Henry Blake

Older book by a man who owned many horses and became known for his effectiveness in resolving their behavior problems. His methods are very like Monty Roberts‘- to make a connection with the animal via its own use of body language, while gradually getting it used to new things. Desensitization and verbal, visual cues. For years he studied the way his horses communicated with each other, took detailed notes, and made lists of gestures and sounds that seemed to have certain meanings. A lot of this sounded very solid and familiar to me... There are many interesting and insightful anecdotes in this book, demonstrating Blake’s methods and showing what he learned from the horses in his life, and how many he helped. I enjoyed reading them, and I found his compiled “dictionary” of horse vocalizations and body language pretty interesting. What put me off were a few sexual references which he carefully phrased in an attempt to be subtle, but it was pretty obvious, borderline offensive and a poor choice of comparison, in my opinion. And then there’s his conviction of ESP and telepathy- he sincerely believed he could communicate with certain horses this way. Nearly half the book is details about incidents when he felt sure he’d received mental images or messages from a horse, and experiments he carried out to try and prove it. I am sure there is another explanation for the reactions he observed- whether it’s that horses simply can hear far better than he realized, or just pure coincidence.

I’m shelving this book alongside The Man Who Listens to Horses, I think it’s an interesting comparison because the two have such similar methods and observations about equine communication (particularly the body language). With a huge caveat in my head for keeping this book, since I think half of it is just a load of bunk.

more at the Dogear Diary… (meer)