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THE HORSES'S EYE
Horsemanship from Luke 11:34-36
by Jan Young"The eye is the lamp of your body;
when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light;
but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.
Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.
If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it,
it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."
(New American Standard Version)The horse's eye can give us a glimpse into its mind. A horse might have a bright clear eye, or it might have a wary eye, a dull eye, or even what we might call a dead eye. Bringing about a change from a dull or tense eye to a bright soft eye is a rewarding process, to both the human and the horse. How does this happen?
My late husband Jack took in many outside horses, generally colts to start or problem horses that needed help. Almost without fail, the eye was dull, and it was immediately obvious that the horse did not know how to give his attention, apparently because it had never been asked of him. Many people get the horse's body to do various things but do not engage the mind, the attention--maybe not even realizing they need to. Such a horse may respond to stimuli mechanically, or maybe out of concern or even fear. The darkness inside him not had yet been illuminated. It showed in his eye.
Regardless of whether the horse had been ridden, he always started it loose in the round pen as if it were a green colt. He would begin to ask for its attention in different ways, such as physical proximity and movement, with his lass rope or flag, or even just kicking a little dirt. He looked for a glance, a flick of the ear, a tilting of the head toward him, a change in posture--anything that indicated the horse acknowledged him. He rewarded the slightest try by getting still, ceasing eye contact, or moving away from the horse.
As the horse began to associate Jack's ask and an attentive response with the removal of pressure or stimuli, the eye would gradually change. First there would be a flicker of interest, then a glance from one eye, more frequent and longer glances, then a look with both eyes, as the light began to come on. The change started in the mind as the attention was engaged and could be seen in the eye as it gradually cleared and brightened. Others may speak of the attention as working with the horse's thoughts, as engaging the horse, or as the "birdie" (mounted on old cameras above the lens to capture the subject's attention).
In every case, over time the eye brightened and changed. The horse learned a new way of thinking about the human. At first it had been aware of how it might avoid or escape the human; now it was becoming aware of ways to get with the human. Its attention was drawn to the human and what he was doing. Initially the horse may have been tense, uninterested, rudely domineering, or shut down; now its attitude began to change, to improve. Its instinctive self-preservation was no longer dominant; now it was thinking, learning to learn. Its eye was clearer and showed understanding. Its eye truly reflected the light that was coming on in the mind, in the body.
Not only was Tom Dorrance a great horseman, but many noticed that the horses he rode or handled were better afterwards even for other people to ride or handle. Tom worked with the horse's attention; once that light has been turned on in its brain, it will become more attentive, more responsive to our efforts at communication.
Jesus says in the passage above that the light needs to come on for us also, that our eye, our mind, may be clear and not dark. How does our eye become light? By focusing our attention more and more on the Light of the world. The Master Horseman has many ways to get our attention! He said, "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness." John 12:46
Copyright 2025 Jan Young