How to Speak Horse

How to Speak Horse by Andrea and Markus Eschbach          Hardback:  28 pages            

Ever since I first heard about “horse whispering,”  I have thought I would like to give  it a try.     When I saw this book I had to check it out.   I noticed immediately that this book seemed to present the process of learning to communicate with horses a little differently than I would have expected.   Having caught a bit of the process on shows on Animal Planet and PBS in the past I noticed immediately that this book showed the kids learning the process using ropes as extentions of their arms and this was unfamiliar to me as the bit I had picked up from t.v. had not done that.   From what I had seen all was done through body language with the horse reading the human and the human taking cues from the horse’s behavior.     After I finished the book I noticed that the photos were taken at a farm in Switzerland and when I checked the isbn page it mentioned that the book was originally published in Germany and in the German language so this book gives the European take on horse whispering which is still good just different.   It does give some good tips, I just find the rope thing something I would tend to think the horse would be taken aback by.   But that is just me.   It does go over some of the horse behaviors to be aware of and what they mean, it also stresses being confident in dealing with the horse and making the horse know you are the boss.    It talks about herd mentality and how the human doing the horse whispering  takes on the role of the lead horse.     I thought some of the instructions were not as clear as they might be and the photos showing the work in the corral or “office” and arena as the book terms it, were not quite as informative as they could have been however, it was an admirable attempt though I don’t think it delivered as much as it professed to.   Still a worthy book for a youngster and I would recommend it before taking kids around horses especially for the first time as it does give some very  good information to know when dealing with horses  ie. don’t approach them from the back as you might scare them and possibly receive an injury from a well placed kick, always approach a horse from the front or side so they see you.,horses natural reaction is to run when scared so don’t get too close right away till the horse is sure you don’t plan to hurt it, etc.   It was a good book as far as it went.