SOLVING THE PONY PUZZLE

Text | Shelley Wolhuter

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TI UNDERSTAND YOUR PONY BETTER?

When it comes to understanding your pony, it’s best to start at the very beginning with understanding communication. This involves learning exactly how ponies talk to each other and how they talk to us. Horsey movies often go overboard with the horse sound effects, making out that horses are constantly whinnying or calling or nickering to their owners, but this just isn’t how horses and ponies behave in reality. To understand how our horses and ponies communicate, we need to look at much more than just the sounds they make.

Calling

A horse calling or whinnying typically only happens for something quite intense, like when they have been separated from their friends or when they would like you to bring them their dinner!

Body language

So how do ponies talk to each other without using their voices? The answer to this lies in their body language! Even though humans and horses are two hugely different species, we have this one very important thing in common – we both read body language.

Just like you can look at your friend and tell if they are happy, sad, angry or scared, you can learn to look at your pony and do the same. You just need to know where to look and what to look for. Let’s think about your friend for a minute. When they look sad, do you tell by their eyes? Or is it their mouth? Or is it by their whole body? Most of us agree that it’s the whole picture that fills us in on how they are really feeling.

Ponies are the same. You have to look at their head, tail, legs and body to get the complete picture of how they’re feeling. I like to think of each part as a clue. When you put the clues together, you solve the pony puzzle! So, where do you start?

Clue 1 – Activity level

Is your pony restless, or are they standing still calmly? If your pony is marching around the stable or paddock or constantly shifting his feet, you can be pretty sure he’s feeling anxious.

Clue 2 – Head carriage

Is your pony holding his head high or low? A relaxed pony tends to hold their head low, whereas a stressed pony can look a bit like a giraffe with his head held high!

Clue 3 – Tail carriage

Is your pony holding their tail up, or is it clamped down? If so, this suggests some anxiety. A relaxed pony will hold his tail loosely.

Clue 4 – The feet

Is your pony holding one foot cocked and resting, or are all four feet firmly planted on the floor? A resting foot is usually a sign that the pony is relaxed in his surroundings. All four feet flat on the floor suggests that your pony is ready to move off at very short notice.

Clue 5 – The eyes

Are your pony’s eyes wide open with some white showing, or are they darting around all over the place? If so, they are pretty frightened. If their eyes are soft, then they are relaxed.

Did you know?

You can get an idea if your pony is sleepy or bored by looking at their blinking. When ponies are bored, they hardly ever blink, but when they are sleepy, they blink slowly and half-close their eyes.

Clue 6 – The ears

The ears can give you a good idea about what your pony is listening to. Did you know that ponies can listen to two things simultaneously, which is why their ears sometimes point in different directions? Where are your pony’s ears pointing? Are they together or split? Are they pricked forward or relaxed to the sides? Are they pinned back or softly facing backwards? If they are split, it means your pony is paying attention to a couple of things at the same time, usually a sign they are alert but not terrified. If the ears are together and pricked, your pony is anxious about something. If they are together and pinned back, your pony is feeling defensive, and if they are together but softly facing backwards, your pony is relaxed.

Clue 7 – The muzzle

Next, look at your pony’s muzzle. The shape of the nostrils is a good clue as to how your pony is feeling. Are the nostrils open wide, or are they relaxed in an oval shape? Open wide means the pony is anxious or taking deep breaths and an oval shape shows relaxed breathing. You can also see your pony breathing by observing their nostrils. Short, quick nostril movements tell us that your pony might be alarmed or smelling something. A calm, quiet pony will show slow and small nostril movement. Whatever rate of breathing you see at the nostrils will also be seen in the ribcage, so that’s a good place to double-check the breathing rate.

Clue 8 – The lips

Last but not least, there are clues in your pony’s lips. Are they soft and drooping open or glued tightly shut? Is the top lip pinched forward, or are the lips gently closed together? A worried pony will clamp their lips closed and pinch the top lip, while a relaxed pony will have super droopy lips.

The calm pony

In a calm pony you would expect to see:

1. Low head carriage

2. A relaxed tail

3. A cocked back leg

4. Soft, round eyes

5. Relaxed and still ears that may be softly facing backwards

6. Oval nostrils and a relatively steady breath rate

7. A softly closed mouth

The stressed pony

In a stressed pony, you would expect to see:

1. The head held high

2. A clamped down tail or high tail carriage

3. All four feet on the ground

4. The eyes wide and darting around

5. The ears pricked and moving around a lot

6. The nostrils flared with sharp, rapid breaths

7. A tightly clamped mouth

Final thoughts

The key to remember in all of this clue-finding is that the clues cannot be used alone. They must be combined together to get the full picture of how your pony is feeling. The more you practice your Pony Detective skills, the better you will become at understanding your pony!