Product Details

• Actors: Marlis Amato
• Format: NTSC, Color, DVD, Digital Sound
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Run Time: 63 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000LP1HWO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #285,949 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Marlis Amato, founder of the Mirroring Equine Attitudes (MEA)programs, shows how horses in the domestic herd communicate with each other individually and in groups, and how their movements and gestures can be translated into human body language so we can speak directly with our horses in a way they can understand. The MEA programs train both horse and human so that the two can form a firm, respectful, and mutually beneficial partnership. She shows how learning to "speak silently" in Equus, the language of the horse, can be our chief training tool so we can approach our horses freely, without any special equipment, and educate them using the same language their mothers used when they were foals and the alpha uses with them daily. Marlis shares footage of horse herd interactions and compares to this to our human interactions in training and communicating with our horse. She demonstrates how we can elicit certain responses, both intentionally and unintentionally, using their language. For those looking to improve every interaction with their horse, both on the ground or from their back, you'll find this video to be invaluable.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Horse Whispering: Silence, December 6, 2006

By 

Kat Driade "wu wei rider" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Equus As a Second Language: A Translation Guide for Horse Lovers (DVD)

I love this DVD. It's different from all the other books and DVDs I've read and seen. It's not direct instruction about training or about riding, but the information I've gotten from it help me in both. The emphasis of the whole DVD is on just how effective our most subtle and silent movements can be in getting our horses to do what we ask. One correctly timed subtle movement, like just the lift of our head, can make a horse know to stay out of our space. On the other hand, one "incorrect" or ill-timed subtle movement (incorrect in that we intend to be saying something other than what we actually do say -- like we've just been using the wrong word all this time!) can, for example, cause the horse to leave when we actually want him to stay.

The DVD shows horses interacting in the herd, and, then, the trainer, Marlis Amato, working with individual horses using the language she has learned from watching the herd. It's amazing! The horses respond immediately because, as she says on the DVD, they learned this stuff as babies. We just have to tell it to them the way their mom did.

Most of the other stuff out there is about sporadically observed herd behavior in the wild. This is about behavior in the domestic herd, behavior that the trainer sees every day. Her explanations of how humans can communicate the same way as the mom or the alpha mare do are very understandable. And, bottom line, it's really working with my two quarter horses.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best DVD on herd dynamic I have seen, December 8, 2006

By 

Pasofino "Pasofino" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Equus As a Second Language: A Translation Guide for Horse Lovers (DVD)

Finally, a DVD that explains how the dynamics of a herd relates to the interaction of humans to horses. It has helped me see what my horses want from me in working with them, what they need from me in order to understand what I want out of them. Makes training and ground work so much more enjoyable, once you understand what you are trying to achieve.

It is a great way to understand how the wild herds talk to one another and take that information to your training methods. This DVD translates "horse" to words humans can understand.

You will watch this DVD over and over again and see something different that you can use each time you see it.

Money WELL spent.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty in Motion, December 26, 2006

By 

Herder on the hill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Equus As a Second Language: A Translation Guide for Horse Lovers (DVD)

My friend and I watched Equus as A Second Language the first evening it arrived in the mail. Firstly, I must say it is absolutely beautiful! I could sit there and watch those Arabians running around all day. Even for someone not closely involved with horses, there is much to watch and enjoy. The horse farm is beautiful, the sense of space for the horses is magnificent. My friend thought Marlis Amato, the trainer, is very much like the horse whisperer. She said she wished she had seen this DVD before she started working with horses because it would have been very helpful to her. She says there is not enough good stuff like this out there. Our favorite scene is the one with the mare and filly, in which the Mom is teaching the baby how to behave. And we really loved the music. Somehow the music makes this DVD more exciting than the usual training DVDs. I would recommend this DVD for people wanting to know more about how to be with horses as well as for their friends and families who just enjoy watching animals interacting with each other. Watching the herd line up in the same order every time they felt threatened was really surprising and interesting. The herder on the hill