Tierkommunikation Drost

10/04/2025

und wieder eine Weisheit direkt aus meinem Herzen

DOING NOTHING IS AN ACTION

Yesterday I published a post on something I termed "Inappropriate Touching" that went a little viral, being shared 3,000 times in 24 hours (you can read that post here https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1274647950690356&set=a.269604291194732).

It was about missing what the horse was offering, and instead trying to touch a part of the horse that they weren't offering. The picture I used was taken at the Horse World Expo in Pennsylvania recently.

Today I want to share a picture of a different demo horse from that expo.

This is a 10 year old Warmblood mare who was a broodmare, and has recently been started under saddle. The owner says she drags everyone around, has severe attention issues, and always has her head up looking around.

That's at home on familiar turf, so you can imagine what she was like at the horse expo. When the mare and her handler came in, the mare couldn't stand still, and her head was straight up in the air looking around. As I usually do at horse expos, if I have an hour session, I usually let the handler lead the horse around (or try and stand still) for the first half an hour, so the audience can really see that the horse is not settled , and isn't going to.

Then I take over.

With this mare, when I took a hold of the lead rope, she immediately greeted me with her nose, which I reciprocated with my hand (Action #1). She then walked off away from me and as she tightened the lead rope, I used my flag to draw her thoughts back to where her body was, so getting her to be present (Action #2). These 2 actions are part of a flow chart I have on my website, which is basically a flow chart for appropriate responses to things your horse does.

These 2 things happened twice more in the first 5 minutes of me handling her, so I did a total of 4 quite subtle things.

And then I waited.

The photo of the mare shows the result after about 20 minutes or so.

The next day I posted the photo on Facebook and said a little about it, and someone asked if I'd videod the session. I replied that I hadn't, and didn't really need to, as I didn't do anything I hadn't captured many times on video and put in my video library on my website.

They said they were in the audience, and that they didn't really see me do much, so must have missed something. I had to point out I only did 4 things (which was actually 2 little things, twice each).

It's more about what I didn't do, that the handler had been doing.

I didn't hold the lead rope short or try to control her (the handler had been doing quite a bit of this).

When she stood there and pawed the ground (which she did quite a bit) I didn't do anything (the handler had been trying to correct that).

When she stood with her head high looking around, I didn't do anything (the handler had been trying to get her attention). Actually I looked at what she was looking at, so I suppose there I did do something.

When she chewed on the lead rope, I didn't do anything (The handler had tried to get it out of her mouth).

When she sidepassed up really close to me, I didn't do anything (the handler had stepped away from her when she did this).

And in relation to yesterdays viral post, I didn't touch her, I didn't pet her, I didn't rub her, and I didn't console her (the handler had been doing quite a bit of this), except for the 2 brief times she touched me with he nose.

In the half an hour I was handling her, those 4 little things I did happened in the first 5 minutes.

The rest of the time I did nothing.

After a while she started having the big yawning releases one often sees with the Masterson Method work. She yawned. And yawned. And yawned.

Then her head started to drop into the posture you see in the picture.

And I said to the audience "Doing nothing IS an action", and it's a very powerful one at that. Then I sat down and crossed my legs, for no other reason than to prove to the audience that I wasn't doing anything to her to get her to stand there.

Many people struggle to be in the presence of their horse without doing something. If there's a problem, they want to fix it. if there's not one, they want to fiddle and groom and touch (remember yesterdays post). Many times these well meaning owners (and the handler of this horse was lovely and well meaning) are doing a lot of work to try to resolve their horses anxiety issues, and many times the incessant fiddling and grooming and touching is part of the problem.

Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is be a human being, instead of a human doing.

If you are interested in my work, everything I do is available on video and in courses at videos.warwickschiller.com

09/04/2025

das hier ist essentiell

INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING

I'm reading an amazing book called Amphibious Soul by Craig Foster, the Academy award winning documentary film maker of "My Octopus Teacher".

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, it is simply profound.

In the book he says "As a rule, I never touch an animal unless they touch me first".

In my work building relationship with horses, I do this too. Most times a horse will touch you with their nose/muzzle first, and matching that greeting (versus labelling the horse as a biter) is a game changer.

But there's a phenomenon I have noticed going on with people trying to build relationship with their horses that I have labelled "inappropriate touching", and it looks a bit like the photo below.

This picture was taken at a horse expo in Pennsylvania recently, where I worked with a demo horse who has a "biting issue". He would reaching out in a way that his owner was termed as nipping, whereas I interpreted as him saying hello, similar to reaching out to shake hands with someone.

When he reached out I would greet him with a flat hand that he is able to to nuzzle, lick or even scrape his teeth on. After doing this a while his snappy acting motions got less so, and he was no longer needing to say "hey, pay attention" , but was more "hey, how's it going". I was explaining to the audience that I was meeting him in the way that he was meeting me (with his muzzle) and that it's not an invitation to touch other parts (yet).

I then said that it's many people's default to reach up and rub a horse between the eyes, whether that's what they are offering or not, and that if you do, it's inappropriate touching and it gets in the way of connection. It doesn't meet their needs, and is all about yours.

With the horse in the picture, he'd been engaging me with his muzzle, and I said to the audience "watch what happens when I try to rub him between the eyes". As you can see in the photo, he has raised his head up and is clearly indicating "No, not there, on my muzzle".

We had a Connection And Attunement retreat here at the Journey On Ranch a week ago, and I used my wife Robyn to illustrate this point to the participants. I said "imagine I'm at a gathering and meeting Robyn for the first time". We walked up to each other in that way people do when they see someone new and they can tell an introduction is shaping up, Robyn reached out with her hand to say hello and instead of me reaching out to shake her hand, I gently reached up and lightly brushed a wisp of hair from her cheekbone and tucked it behind her ear.

The participants all gasped and the ick factor was high.

Even though it was caring, and gentle, it was inappropriate at that moment.

Now Im not saying you can't rub your horse on the forehead. I'm saying if your horse has a disregulated nervous system around humans because they don't feel seen (and safe), try to meet their needs first, before trying get get yours met.

I recently saw an instagram post from a University in the UK, and the professor was explaining that they were doing studies on horses to determine levels of stress. In the background a horse was standing with his head out over a Dutch door. While he was explaining their investigations on stress, a female student (or maybe another professor, I don't know which) walked up to the horse. The horse reached out with his muzzle to greet her.

She ignored this and reached up to rub the horse between the eyes.

He turned his head 90 degrees to the left to communicate that wasn't what he was offering.

Her hand followed him and kept rubbing.

he then turned his head 180 degrees to the right, saying "No, not like that".

Smiled, gave him another pet between the eyes, and walked of camera.

While the professor was saying that they are doing experiments determining the amounts of stress horses are under, someone in the background was actually creating stress, without either of them even knowing it.

Once you understand how sentient horses are, and how subtle their communication, you can't unsee it.

08/02/2025

Traum in Pferden

I don’t think people realize just how many horses out there carry trauma with them.

With that, I don’t even mean severely abused horses that have been starved, or beaten heavily. There are plenty of those around, and those usually cause a lot of outrage (as they should).

What I am talking about though, is the horses whose trauma is never really recognized as such. The ones who tolerate humans and their requests, but never learned to trust them. Those who get extremely obsessive about food which are labelled as “bossy” or ”dominant”. Those who deal with severe Separation anxiety, which are said to be “dramatic”. Those who cannot self-regulate, or co-regulate and constantly carry tension. Those who try to express their pain, which get punished for it because “just a mare”.
Those who are “perfect” until they finally get a choice.

Between Unethical weaning practices, unsuitable welfare, constantly moving homes & and ownership, and aversive training/handling approaches, most horses at some point experience trauma. And this trauma can present itself in a variety of ways. Some are more subtle than others.
Trauma doesn’t have to be this huge explosive reaction. Just like people, horses can carry trauma and move on with their lives fairly normally. It can shape their personality just like it can shape ours.
However, that doesn’t mean doing so is healthy.

The horse that has been in 6+ homes before the age of 10, and thus can’t cope with changes. That is Trauma.
The horse that has never had consistent companionship and becomes obsessive with certain herd mates. That is Trauma
The horse that has only known corrections when they tried to express their confusion, fear, or dislike, and turns from “a perfect beginner’s horse” to “Don’t touch me” the moment you stop using corrections. That is Trauma.
The horse that never had a chance to learn from other horses or connect with people and thus can’t trust people to make good choices for them, can’t self-regulate or co-regulate, and can’t think their way through a situation. That is Trauma.
The horse who was only ever fed 2 times a day and was left without food for 6 hours each night, and has thus become food-aggressive. That is Trauma.
The horse who experienced highly aversive training techniques, and thus now gets frustrated, tense and severely stressed out anytime they are handled in a similar manner. That. Is. Trauma.

Sometimes, awareness of this can be a frustration and defeating realization. I think as equestrians we are often blind to this reality, because sadly, it’s just so common to see horses like that.
It’s not until you work with young, untraumatized horses, or rehabilitated horses, that you realize: “Oh! This is how it should be!”

29/11/2024

11/11/2024

23/10/2024

❤️

22/10/2024

21/10/2024

Leider gibt es überall immer noch einige Füchse mit Räude. Man erkennt sie deutlich am "räudig" aussehenden Fell, oft haben diese Tiere auch einen fast kahlen Schwanz. Bei der Räude handelt es sich um Milben, welche einen starken Juckreiz auslösen und die Tiere arg schwächen. Im späteren Stadium können sie nicht mehr jagen, werden immer schwächer und sterben daran. Mit einer einzigen Dosis des richtigen Medikaments kann man sie heilen. Das lässt sich gut in Futter verstecken und in eins zwei Wochen ist alles vorbei und das Fell wächst neu nach.
Solltet ihr in Eurem Umfeld einen solchen Fall haben, meldet Euch gern bei uns und wir unterstützen Euch mit Rat und Tat.
Kontakt über
www.fuchspflegestelle.de
oder per PN

Danke 🙏🦊❣️

20/10/2024

❤️