Horses Don't Lie
What Horses Teach Us About Our Natural Capacity for Awareness, Confidence, Courage, and Trust
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- £5.49
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
Written by one of the original Horse Whisperers Horses Don't Lie is the definitive guide to training horses and every horse trainer will welcome this method. After years of using his method to train horses Chris came to see that it could also be applied to human behaviour. As Chris points out: "A horse knows what you know." The characteristics necessary for building good relationships with horses can be used to deepen our relationships with other people and to enrich our daily lives. Horses can teach us how to communicate with empathy and patience, not only with them but with each other. Humans, like dogs, are natural predators while horses are prey that evolved to band together in packs for protection. This results in two differing types of consciousness and for a human to think like prey teaches many things. It teaches the trust and honesty essential in building relationships, and not only in a relationship with a horse; while the sensitivity and awareness that characterises a horse's perception of the world are qualities we could all use in our own lives. "Always think like a horse and not like a dog." The real magic of horse whispering is what horses reveal to us about ourselves when we strive to understand their behaviour. Horses Don't Lie will teach you about the connections we can make in our lives when we learn from horses.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Popularized by two bestselling books and a high-profile film, the role of "the horse whisperer" has begun to take on mythic proportions. Professional horse trainer Irwin, with the aid of journalist Weber, strips the idealism from this image, giving concrete advice on how to read a horse's body language, speak in an authoritative tone and understand the equine psyche. The book isn't strictly a how-to, however; Irwin spends considerable time laying out his personal history as a trainer. Over a dozen years, he moves from getting bucked off and breaking his leg and ribs to finally striking a successful mix of humility and assertiveness, an effective combination for training. He also discusses equine-assisted psychotherapy, which has been used (as in The Horse Whisperer) to help troubled humans. Despite the lively memoir and thoughtful meditation on psychotherapy, however, the true value of the book lies in Irwin's nuts-and-bolts description of how to understand a horse and, through careful attention, gain control as a rider. For example, he writes that when a horse's tail is hanging light and loose, calmness prevails, but when it's swishing, the horse is agitated. If swishing becomes circular wringing, the horse has gotten angry. When the book advances into how a rider's speech and body movements affect a horse, even beginning riders will feel that they've moved up a notch in terms of equine education.