The two horses rub each other’s necks, ferreting out the itchy or sore spots in each other. How do they know to do this? Is their mutual grooming actually bodywork?

Even horses who are separated by fences can do this to a certain extent. I’ve seen horses pick out a spot on another horse that needs attending, and the other horse will know what to do.

We witness this cooperative behavior, that is more than cooperative behavior, but a deeper understanding of what the other needs. As horses don’t rely on a “spoken” or written language, their needs are communicated to each other in a clear way by their body language and deeper energetic language.

Some of it is visible, like the horses rubbing each other’s necks, some of it is in positioning, or some message passed between them that we notice only if we are around them a lot.

Watching herds, even two horses together, can give us valuable information on what horses need from each other, and from us. Horses who are separated by fences and have limited interaction with other horses may need more bodywork from humans, because they don’t get touched by each other as much. Same species interaction and the healing effects of the rhythms of that species are key.

Horses being able to move each other around, and be moved, while it may look boring,  defines their day in nature. Seeking food and water together, running from prey, huddling in shelter, keeping each other warm. Even their movements, synchronized, support those primal rhythms. Herds protect them from predators.

While there may be no natural predators in the area of your pasture or paddock, the horse still behaves the same way. The horse wants company of her own kind. Hoofed animals, ungulates, commonly reside in herds. That’s why providing companionship for horses is so vital.

While they can bond with their human family, most humans don’t live outside with them 24/7. So perhaps you go inside and your horse is looking at your house, wondering when you’re going to come out again. If he has a friend, then most likely he’ll find something else to do with his friend.

During the first months Patches was with us, he became very ill and the vet told me to watch him all night. I spent the night in the trailer so I could keep an eye on him. Each time I got up in the night to check, he was staring at the trailer. I would look through the curtains and see him still watching the trailer. The next day the vet wanted him at the horse hospital for treatment as he had pneumonia. Because of how he had been so attached, I worried about having to send him to the hospital, but I also knew he wasn’t going to get well without that intervention.

A lot of what horses do together can increase their health and their chances of living long lives. Of course, they can injure each other too, but in cooperative relationships they generally do very well.

And relationships are what it’s all about. I notice that while I can put two horses together, if they don’t have a relationship or any desire to form a relationship, then they go their separate ways. Patches is happiest with his herd and with me. And he really enjoys human visitors.

Knowing our horses and what they need in relationship helps us help them. At our barn, there are many horses who are separated by fences but know each other well. They are turned out together in different groups, and they have great longevity. I can’t say definitively that the reason they live so long is because of this, but I would guess it’s a contributing factor. (They also receive excellent care, feed and supplements). Very few horses leave. Their community is intact.

To me, it is a best case scenario when you can’t keep horses together in a herd situation.

When I do bodywork on horses, I sometimes find that one horse needs some work, say, in the area of his upper neck and head, but he can’t bear me to be working in that location. I will work elsewhere on the body. If he has a companion, and I can work on the companion horse in the neck and head region, the first horse will tune in and be helped by that. Then after doing that work on the second horse, I may be able to go back to the first horse and work in the affected region. I have seen some remarkable results with this technique.

To me, this is very exciting. This gives me access to an underlying community connection that the horses share, particularly those who live close together.

Horses in the wild may become injured or lame and continue to run with the herd. They will run because to not run will slow down the herd. And also, in so doing, the lame animal will gain strength and rhythm from the movement and possibly that will heal it faster than sitting in one place.

Vets know how important it is for horses to move and will want a horse to move after an injury as soon as possible. Movement is life.

Again, I mention my gelding Patches, because Patches has been lame a lot over the years. At his worst, my mare Zuzka would move him all over the place, as though the worse off he was, the more he needed to move. She was right. He has navicular, arthritis, an old fracture, you name it. Sometimes it was painful to watch her push him like that, and him stumbling to get out of her way.

But he is better for it. He can move. He can be ridden lightly most of the time now. While she has passed away, he is still moved around, and he can move others. His self-esteem has greatly improved. I think movement was key to his healing process.

Bodywork is also all about movement. We are creating movement in the tissues, fluids, fascia, everywhere that circulation is needed, which is everywhere. For the person or animal who can’t physically move, we bring movement. To areas of the body which are atrophied or not experiencing movement, or dysfunctional movement, we open the body to the possibility of movement.

Once that is part of the body’s understanding of itself, then it can venture, on its own, to explore that new space provided by movement. And, whether we are human or animal, our communities can support us, carry us along, with images of the running herd and the rhythms that we share, as same species or cross species.

(c) Susan Smith, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Equine Body Balance (TM)

See my

Events for information on upcoming clinics and workshops. 2019 calendar is developing! Classes in Florida, Canby, Oregon, Santa Fe – Equine Body Balance and Horses at Liberty Foundation Training this coming year. Private herd work, Mounted Body Balance, Equine Body Balance, human and horse sessions also available by appointment.