Body Language 101 - Part Four: The Tail End :o)

I don't distract well. Are you kidding? I have enough trouble finishing tasks when I'm completely focused on them. Interrupt me, and everything just goes kaflooey. Where was I? What was I doing again? Argh! So frustrating. My thoughts these days too often feel scattered and I the older I get, the more trouble I seem to have reining them in. The feeling is best summed up by Jackie Chan's comment, "Your focus needs more focus." in the Karate Kid. That's just so, well, me :oP It boggles my brain how I can remember the words of a song I learned in the first grade, but am totally unable to remember what on earth I did with something I just had in my hot little hands ten minutes ago. *snarl* I'm pretty sure if I could get back all of the time I've wasted searching frantically for things I put somewhere [or another], I'd wind up with an extra year at my disposal (and wouldn't that be nice?). Maybe, just maybe, if I stopped setting things down in random places I wouldn't have to search for them so often. I'm thinking....velcro. What do you think?

One of the things that's fun about horses is having an open line of communication when training or, as I'd rather think of it, playing with a purpose (sounds lots more fun that way, doesn't it? ;o) Anyway, the horses will sometimes ask questions or offer behaviors when we're together to see how I react. I try to be attentive (though sometimes I'm oblivious) and offer immediate feedback; either a "No, we're not doing that right now", "Good girl/boy" or a "No ma'am/sir" depending on the question asked or behavior offered.  If you are not quite sure what I'm talking about when I say an offered behavior, a simple example would be when you are teaching your dog to lay down but he sits (the behavior offered) when you cue him to lay. Usually, he'll look to you for approval right away (the question asked). This is because he is not 100% sure exactly what it is you want him to do, so he offers a certain behavior to see if that's what you want. Does that make sense? I'll add that Mad Max, [photo inset] our resident hoovenile delinquent, wins hooves down for not only asking the most questions but also receiving the most "No sirs!", interspersed with regular "Absolutely NOTs!". Sometimes I do have to work really hard not to laugh at some of his antics (click here, here and here for some examples), even when he makes me crazed. Of course sometimes the horses just offer up a behavior out of the blue...

Case in point? A long time ago we used to put a heavy rope across the hill to keep the girls down at the bottom while we brought in a new roll of hay for them. Horses are not real big on waiting patiently when it comes to important things like hay and we didn't want them running around by the gate to the boys' pasture while it was open, either. Once we finished the girls' stalls, I would just close their doors while we did the hay. One day last year, after a long day, I realized I had forgotten to lock the doors and the girls were already out after finishing supper. Nuts. Since they stayed well away from the pasture gate while DH went in and out, we decided to not worry about the rope any more. Several months later I was headed up the hill to the gate to let DH out to get a new roll for the girls, when I looked back to see that Rina had stopped everyone at the bottom of the hill and was looking at me expectantly. I hollered out "Good girl Rina, hold!" and continued up the hill to open the gate. Now I really didn't expect that to work, but believe it or not they all stayed there. We ended up with a nice compromise: The girls now wait politely at the bottom of the hill - without a rope - but I tell them to "come ahead" as soon as DH gets through the gate with the hay. Isn't that a hoot?

There are just a handful of days left in the school year. Hard to tell who's more ecstatic; the kids or the faculty. Probably a tie. *grin* I finished this tatting project to match a homemade candle [photo inset] for a gift, and I also have a baby blanket to finish. Once school's out, it will be a boatload of cleaning and organizing on the home front, and then - IhopeIhopeIhope - I can get down to some serious organizing of the thousands of photos on my hard drive, completion of the pages on this blog, plus a massive overhaul of the Epic Farms website. Amazing, the lofty goals you can set with a functional internet connection. *laugh* Of course I'll probably have to start all over again trying to figure out how to use the web design software; safe bet it's all been changed since the last time... Old dogs and new tricks - here we go again! *facepalm*

As always, thank you so much for reading this far and have a blessed week!

Aside from the fly issue, the tail can also be an integral part of a horse's body language . It is usually used to indicate extreme feeling (an exclamation point of sorts, if you like - I do :o)

Swishing - (not at flies) Angry, extremely aggravated or total happiness/euphoria.*

Flagged - Extreme fear (when running) or utter delight (together with a head bob while trotting/prancing in circles or other patterns; a full-body celebration).**

Clamped - Fright (usually precedes a kick; they may just drop their derriere and scoot) or if feeling cold and/or wet.

* Visit our website and watch the video clip of Blue Horse Matinee on our Horse Heroes page to see some of those happy swishes in action :o)

**Some breeds have a higher tail set (see Lady's photo, above) and consequently offer a more intense version of the "flag". Both Bella and Shadow's tails will flip all the way upside down at these times (there is a photo of this further down).

Casual vs. Clamped

There is usually a small space under the horse's tail (L). The horse on the right has his tail clamped due to cold (if it is due to fear, it is usually a precursor to either bolting or kicking).

Comparing The Tail Set

These two horses have different tail sets. While both horses are trotting and each has raised his tail slightly, the horse on the right has a higher tail set. If I was going to guess, I'd peg the horse on the left as a Quarter Horse and the one on the right an Arabian.

Tail Torquage: How High Will it Fly?


This photo shows a horse with his tail flipped completely over. Two of our horses; Shadow (a Tennessee Walker), and Bella (an Arabian), do this. Actually, I have been known to tell all of our horses not to get their tail in a twist over things (when asking for calm :o)

Punctuation is Crucial to Clarity: Be sure to read the complete "sentence"!

Looking at the photo on the right, note the pinned ears, pinched nostrils and tucked chin of this horse. It is easy to tell by looking at these things that she is angry.

When you add in the tail as an exclamation point, however, you can see that this mare is not merely angry she is LIVID.

Next up: Practice putting it all together with some more sample photos :o)