Manding
Manding is the first attempts at communication before a language is established. We often see manding as annoying, frustrating habits our animals do that drive us crazy, we may even punish these. Think of a horse kicking a door for attention or food. But the worst possible thing we can do is punish our first lines of communication. The horse is asking for something (or the removal of something) we may not always be able to give them what we want, but we can open a dialogue.
At first manding can be annoying, the horse finds ways to get what they want from us and usually they do things we don't love to get our attention and results. Usually because annoying things work R- seems highly effective on humans, but as always it creates unwanted emotional responses as well.
We want to not only be aware that these mands are communication, not just being a pain in the... but an honest attempt to communicate what they want/need. Then we can adjust the dialogue to be more socially appropriate for us. Just like a child screaming "i want ice cream!!!" We can teach our horses polite ways to communicate their wants/needs.
We can begin by teaching them preferred ways to communicate, by giving them buttons or just specific behaviors which let us know what they're asking. A simple example is our colt who likes to nibble humans to get us to groom/scratch him. We simply stopped scratching when he turned his head toward us and continued when his head was away. He learned that to ask for scratches he can line up and tip his head away. We can teach our horses communication tools for things they want and don't want, like asking us to dismount by targeting our foot.
This means we need to listen at least most of the time. When we open up communication, we need to respect it. Even if its not on our schedule. Once well established we can say "yes i heard you, give me a moment", but it would be rude to say "no" all together. Outside of emergencies. Opening a two way communication with your horse means you have to be better at listening, respecting your horse's wishes, and communicating kindly yourself. But it opens a world of new relationship possibilities with much more choice.