There are a lot of different clues that a horse gives off to indicate their ever-changing focus. The most common and easily identifiable are the eyes and the ears. But others include posture, movements of feet, flexion, etc.
Often the eyes and ears work in unison. That is, eyes and ears are pointing in the same direction because of a horse’s strong focus on something. But equally, the eyes and ears can be pointing in different directions to indicate a horse’s attention being given to more than one thing. In cases like this, I generally consider a horse looks at whatever is most important - the primary focus. And the ears indicate focus is directed towards something less important - secondary focus. For example, the horse may be looking at a feed bucket and at the same time the ears flick towards another horse to warn them away from the feed bucket.
At a clinic last week in California a participant was working their horse in the round yard at liberty. At one point I suggested to the student that they call their horse in towards them. The concern was made that the horse had not yet looked at their owner and shouldn’t they wait until the horse had looked at them. I said “No’, they should call their horse into them. This led to some discussion.
I know many trainers would wait and even insist their horse stop and look at them before drawing their horse to them or giving their horse a break from the work. It’s probably more common to do this than not to do it. But why?
My understanding is that the main objective is that if the horse is looking at the person in the middle of the round yard, the horse is focused on the person in the middle of the round yard. I agree with this premise. But does it mean that if a horse is not looking at the person, the horse is NOT focused on the human?
Last year I was in Minneapolis, USA waiting on a street corner for Ellen Kealey to pick me up and drive to the ranch I would be working for the next few days. She was late (as usual). A homeless man was begging for change on the opposite corner of the busy street. I pretty much ignored him and couldn’t tell you what he looked like because my focus was on looking at all the cars, hoping one of them was Ellen’s. I hardly noticed the beggar until I saw in my periphery that he was walking towards me shouting something at me. I refused to look at him in the hope he would go away. Even though I did not look at him, I knew what he was wearing, where he was, how far away he was, and that I was his target. I didn’t look at him, but I was focused on him. My primary focus shifted from Ellen’s car to this fellow. I didn’t have to look at him to be aware of everything he was doing.
Looking at something and focussing on something are not necessarily the same thing.
And so it was with the horse in the round yard. The mare was aware of everything the owner was doing despite not looking at her with both eyes. It was focused on her because she was worried about the situation and what might happen next. The owner did brilliantly to address the worry and help the horse make a huge change for the better. But to wait until the horse looked at her would have been to leave the horse in an anxious state with no solution for much longer than necessary. She might be waiting until Christmas for her horse to look at her. She had the mare’s primary focus. Now she had to use that focus to help the horse feel better and connect with her stronger.
I often ask a student, “Did your horse look at you”, before they direct a horse to a new idea. And I think this sometimes instills the notion that a “look” from a horse is necessary for focus. While this is often true, it’s not always true. Most times a horse will look in the direction of its strongest thought (eg. a horse will almost always look at the feed bucket as it walks to eat its grain). But it would be a mistake to think that a horse’s focus and the direction of where it is looking are the same thing.
Being aware of the direction of a horse’s look is of paramount importance in so many situations. It can tell you so much about what they are thinking and where is their focus. The direction of a look is far more revealing and insightful about the inside of a horse than how they are moving and what their feet are doing. Nevertheless, don’t confuse looking with focus. The direction to which a horse’s eyes are pointing is only a ‘road sign’. It is an important and useful ‘road sign’, but it is not the same thing as focus.
An example of different indications of focus. Laura looks at the hula hoop. Loki does not. Which one has the strongest focus on the hula hoop. Why?