I never met Tom Dorrance, but I know people who knew Tom. It is said that Tom was aware of what a horse was about to do before the horse was aware. I doubt that Tom was able to see something about to happen before a horse knew what it was about to do. But I can see how somebody with an untrained eye would think Tom had a special magical gift to do that.

Ray Hunt is credited with telling people they need to learn to be aware of “what happened, before what happened, happened.” But what does that mean? To me, it is the same gift that Tom had. Being aware of something about to happen before it actually did happen is a skill.

I believe the skill of doing this is not magical. It’s an awareness that comes from vigilance and a commitment to study every little indicator of body language a horse displays. Most people see the obvious, like a horse humping its back before bucking. But it is my experience that most people are not aware of the more subtle signs of a horse processing a thought. It’s a skill that is learned on a sliding scale.

Before a horse does anything it goes through a mental process of deciding its best options. As this process is worked through on the inside of a horse, the outside telegraphs the process through changes in body language. These indicators are manifested before the final decision is enacted. The horse thinks to itself, “I’m going to do X”, the horse adjusts its body language to tell the world it is going to do X, then it finally moves it’s feet to do X.

When it is processing a new thought to stop doing X it goes through the entire process again.

Often times the body language that heralds the decision is very subtle and missed by humans. But this is what people like Tom and Ray were so good at seeing. They read the subtlety in a way that others missed. It seemed like magic because for most folks it was a mystery. But it is not a mystery. It is a skill that all good horse people need to learn through vigilant observation and study. It’s made even harder when you realise that the body language of horses is different between individuals and even changes in the same horse with time and experience.

I could list several examples of what I am talking about, but I think this video I posted on YouTube a few years ago is pretty clear.