A Chat with Local Author Sharon Wilsie

Sharon Wilsie interacting with a horse outside in a pasture

Have you ever wished that you could speak with your horse? While it is a common dream for many equestrians, local author Sharon Wilsie of Westminster, VT, has decoded equine facial expressions and body movements so that you can truly have a conversation with your horse. We sat down with Sharon to learn more about Horse Speak and how it can influence your relationship with your horse. 

Essential Horse Speak by Sharon Wilsie
Sharon’s third book, which will be published in spring 2022

The response to her books has been wonderful, with Horse Speak: An Equine-Human Translation Guide being translated into seven different languages since it was published. Horses in Translation: Essential Lessons in Horse Speak is the second book in the series, and her third book will be released in spring 2022.

In addition to her impressive collection of printed works, Sharon also offers clinics and training consultations. Working with horse owners, either in a hands-on format or in a virtual setting, Sharon helps equestrians of all skill levels, backgrounds, and disciplines learn to communicate clearly with their horses. Additionally, Horse Speak offers online programs where horse enthusiasts can continue to dive into Sharon’s studies, learning more about the nuances of equine body language and facial expressions.

The Cheshire Horse (TCH): What is your background in horses?

Sharon Wilsie (SW): I started riding when I was turning 10, first it was in the hunter/jumper world; but then, my riding instructor attended one of the early programs at the Spanish Riding School [in Vienna, Austria], back when they first opened it up to the public. She was there for about six months and came back with an entirely different perspective.

She also came back with a wonderful baroque schoolmaster, and I was lucky enough to get to ride him. So, that was a revelation for me. The philosophy that she had been taught at the school was also more in the line of “letting the horse teach.” It was an incredible education and I was also able to learn more about classical in-hand work and how it influenced the horses. As a child and teenager, I was just soaking in all in.

Then, as an adult, I became a mom, and some of my priorities needed to change. Horses were put on hold for a few years as I learned to navigate my new roles.

But, I just couldn’t live without horses in my life. When I came back to horses, I began working at a trail riding facility. I was riding Western, leading people on trails. This incited an interest in Western riding, and I began working a bit with reiners and I even tried a bit of team penning.

My passion showed up when I was asked to help teach for Landmark College in Putney, VT. I was asked to develop the Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) program for the school, and I implemented that for about eight years. I also became their intercollegiate riding coach at the school.

At the same time, I began working for a couple of New England horse rescues. I had become a traveling consultant for their hard cases and difficult horses with my in-hand background. This led to me teaching clinics and volunteer training programs at the various rescues that I was working with.

My experience with Landmark College, working with at-risk youth, and with the rescues, working with at-risk horses, piqued my interest in understanding horse behavior. This kind of led me down the rabbit hole of truly connecting with horses and decoding their behavior. 

TCH: What inspired you to write Horse Speak?

SW: I ended up taking a sabbatical to run a research project that the EAL program and the rescue work had really inspired in me. I had several students from the college sign on for the summer semester, and then I completed the rest of the research by myself. I basically dedicated that time to decoding and encoding precise horse body language. 

There is a lot of information out there, especially in the natural horsemanship realm, and it was a good start for me. But I wanted to go deeper. What I started to uncover were patterns that were not only repeatable and predictable but were also learnable. So human beings can encode a message back to a horse in a way that the horse already comprehends, literally just using the signals, postures, and gestures like eye message, breathe message, and body language.

The book came as a culmination of all of these studies. The book project started in 2014 and came together quickly actually, in about nine months, once I started working with my co-author Gretchen Vogel. I had written thousands and thousands of pages of research that we were able to summarize and compile into a summary of my studies. What it really came down to was I wrote the book that I had been trying to find myself as I was doing this research.

Sharon Wilsie interacting with a buckskin horse in an indoor arena

TCH: What are you hoping that readers will take away from the book?

SW: Very simply, this is not a training program at all, in any way. You can absolutely utilize every single thing in Horse Speak in any training program that you are a part of. It is about how horses speak to one another.

This makes what you’re already doing so much better. If you have a great relationship with your horse, it is going to kick it up a notch. It is important that we realize that our horses have real and legitimate concerns that we can help them with.

I had a mare that I was working with who was consistently afraid of one corner of the round pen. In an attempt to help her regulate her fears, I went over to investigate and she placed herself between me and the round pen. When I was finally able to get close to the area, I realized that there was a huge yellow jacket nest there. Many times when horses are reacting strongly to something, they are trying to communicate with us. Once we can have a conversation with them, it has maximum impact with very little effort to influence change in their behaviors.

TCH: What do you wish more people understood about trying to communicate with your horse?

SW: I think that so many people lack the understanding as to how important appropriate touch truly is. When you know how to touch your horse, they respond positively and enjoy the interaction. Roughly patting your horse is not a reward for many horses, but smooth touch mimics the way that they communicate with one another.

Your hands have so much awareness that we are not even aware of. They have 17,000 nerve receptors that bypass the prefrontal cortex and go directly to the hindbrain. When you touch something, your brain receives an infinite amount of information that we don’t even need to think about. 

When we are with our horses, we so often never really touch them. We put a halter on them, we put a lead rope on them, we brush them, we saddle them, but many of us don’t truly put our hands on our horses. When you know how to touch your horse, there is information that their body will give your body.

Horses are looking to be touched appropriately, not in a rushed fashion. Much like humans might not enjoy extended hugs from strangers, horses have a personal bubble of space. When we are invited into their space, horses want touch that is clued into what they are feeling. 

​​Horses care about two primary things, clarity of body language and quality of touch. Clarity of body language is having mindful awareness of what you are doing with your body both on approach and while up close with your horse. 

Horses only tune us out when we use murky or inconsistent gestures. For instance, if you have your hands in your pockets, it could be because you have treats or your hands are cold.  Or if the only time you put your hands in the air is to lunge your horse or your hands are in the air just for grooming purposes your horse may startle. What we tune out as everyday gestures, horses are keenly aware of.

What is really nice about horses is that they don’t hold grudges. When we start to exhibit behaviors that serve them in a positive way, they are happy to shift their thinking about our interactions.

Sharon Wilsie interacting with a grey horse behind a fence

TCH: What are some of your other book recommendations for readers who enjoy your book?

SW: Oh, that’s a great question! I tend to enjoy books that are in support of people who are reaching for something and trying to better their horsemanship skills in lieu of straightforward training manuals. I love all books by Mark Rashid, such as Journey To Softness, and books by Wendy Murdoch, she is such a talented horsewoman. The Masterson Method books, such as Horse Massage: Light to the Core, by Jim Masterson, present a wonderful way that horse lovers can connect more deeply with their horses.

To learn more about Sharon Wilsie and her Horse Speak programs, we encourage you to read her books Horse Speak: An Equine-Human Translation Guide and Horses in Translation: Essential Lessons in Horse Speak, and check out her Sharon Wilsie: Horse Speak Website.

All of these photos are from her forthcoming book Essential Horse Speak: Continuing the Conversation, which will be available in Spring, 2022. The photos are by Laura Wilsie.

1 thought on “A Chat with Local Author Sharon Wilsie”

  1. Thank you for the wonderful, insightful interview. It is so exciting to find a way we can learn not only how to understand what our horses are saying but to be able to answer them as well.

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