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I dunno. I don't think that my horses think that I'm a horse. But by the time they've been with me for a while they definitely understand things like "No! You MAY NOT eat my damn flowers!" when it's yelled at them.  From what I've seen horses learn language. When European horses are imported here, they often go into a bit of a depression and perk up enormously when someone comes around and talks to them in their "native" language. I've seen this myself with some Irish jumpers who landed here and couldn't figure out Arabic for a while.

Mine get spoken to in Arabic and English and do well in both languages.  One of my friends corrects her horses in German and praises them in Arabic.  Boy, do they ever know the difference.

Maryanne
in the land of multilingual equids

On Jan 15, 2005, at 11:55 PM, Marv Walker wrote:

> How do you explain it
>
> acting like I'm a horse, or at the very least, responding to me in
>
> a horse-like manner when I present it with horse-like actions?
>
>
>
> Here's how I Iook at it..... Consider yourself in a foreign country, let's say Germany.? You're trying your best to speak the native language, you even have one of those little translator books or high tech hand held computers that will give you translations.? The locals, for the most part, look at you with tolerance and try very hard to understand what you're saying.? Maybe 30% is actually understandable (if you're lucky).? They are indulgent and in some cases amused by your efforts to learn their language (unless you're in France ;).? BUT they know for sure that you are not a German citizen, just someone trying to speak the language.? More power to you, but you will never be mistaken for a native.
> ?
> That's sort of how I view horses when we *think* we're speaking horse.? We're still humans and the horse knows we're humans. But (if we're lucky) a few "words"come across and the horse doesn't think we're complete idiots.
>
> But you see, if you go to Germany and you try to convince
> them you're German and you try to get them to comply as
> a German would, it won't.
>
> If I go into a herd of horses and try to convince them that
> I am a horse and I try to get them to comply as a horse would,
> it will.
>
> Marv "It's amazing how those who haven't seen, describe." Walker
>
>
>
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Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
miloflamingo.blogspot.com
http://www.alsorat.com