Giving Horses a Voice with Sharon Wilsie – Episode 5

What is the difference between behavior and language?

In this episode, Sharon Wilsie explores the difference between behavior and language in horses. While observing an elder rescue horse named Old Ed, Sharon began to notice recurring patterns of communication that conveyed messages of safety, calm, and relaxation within the herd.

As a prey animal, the horse constantly reads the environment for danger. Through careful observation, Sharon discovered that what many people call behavior is actually a structured non-verbal language with a beginning, middle, and end.

These repeated sequences—from large gestures to subtle micro-gestures—became part of a catalog that helps humans learn to decode and encode horse communication.

The foundation of this work is relational literacy, where understanding the horse’s language creates a deeper connection, trust, and partnership between horses and humans.