Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses: Recognition and Application

by Rachaël Draaisma, Rebekah Amber Clark (Narrator)

This practical book helps you interpret and connect the physical signals that horses display in response to their environment. These signals are evident in the everyday actions, gestures and attitudes that horses communicate to each other, but are often so subtle that they can go unnoticed by humans. This book aims to rectify that, offering horse lovers and equine professionals an opportunity to gain a unique insight into their 'horse's world'.

Key

includes detailed description of language signs of domestic horses, with a special emphasis on calming signals includes 275 pictures to visualize various language signs, calming signals, behavior sequences and facial features presents communication ladders to show how a horse responds to incentives in his environment, and what signals he uses at certain moments contains tips on the use of the communication ladders and calming signals to improve the socialization, training and wellbeing of your horse considers equine psychological stress from an environmental perspective, providing a valuable alternative to the current common clinical perspective.

After listening to this book you will be more astute in spotting calming signals, displacement activities, stress signals and distance-increasing signals, and better able to see which stimuli your horse can handle and which he cannot. This means you will know what to do to calm your horse before his stress rises to an unmanageable level. Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses is both fascinating and important book for any equine veterinary practitioner, student or nurse, as well as horse owners and trainers.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: Horses, Nonfiction, Animals

Audible Audio

Published March 6, 2025

Reviews

[Susan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. There was so much practical information on just watching your horse for changing facial expressions. I really liked all of the photographs that backed up the written material. being aware of the shape and size of the horses eye and nostril are two really interesting aspects to learning calming signals.

The more I think about horse art, the more I think we see tension in so much of it. Where the horse has a large sometimes overly alert eye, with big round nostrils, ears perked forward and tension in the lips and chin.

The book also gives great information on how to use calming signals to help the horse overcome the stimulus that has it tense or frightened. By blinking, lowering the head, walking in an arc, looking away (I find this one to be big - I think we especially in America are taught to look someone in the eye, horses as well and sometimes that is just too much pressure) Being able to look away and turn the body slightly off the horse can help them calm.

Horses need companionship with space and we humans want touch and affection. Giving the horses time and space are some of the easiest things we can do help our horses orient to new objects & overcome fearful stimuli. However, it might be hard to break our own habits.

I really like the section on how to enrich your horses life with some games that use the sense of smell. By hiding treats in towels or blankets that the horse has to find, Giving them different herbs to smell in containers and tracking a sent of a human are great. As well as slowly adding new object for them to investigate in their paddocks.

I highly recommend the book to anyone that would like to really spend some quality time with their horse and learn how best to help them through some situations they may encounter.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

well written and very interesting!!! a must read for everyone who works with horses :3

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

(NB: boek is ook in NLe vertaling verkrijgbaar!)

Dit boek is een echte must-read voor iedereen die met-, voor-, en om paarden werkt.

Hoewel vele gedeeltes van dit boek (voor mij) bekende informatie verstrekken, waren andere gedeeltes geheel nieuw of plaatsten ze bepaalde vormen van gedrag die ik wel herkende in een nieuwe context. Ik denk dat boek informatie van onschatbare waarde verschaft voor mensen die met jonge-, groene-, of getraumatiseerde paarden werkt. Daarnaast denk ik dat de informatie die in dit boek beschikbaar is kan helpen om onze hobby/sport/baan een stuk veiliger te maken. I.i.g. geeft dit boek een veel completer beeld van lichaamstaal dan er wordt gegeven in tijdschriften en boeken specifiek gericht op een bepaalde trainingsmethode. Ook helpt het veel mythes en misverstanden (m.n. die door Natural Horsemanship-trainers de wereld in geholpen zijn) te ontkrachten.

Wel vond ik het stuk over de praktische toepassing van deze kennis ietwat aan de magere kant, en ik hoop dat de auteur hier meer over gaat publiceren in de toekomst. In de tussentijd ben ik erg benieuwd naar haar nieuwe boek over neuswerk voor paarden, en kan ik niet wachten tot ik hem binnen krijg.

Ik vind het erg gaaf om te zien dat moderne en wetenschappelijk verantwoorde informatie en -trainingsmethodes ook in Nederland langzaam opkomen. Ergens ben ik een beetje trots dat de auteur van het boek een landgenoot is!

[Klemens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, a must-read for anyone involved with horses.

Parts of this book provided familiar information, other parts were either entirely new or put behaviours I have noticed into a new context. I think this book provides invaluable information for people who work with unbroke (young) horses, or horses who have had traumatic experiences and are in need of rehabilitation. In general, I think that the information provided in this book can help make our hobby/sport/job much, much safer.

I do think the 'practical application' part was a little bit meager, and I hope the author will provide more information on this topic in the future. In the meantime, I am very excited about her new publication on scent work for horses, and am eagerly anticipating its release. I also think it's nice to see modern and scientifically sound approaches start to take hold in my country, and I'm somewhat proud the author is a fellow Dutch(wo)man!

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. The author does a good job at presenting her findings of her research and I love her use of images. However, this is not the best science considering that Rachaël Draaisma (as far as I can see) does not have any degrees relating to this field of study. The group of horses being studied could have been larger as well. I don't think the latter complaints matter too much because she is a good writer so that people without degrees can understand her research.

Overall, amazing book: okay science.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ought to be a must-read for any horse owner or carer.
For those with a natural-horsemanship background, like me, this book will have a lot of things you'll recognize. However, I still had a lot of 'oooh' and 'aha!' moments while reading, where things that i've been taught from a training perspective, suddenly clicked together.

I can highly recommend this for anyone who wants to actually understand their horse, have a better connection with them, and have a more stress-free time together.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every person who works with horses needs to read this!

I have been a horse owner for over 20 years and this book truly opened my eyes to some nuances I’d observed in these magnificent animals. As a result of what I’ve learned in this book, I’ve deepened my relationship with these amazing animals immensely!

[Lela Roby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MUST for all horse owners

I cannot stress enough how important this book is for people who are around horses to read and understand. It will make a huge difference in their relationship with their horse. I am so pleased to see how this new way of considering the horse is making its way into mainstream media and spreading to all disciplines of riding.

[Cole Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for learning about body language and communication of horses to help you understand and support them better by helping to meet their needs. The photos and descriptions are excellent and helpful.

[Imke Jansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom wrote the book and I think she did a pretty good job

[Kristine Brickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a horse or ever plan on spending time with horses this brilliantly researched and presented information is a MUST!