Horses in Williamsburg

Joyce Henry: My name is Joyce Henry, and as the head coachman, I train the carriage horses. When they arrive, we need them to know how to ride and drive, because they all do dual duty, as they did in the 18th century. They will draw the carriages every day, 365 days a year.

But I think it’s important today to have these carriages out, because, nowhere in the world can a visitor come and see these remarkably beautiful accurate representations of 18th century carriages.

And then, not just to see them, but to have the opportunity to ride in one, see the town as the gentry saw it in the 18th century saw it, from in that particular vista. It’s a wonderful experience.

Horses are herd animals. Social hierarchy preserves the safety of the herd. They must operate as a herd in order to remain safe from predators. So this translates into how we train. So if I get a new horse, the first thing I do is I put him into what we call a round pen, about a 60-foot diameter, 8-foot tall pipe pen that the horse cannot escape out of.

I just put him in, and I’ll use a lunge whip, not to hit the horse with but to crack and make noise. I’m establishing that social hierarchy. He’ll look at me, which means he’s recognizing me as the herd leader. I’m speaking his language.

Am I moving like a horse, am I squealing, am I kicking? No, but he learns to interpret my movement as what another horse would be doing, and it doesn’t take long. When I see the horse looking right at me, licking and chewing, and lowering his head, and you’ll start to see it happen, it’s almost magical for those that have never seen it, which is why a lot of people call it horse whispering, which it’s not. It’s common sense.

We don’t want animals that are responding by fear, by forcing, which is what they did in the 18th century. Basically I can even saddle the horse, I can drive the horse, I can bit the horse. Each horse is different, but even in a first lesson, I can do a lot of things that a lot of people would take weeks or months to do because I introduce it, the horse finds it’s not threatening, I don’t make it a big deal. The training just goes from there. And that’s how we train horses today in Colonial Williamsburg.

© 2009 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation