Motivation from Moshi 78, by Jane Savoie

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I’m a people whisperer. A Moshi Level Five People Whisperer, to be exact. Fellow horses come to me when they are confused by their people and ask what their person really meant by their crazy people language. These poor confused horses say things like, “my person says she’s the boss when on my back by directing where we go, but then moves her feet and backs away from me on the ground, which says I’m the boss instead of her. I’m confused!”

I remind them that people have a different language than we do, and we horses need to learn to be “people whisperers.” That means we have to do our best to learn to listen to human commands with our ears, and to ignore the loud body language people scream at us. It’s very hard for us to do, as we naturally listen to body language much more readily than noise. People are very confusing and incongruent to equines, and sometimes the mixed signals make us a bit crazy.

To help, I am posting this message to all my horse friends:

Dear fellow equine: When your human freely gives you lots of treats or lets you push her around with your nose, that means she loves you, not that you’re her boss. I know it is uncomfortable and confusing because to you this behavior means you’re in charge, but you need to learn to tolerate this and not take over. Try not to get confused when she then turns around and asks you to yield your feet to her direction and control.

Most humans do not know how to speak horse and don’t realize they are giving you conflicting signals. So even though you find it very difficult to have respect for, or feel safe with, someone who lets you push her around, you’re going to have to learn to tolerate it. Then, when your person gets on your back and asks you to go where she tells you to go, you need to find it in yourself to instantly change your opinion of this person and let her be the leader. Yes, I know it sounds impossible to do, but you must learn to do this if you want to be considered a really good horse.

This is lesson one of the People Whisperer. More to come.

To my human friends, thanks for sharing this lesson with your horse! It will be very helpful for him or her to understand that people don’t often mean what they say, or say what they mean, in our horse language. I know it’s not intentional, but it happens anyway.

I gotta go! Here comes Jane! I think she has a bag of carrots. She makes me earn them, but I don’t mind. Does your horse have to earn his carrots or has he learned to demand them from you?

Love, Moshi

From Indy:

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I ate the cat. Okay… that’s not true, but there are times when I wish I could. She makes me so mad! We’ve called a truce, but I’m still upset. She said she would tell me where Lobby, my stuffed lobster, is hiding, if I promise to catch a rabbit for her. The problem is I don’t actually catch the rabbits. I just chase them. I declined. Getting Lobby back is not worth having to hurt one of my bunny friends.

So… the cat said she would give me one last clue if I promise to bring her another dog biscuit. I agreed. I took a biscuit out to the barn and set it in front of her She purred the following clue:

“Roses are red, pine trees are green
Lobby is somewhere he can be seen…
Open a door and look down below
Careful a lobster might grab your toe…”

Where could this be? What do YOU think?

My new friends, Agents KK3 and KK4, Xena and Zoey, are going to come over and help search. They are “sight hounds,” of the Cirneco dell’Etna breed, from Sicily. I’d never met anyone like them before! They have really sharp eyes, so maybe they will see what I can’t.

I’ll let you know if we find Lobby!

Love, Agent KK9, Indy

Jane Savoie
1174 Hill St ext.
Berlin, VT 05602

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