro or Contra horseracing
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History of the Horse – Part 18 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 18 Our Times 7 In the last Blog we started looking at the equestrian industry in terms of economics – and found that it is quite important in terms …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged equestrian disciplines, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, Pferderennen, Pferdesport disziplinen, racing
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History of the Horse – Blog 17 Geschichte des Pferdes – Blog 17 Our times 6 – Some Statistics Unser Zeitalter -etwas Statistik We are getting to the end of our History of the Horses. We have killed them in wars, …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, some Statistics, Statistiken
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History of the Horse – Part 16 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 16 We saw in the last Blog that horses had to share the miseries of humans in war as well as in their working environment. Another thing we …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, horse meat, Pferdefleischkonsum
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History of the Horse – Part 15 – Our Times 4 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 15 – Unser Zeitalter Life as a working horse: War is certainly the most terrible thing that humans ever inflicted on horses (and on themselves, …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, horse as working animal, Pferd als Arbeitstier
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History of the Horse – Part 14 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 14 In the last Blog we looked at the situation of horses during the First World War – and I find the topic so depressing that the going …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged 2.ter Weltkrieg, die Gegenwart, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, WW2
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History of the Horse – Part 13 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 13 Our times 2 In the last Blog we looked at the types of horses used for warfare. Regardless what function they would be used for, whether pulling equipment …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged 1. Weltkrieg, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, Partner in War, Pferd als Kriegspartner, WW!
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History of the Horse – Part 12 – Our Times 1 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 12 – Unser Zeitalter 1 We have almost arrived in the present! We saw in the last Blog that at the end of the Ice Age there was …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse, Partner in War, Pferd als Kriegspartner
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History of the Horse – Part 11 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 11 Holocene The period, which started about 10,000 years ago, is called Holocene. It comprises the end of last major glacial epoch as already since about 16,000 years ago there was a …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes Holozän, History of the Horse Holocene
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History of the Horse – Part 10 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 10 Pleistocene We have arrived in the Pleistocene – which started about 2 million years ago and lasted 1 million years. We mentioned in the last Blog that the …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Geschichte des Pferdes Pleistozän, History of the Horse, Pleistocene
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History of the Horse – Part 09 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 09 Pliocene 2 The animals: Many of the animal species just carried over from the Miocene. The largest ones were the mastodons and giraffes. The first real pigs …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the Horse in Pliocene, Entwicklung des Pferdes im Pliozän, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse
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History of the Horse – Part 08 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 08 Pliocene 1 During the Miocene, which lasted about 17.7 million years, we saw great changes in the geography (all those mountain ranges!) as well as in our primeval horses – …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged development of the horse Pliocene, Entwicklung des Pferdes im Pliozän, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse
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History of the Horse – Part 07 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 07 Miocene 2 At the end of the last Blog we showed how the anatomy of the horses’ legs started to change. Now they had to search for food in …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the horse Miocene, Entwicklung des Pferdes, Geschichte des Pferdes Miozän, History of the Horse
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History of the Horse – Part 06 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 06 The Miocene : At the end of the last Blog we saw that during the Oligocene Miohippus was the star of the development in North America – while all …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the horse Miocene, Entwicklung des Pferdes im Miozän, Geschichte des Pferdes, History of the Horse
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History of the Horse – Part 5 Geschichte des Pferdes – Teil 5 In the last 4 Blogs we saw that the development of the very first horse-like animals on our planet began 56 million years ago, in an …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the horse, Entwicklung Pferd, Geschichte des Pferdes Oligozän, History of Horse Oligocene
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History of the Horse – Eocene 4 – Part 4 Geschichte des Pferdes – Eozän 4 – Teil 4 Up to now we had in the Eocene an even temperature of about 35 ° C (95° F) around the whole globe …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the horse, Entwicklung des Pferdes, Geschichte des Pferdes, history of horse
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The Eocene era – Part 3 Das Eozän – Teil 3 We heard in the last Blog that the climate on our planet was tropical and the animal world quite exotic in the middle of the Eocene era, which is about …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the horse, Entwicklung des Pferdes Geschichte des Pferdes Eozän, history eocene
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History of the Horse – The Eocene era – Part 2 Die Geschichte des Pferdes – Das Eozän – Teil 2 At the end of the last Blog we asked ourselves what was so special about the beginning of the …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the Horse Eocene, Entwicklung des Pferdes im Eozän
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History of the Horse – The Eocene era – Part 1 Die Geschichte des Pferdes – Das Eozän – Teil 1 In this series I want to make the history of the development of the species horse come to life …
Posted in History of Horse
Tagged Development of the horse Eocene Entwicklung des Pferdes Eozän
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Understand your Horse – Part 23 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 23 Sounds 2 In the last Blog we talked about greeting noises, such as “blubbering”, different nickers and the neigh. Let us continue with more sounds a horse can …
Understand your Horse – Part 22 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 22 SOUNDS After looking at the body language of the horse in depth, ranging from the ears to the tail, and analysing how he might attempt to communicate his feelings …
Understand your Horse – Part 21 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 21 The Legs We finished last time by looking at the feelings, which the horse can convey with the language of his tail. The language of the legs is not …
Understand your Horse – Part 20 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 20 The Tail In the last part we concluded the language of the horse’s neck – this leaves us to look at the expressions of the tail and his legs. …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse the tail, der Schweif, Korpersprache Pferdes verstehen, understand your horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 19 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 19 Neck 3 In the last part we looked at turning heads, bobbing, thrusting and jerking of the head. 11) Head wobble: In the head wobble the nose …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, Korpersprache des Pferdes verstehen, uunderstand your horse
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Understand your Horse – Blog 18 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 18 Neck 2 In the last part we looked at High Heads (in flight and display behaviour), at the head Toss, the Head Shake, and the Low head and …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, Koerpersprache des Pferdes verstehen, sein Pferd verstehen, understand horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 17 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 17 Neck & Head 1 In the last part we looked at the horse’s mouth and the moods we can read from its expressions. In this Blog we will …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, koerpersprache pferd, Pferd verstehen, understand horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 16 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 16 The Mouth 2 In the last part we looked at the function of the horse’s mouth, and saw what foals express in terms of emotion and communication by …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged mouth of the horse, Pferd verstehen, Pferdemaul, understand horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 15 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 15 Mouth 1 In the last part we looked at the horse’s nose – its function as well as the moods he can convey with it. Nose and mouth …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged mouth of the horse, Pferd verstehen, Pferdemaul, understand horse
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Understand your Horse – Blog 14 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 14 Nose So far we looked at the expressions of the horse’s ears and eyes, with which (apart from their functional movements) he communicates some of his feelings …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged know your horse, Nase des Pferdes, nose of the horse, Pferd verstehen
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Understand your Horse – Part 13 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 13 Eyes 3 In the last part we looked at different expressions of the horse’s eyes and noted, just as we did when looking at the ears, that they …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged die Augen des Pferdes, Ihr Pferd verstehen, Kommunikation Pferd, Körpersprache Pferd
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Understand your Horse – Part 12 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 12 Eyes 2 In the last part we got an idea of how our horses perceive the world – quite differently from us! Now we want to look at …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, Kommunikation Pferd, Pferd verstehen, the eyes of the horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 11 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 11 Eyes 1 In the last Blogs we looked at the “language” of the horse’s ears and found that there is a whole list: Attentive ears, including attentive …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, Kommunikation Pferd, Pferde verstehen, understanding horses
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Understand your Horse – Part 10 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 10 continued – Ears 4 In the last part we saw some “Airplane” ears and learned to look out for depression or pain. We looked at lots of “questioning …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged die Ohren des Pferdes, Kommunikation Pferd, Körpersprache Pferd, Pferd verstehen
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Understand your Horse – Part 09 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 09 continued: Ears 3 In the last part we ended by looking at some “questioning ears”. We saw that they can be dropped sideways to varying degrees – and …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, equine communication, the horse`s ears, understand horses
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Understand your Horse – Part 08 Ears instalment 2 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 08 Fortsetzung Ohren 2 In the last part we started looking at the ears of the horse by themselves, trying to find out what they can tell …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, equine communication, understand horses
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Understand your Horse – Part 07 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 07 Ears – part 1 In the last part we looked at grooming and greeting faces and realized that each “face” is made up of a conglomeration of expressions …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, communication horse, understand horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 06 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 06 In the last part we got the first taste of the complexity of analysing the horse’s face and the mood it might express, because we recognized that it …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, communication horse, understand horse
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Faces – Part 1 Gesichter – Teil 1 In the last two Blogs we looked at the signals a horse might send to you by using his whole body. I started with that, because it is easier to interpret than …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged body language horse, communication horse, understand horse
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Understand your Horse – Part 04 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 04 In the last part we observed the first two things the horse can express with his whole body, by decreasing or increasing the distance between you. Here we …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged communication horse, horse body language, understanding horses
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Understand your Horse – Part 03 Ihr Pferd verstehen – Teil 03 In the last part we discussed that most of the signals, sent out by your horse to you for communication, are the “soft” signals, which are happening …
Posted in Understanding Your Horse
Tagged communication horses, horse body language, understand horses
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Happy Holidays! Speaking on my own behalf Fröhliche Feiertage! In eigener Sache I thank all my Blog readers for their many comments – and such nice ones too! Thank you all for responding – and a very nice Holiday Season …
Posted in Smart Horses
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