Our eyes are the windows to our souls – to our true feelings and emotions. We can control our mouth and our smile, but not our eyes. Eye contact is probably the single most non-verbal message we convey. With horses, eye contact is crucial. In fact you can use your eyes in a number of different ways very effectively. Placing your eyes on your horse’s eyes can be a form of reprimand, for example. You can also use your eyes to ask for your horse’s attention, control his speed or merely read his mood. Through the proper use of your eyes you can cause a horse to walk, trot, canter, follow you, leave you, change direction, back up and stand. You can combine eye contact with your other body gestures too, each of which makes up a complete language.
