Customer Reviews

Dancing with Horses: The Art of Body Language

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I own a challenging horse, and have tried many different systems of ground work with her - Parelli, Lyons, Centered Riding, etc. All of them had some effect, but none have really changed her exciteable nature and dominant attitude.
After using some of the exercises in Dancing With Horses, my mare has a totally different attitude. She is much more submissive, much more trusting. It is remarkable.
The book is visually beautiful. The photographs are very helpful in demonstrating the exercises, and are very pretty. The instructions in the text are clear. The horses - and the author - are very handsome, so there are aesthetic benefits as well.
The author describes a certain exercise, and says it will have a profound effect on the horse. I'm accustomed to marketing hyperbole, so I read it, but took it with a grain of salt. And what he wrote was true. Doing that one exercise made an immediate difference in my horse's attitude.
I can't say enough good things about this book. I hope you'll buy it and reap the benefits.
...
Happy trails.

This book held me absolutely transfixed. It is the best horse instruction book that I have ever seen without doubt. I have recently become the owner of a 4 year old thoroughbred gelding who has been taken out of race training. I spent a long time playing with and getting to known this horse in his paddock before I owned him, and this book has given me superb instruction on how to continue with his development and continue to strengthen our bond day by day.
I was becoming very disillusioned with traditional horse training books, which were totally focused on pleasing the rider without any concern for the horse whatsoever. This book is wonderfully visual, very easy to read, very uncluttered and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand horses, because these methods really do work.

I am a former member of the USET 3-Day Team with my horse, The Gray Goose. This book is phenomenal, and is the missing link between natural horsemanship and classical dressage.. Klaus's techniques were learned from Spanish monks who kept alive the traditions of training from the Knights Templar. He emphasizes the person's responsibility in training their horses, and gives clear, consise instructions about how to achieve leadership with horses while maintaining their wonderful spirit and personality. Exercises for both horse and rider are given to achieve oneness in handling and riding, and the spiritual aspect of training is also covered. I have started my own horse over using these techniques, and the effects have been profound and dramatic. I highly recommend this book, and also his video tape of the same name.

On initial browse though this book you may be put off by the very flowery language and some of the interesting but not terribly helpful info (like which peasant saddles KFH likes) but do perservere. Many if not all of the principles are the same as other 'Natural Horsemen' however the difference with this book is the effort that KFH goes to explaining and showing with precise photos HOW to use your body to communicate with your horse.

I found that it took a couple of readings to get the best out of this book and have returned to it many times since then. KFH himself states that you should not begin ANY of the exercises until you have read the book from cover to cover and then begun to read it again. I have to agree despite my initial dismissal of this (huh? he thinks I'm simple )

The layout of the book is a little difficult to follow, there are examples of Klaus' work with young feral horses interspersed with clinics that he runs (providing illustrations of the communication techniques that the book is all about) exercises to perform and 'how to ride' chapters.

However, despite all of these foibles I found this book to be very useful. The clarity and detail in both text and photos of specific exercises - such as leading, working on a lunge or liberty work makes up for its shortcomings. For the first time an author details HOW to use your body in groundwork with a horse - the use of mimcry, the positions and 'zones of dominance or subservience' when working with a horse, what signals and actions will get a horse's attention and how to specifically communication such ideas as 'stop', bring your hind end under (collection), turn or come past.

If you wish to improve your communication skills this is an excellent guide.

The author is obviously a very fine horseman, and we are fortunate that he chose to share his insights into that tricky business of dominance and leadership. The body language he uses is different from some of the round pen teachers. More importantly, he combines "Obey Me and Love Me" in the same sentence. In some ways, he also teaches us to be better people. If you want to be followed, be someone worthy of being followed. Carry yourself like someone worthy of being followed.
His model goes back centuries to the training system of the Knights Templar (disregarding any political considerations). Truly a remarkable horseman and a remarkable book, with many, many illustrations.
As a person who works with Thoroughbreds, for whom not much is accomplished by "making them move" because of course that's what they WANT, this book sets forth a possibility that one can lead with dignity and kindness.

I have a so called problem horses. He was almost dangerous to handle and not so much interested in me. Now i have found my way to communicate with him without using violence. This book is really easy-to-understand with its advices. On this book there is the Hempfling's key philosophy but you can also find really concrete advices from this book. I really have to say i love Hempflings way to communicate with horses.

A simply superb book, written in - I think - a much more attractive style than the majority of horse training books. At no point does Hempfling speak down to the reader - although he states his views, and the reasoning behind them, without any hesitation, and this might offend some readers who lack in open-mindedness and insight.

This book is definitely "different" to the usual run of training books and as such will not appeal to some. As an educated horsewoman of over 50 years experience, though, this is one of the best of the non-traditional books that I have read, and I feel I have learned a great deal from it and had many ideas and inklings confirmed by it.

Many of the dominance concepts I have come to figure out in training three horses to be registered (working) Field Hunters with Old North Bridge Hounds (ONBH) in Concord, MA. I had various pieces but not the whole picture and theory. Klaus gives you the whole picture that you can actually implement from the text and photos.

Dominance has been a real issue with a 5 yr old Trakehner breeding stallion I bought and gelded. He had not been ridden or socialized with people. I am now redoing his ground work and I can make it happen, the results are coming, and it is fun.

And bless Klaus, he is not a fan of the 'round pen'.

The video is beautiful, and I will buy it soon (funding issue). It is something that non-horse folks will like too. Shot in Spainish foothills, and a delight to watch.

Kristina McCormack translates this best-selling European book on how to develop trust and harmony between horses and humans using body language. Dancing With Horses will make an excellent companion to Almost A Whisper, reviewed above: the focuses on understanding horse psyche are similar, as is the holistic approach; but the methods are different - and complimentary. Color photos pack a step-by-step guide to this 'horse/human' body language.

In defense of the book, the author has the right attitude in natural training through a sense of patience, understanding and fun.

However, please consider the following before purchase:

- This book is practically an infomercial for the small, baroque spanish horse. The writer quite openly states that the average rider should only ride a horse between 14.1 and 15.1. He "does not know of any reason they should be bred any larger." Um.. Eventing? Jumping? Hard to get a horse to jump anything they can't see over.

- Modern dressage is "monotinous" and "robotic." Basically pointless to study. The elements of riding a larger horse--unfit because their backs are too long, 17 instead of 15 vertebrae--are completely ignored. Huh? Modern dressage teaches self carriage and strengthens the back and abdominal muscles. All the author sees is someone pulling the horses head into a frame.

Admittedly, many riders ride in a false frame--in error--because it looks like a frame and with draw-reins (or just pulling) it is easy to do. But all of modern dressage is dismissed out of hand, because they use contact with the mouth and this is cruel. Well hello--he's using a curved bit and not a French snaffle--of course you can't take up contact in a curved bit! Western riders get collection on a curved bit without contact too! A friend of mine is an event rider and has full control of her horse in a rubber snaffle. If he wasn't happy, he wouldn't be the performing athlete he is!

- According to the book, leading a horse should only be done from the front because it is the dominant position. Leading from the shoulder is wrong because it is a submissive position to the horse. Well, leading a sporthorse from the front is a bad idea, because if they spook, you can get run over. Horses are flight animals! If you've established a good relationship with your horse, he is submissive no matter where you are around him. It's called ground manners.

But this book is myopically scoped to the small baroque and therefore not very hotblooded horse. If you get run away with on one of these guys, you're going maybe 20 mph. Not 40 mph like on a thoroughbred, and most everyone I know rides off-the-track thoroughbreds. And why not? They are cheap, available, sensitive, intelligent, athletically adaptable to lots of disciplines, have a work ethic, and a desire to please. So please read John Lyons, do a google search on horse rescue, and don't let these wonderful animals be eaten by the French because baroque horses are the new fashionable accessory.

Thoroughbreds are NOT "unrideable, concave" horses as this author implies. The average rider "is in no way equipped to train these horses properly." So you have to learn a correct seat and leg to stop them because they are forward and train self-carriage. Oh my heavens. But isn't that what horsemanship is about? Schooling advancement, building communication, suppleness, acceptance of the bit? Not in the small world of this book.