At the suggest of cristina and isabelle.p.66 I am starting a post on how you started working with horse and got interested in Monty's methods.
The more information you give the more your fellow UNI will become connected with you and we will be able to share the good the bad and the ugly of having horses.
I started my connection with horses when I was a little boy and I would visit my grandparents. My grandfather raise Tennessee walkers He would show his horses at theGrand National Horse Show in the Cow Palace at San Francisco. This was the most important horse show for a longtime. Anyway I would go to the barn and hang around with the horse. They would lower their heads so I could rub their faces. My grandfather alway would tell me to leave the horse alone. He was a very strict person and I think now that he was a mean person to his horses. They were afraid of him, but the horses got back at him when he got too harsh with them the horse put him on the ground and in the hospital. My grandmother put an end to this and made him sell the horses.
All the time I was growing up I would find time to be with horses if they were around, but when I was a teenager until my easy thirties I had lost the connection. A friend of mine let me ride his horse one day and that got me reconnected and I bought a quarter horse that was a show horse but had arthritis in her hocks and could no longer show. The lady who trained the horse was always tapping the horses head to keep its head tucked. The horse was head shy, nervous and hyper when I bought her, but I saw that she was a great horse and just need to be a horse again. After a year of lots to trail riding a good farrier and vet she was in perfect health, without any pain in her hocks and no longer head shy. Anytime she would refuse to go someplace because of her fear I would just wait with her unit she started to think about what I was asking her and not reacting because she was afraid. She would always go where I asked her. After about five years I was injured at work and had to have back surgery and was told I could not longer ride. I gave my horse to a training school for children where she spent the rest of her time.
So for almost thirty years I was without a horse and had lost a part of me that I did not realize until one day I was told by an old horse trainer to ride a Peruvian Paso and he would not take no for answer. Well I got on the horse, we were at a horse show at the time, and off I went. It was like I had turn on a switch inside me. Not too long after that I bought my horse Merengue , a Peruvian Paso stallion. We had an instant connection. He would put his face in mine and I would blow into his nose. This is how horses introduce themselves to one another, they will also remember you by your smell. My horse has taught me a lot in the eight years that we have been together. Three years ago he got Pigeon Fever and was sick for a long time. It took ten months for the wounds to heal and during that time my trainer would give him a special water treatment to help heal the wounds. He did this everyday twice a day for almost ten months. During this time I found out a grab deal about how horses deal with pain and discomfort. People all thought that I was going to have to put him down because he was so sick but Merengue never gave up and when he turned the corned and started to heal I know he would be OK. I don't show hime very much now because he lost so much muscle mass in his chest he doesn't present the big power that judges are looking for. He just does his work and there is no more that I can ask of him. We know are doing lots of long walks with the other horse on the ranch. His favorite horse to be with besides his brother that is stabled next to him is a mare. As long as he is n front of her is OK. I have shown him in parades and he is always the best behaved horse . Most stallions you cannot have them to close to other horses, but I can ride him between other horses in a parade and he just does his work.
I had heard about Monty for a number of years and one day I viewed one of his videos on the internet and it was instant for me. That is how I would want to be treated if I were a horse! I have since seen a number of other trainers, but there is always something off putting to me, with the exception of Chris Cox and maybe a couple of others, Monty's attitude toward the horse is so balanced and effective that I try to act with the same attitude towards my horse as well as other peoples horse.
This has been really long so I hope the reader has not fallen asleep!
Now it is your turn to share your story. You are next!
Cheers
Dennis
What an interesting story.I did not fall asleep at all! I come from a non horsey family, but my parents will attest to the fact that just along the road from our house was a paddock with two horses in it. As a toddler, I would be out with my mum in the pram and as soon as we reached the end of the road I was out of the pram and running as fast as I could to the paddock where I would stand and gaze up at the two big brown horses who hung their heads over the fence. There is a snapshot of me wearing a red coat, aged no more than 18 months, reaching my little hand up towards their muzzles as they look down at me.
As one of four kids there was not a lot of spare money around for riding lessons, so I had to wait until after university, until I was 23 years old and earning my own money before I could afford riding lessons. Then when I was 27 my grandfather died and left me a small sum of money, which was enough to buy myself a horse. I bought a middle aged Fell pony, from a riding school. She was 14 years old and 14 hands high, dark brown, short and stocky and built like a tank. I knew nothing of the breed at the time, but came to love them for their independence, their stamina and their ability to suss out a rider within the first two seconds. She taught me so much, and we had a lot of fun together on trail rides and long distance riding.
Six years ago we made the decision to move from the UK to New Zealand and so I had to find a new home for my girl, she eventually went on loan to a lovely lady who already had 4 other Fell ponies and she died at the age of 25 quietly in the paddock early one morning. I still miss her so much. Sadly there are no Fells that I know of in New Zealand. So now I find myself the owner of an eight year old anglo-arab and a sixteen year old standardbred who live together at my home in a four acre paddock, I have owned them for six and four months respectively and we are still getting to know each other. They are very different characters, like chalk and cheese.
I first saw Monty at a demonstration in 1996 at Osbaldeston Equestrian Centre in the UK, with his horse Dually. It was the most amazing evening - his work was only just becoming known, and his methods were still very new. The first part of the evening was introducing the Join Up method, and the second part was a ridden demonstration with him riding Dually western style. His whole demeanour resonated with me and it all made such good sense that I have never forgotten it.
Great idea, Dennis. Maybe my first word wasnt horse, but close. I always loved them, and always saw them even when nobody else did, until I pointed them out. Everytime anyone asked what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas, the answer was always the same, I want a horse. So my mom bought me dolls. We didnt live in town, but she always said we did when I would ask for a horse, until I was 8, when my dad bought 2 welsh ponies, brother and sister, for my second older sister and me. She didnt like horses and was afraid of them, and King knew it and gave her no end of trouble. Anyway, he got us the horses, but nobody ever taught us anything, we had to teach ourselves, which I, at least did. We had pads, but no saddles, so I went everywhere bareback. Queenie was a good teacher and babysitter. Then I outgrew her and took King on, and learned to ride. Had to, or walk home. Soon after we got the first 2, Dad met this guy who had a 7 year old mare and a 4 yeart old stallion for sale, he went to see them and was appalled at the way the guy treated them, they were as wild as any mustang and the stallion hated the guy. When they brought them home, they had 2 ropes on him, Dad had one and Dale had the other, but when Fury came out of the truck, he wheeled straight for Dale ready to kill him, Dale dropped his rope and ran. Dad managed to get both ropes off and let the horse go. Dale had hit the mare across the nose with a chain because she didnt know anything, she carried the scar the rest of her life. She was dangerous to approach from either end, and the few people they hired to break her said it couldnt be done, she was a good broodmare but would never be ridden. Well, Fury got tangled in barbwire one time, and dad and I had to get him loose, dad told me to go hold his head and talk to him while he cut him loose, so I did, he laid still and didnt move until Dad told him he could get up, then he did, sniffed both of us like he was saying thank you, and after that, we had no problem with him. When I was 14, mom sold all the horses but the mare, and told me if I could break her, I could have her. She was 13 then, we had gotten her halter broke but that was it. So I went out, looked at her, and told her, I am going to ride you, went and got a bridle, put it on, and got on. She looked around like she was saying what is this?, so I reached down and pulled a weed and tapped her with it, and she started off nice as anything. It was the start of a wonderful relationship. I lost her when I was 17, and didnt have horses again until I was nearly 30, then it was a half broke gelding with an attitude, he would be steady as a rock with snakes, dogs, unexpected antelope, but would go ballistic over a dead tree or a rock. But he was a lot of fun. Then I started adopting mustangs, and it was a few years later that I first heard of Monty, and was surprised that he did things a lot like I do, but different in many ways. But I thought, well, I sure dont know EVERYTHING, far from it, so have been putting what I picked up from him to use along with what I do anyway, and it works even better. I have never seen him in person, but would like to, and would really like to talk to him. Nobody ever knows everything, and the more you learn, the more you realize you dont know.
I had seen Frank Bell give a demo on breaking wild horses at an adoption one time, and was quite impressed, he rode one within 20 minutes, and the other took half an hour, neither horse was frightened of anything he did. Then a friend told me about this show she had seen on PBS, with this guy, Monty Roberts, and told me to catch it if I could, well, I did. I think Frank must have learned from him, as what he did was nearly the same as Montys methods. I got my first idea on breaking horses from a book I read when I was 7, Sand Dune Pony, it was about this Chicago kid who went to spend the summer at his uncles ranch, but they had had bad luck and were short on horses for him to ride, so an old guy came along and took him to catch a wild one. He said he was too old to be a bronc buster, and wasnt going to let the kid try, they were going to do it as easy as possible on both the horse and the kid. Nearly everything they did made sense to me, and I have always used some of the methods they used. They never used force of any kind, except for roping the horse to start with, but after that, it was all gentling. You can learn from some of the oddest places.
Hi Dennis
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Great idea. Like all of you, I have loved horses ever since I became aware of their existence. For as long as I can remember I have loved them. My uncle and one of his daughters taught me to ride. I guess she is not my aunty, but that's what I called her. I was taught English but always loved watching the western riders and wanted to give it a go.
. One of my other uncles bought me my first horse when I was around 9 or 10. She was a pretty bay made called Dolly and she was drugged. So very docile when we bought her home and she quickly turned into a bolt of greased lightning when the drugs wore off. She put me in hospital many times, but silly me kept trying to ride her. After a particularly bad fall, another horse was bought for me to "learn to ride properly" on. His name was Pinky. He was a black welsh mountain Arab cross. Very pretty and quiet. I eventually learnt to ride Dolly. She was a handful to ride up to the day she died at 21. Still looked good too.
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When I was young I used to ride track work at the local race track. I took a number of retired or failed race horses home and re-educated them for pony club or barrel racing or polo cross. I found many of the thoroughbreds I took in turned into great horses if you were quiet and patient with them.
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The kinds of horses I had when I was young made me accept that horses were dangerous and I thought that it was near impossible or just a fluke if you ended up with the kind of horses you see Monty Roberts with and the kind of horses I now have the pleasure of owning.
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I became interested in Monty Roberts when my husband bought a horse for our daughter that would not float. I had always been lucky enough to have good loaders - even with the x-race horses I had taken in. I was so angry that this horse wouldn't load because I didn't want to go through the process of arguing and hitting this horse to get it onto the float. I was telling a friend about my dilemma and she put me on to Monty Roberts. His methods worked with this horse and the rest is history.
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I often wonder how much more success I would have had with Dolly and the x-race horses if I had known about Monty Roberts back then. Thinking about Dolly makes me very sad sometimes. But I am very grateful to my good friend who directed me to Monty Roberts and the new people I have met along the way.
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Kind regards,
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Gen
Great idea for a thread, Dennis!
And so many interesting stories to read!
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I've always been in love with horses. And I do mean *always*. I started to speak at an extremely young age, and when I had a handle on the basics ("mum", "dad", "yes" and "no") I said "horse" - and to my mother's exasperation, I've never stopped saying it. *LOL*
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We lived in the city and didn't have any horses in the family, so my only contact with them was at the pony rides at the zoo, or a small stable that organized pony rides for kids on weekends. When I was 10, my mom finally gave in and allowed me to start taking real lessons at a "real" riding school.
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I couldn't afford to buy/keep a horse until 16 years ago, when I was in my 30's -(which is when I bought Natasha from the riding school I worked at weekends) - so when the "once a week-routine" wasn't enough, I took summer-jobs at riding camps and weekend jobs at riding schools.
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I don't recall exactly how I first came in contact with Monty Roberts.
Natural Horsemanship was a very new and vague concept here (in Sweden) before 15-20 years ago, except perhaps with the Western riders, and people tended to watch it with a fair amount of skepticism.
I know I was interested in this "new" thing, and that I somehow learned of and attended a clinic with John Moore, which both my horse and I enjoyed immensely.
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As for Monty Roberts, I don't believe I had ever heard of him until my stable owner started talking about a book she had read, (The Man who...) and then we went to see him in Gothenburg, but I don't know how long ago that was. I know I joined up for the newsletter in 2009.
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What matters is that he showed me then what I had always believed; that you didn't have to be violent with horses to make them do what you wanted, and after that I pretty much tried to find out ways to learn more, which had me ending up here with you guys. :)
Interesting,
How did I start with horses. At the beginning, I was still in diapers and put on the back of my Pony, Lady and as they say the rest was history.
I never took lessons and was just put on their backs and everyone hoped for the best.
I never did any eventing, just used horses for work, cutting and rounding up cattle.
That was my live every year for 6 months. I did some pleasure riding but at the end of the day I have to say I was glad to be off the back of a horse.
Now since my accident I decided I should take some lessons because I have never used an English saddle and found that my balance was not as it was, plus I had to relearn my seat.
An English saddle is not as wide for me and therefore does not hurt my hip.
Horses have been a part of my life for so long that I would find it difficult to be without them.
Be safe,
Ronda
Hey Ronda there is always side saddle if the english saddle doesn't work out :) Just kidding, side saddles are a very difficult saddle to ride.
Cheers and thanks for all the stories. I am looking forward to reading more
Yea, but Dennis they look soooo comfortable.
The balance point of the body is pretty good though.....
Can you imagine your back after being in a side saddle for 12 hours or so, yea right...
Ronda
Do you have to wear long dresses to ride in them? Just asking, ha ha.
Hi all
I didn't mean to start a discussion on side saddle riding, but since the subject was brought up by someone (I think it was me!) here is a video of incredible side saddle riding. We had a similar group demonstrate their riding at our 2010 National Horse Show in Burbank California. The youngest rider was 12 years old, and she was also one of the best riders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=GOJqTLVZ0oQ
This type of riding will really improve your horsemanship, men included.
Here goes my vivid imagination!!!
I can just see a man sitting side saddle with a long flowing gown a beautiful vintage hat and long golden curls. HA HA.
I'm going to this site now. I have one saved with Gypsy Vaneers, it's beautiful, too.
My grandma grew up on a farm with a work horse or two. My mom grew up loving horses but never being able to get one. I loved horses right from conception :) It's in my blood. My neighbors had horses and starting from when I was 7, I was over almost everyday riding the white mare they had or the little pony. Neither would do anything but walk but it was enough for me. I envied Alec with the Black Stallion and horse books were all that lined my shelves growing up. They still do now but it's all about technique and lessons. We moved when I was 15 and I didn't make it over to ride as much. The college I attended offered western and english horsemanship so I took those just to get on the back of a horse again. Fast forward about 15 years and a friend of mine took me to her barn to ride on a day off work. I started leasing a chestnut quarter horse gelding at this barn, named "Chubby" and then he was sold to a little girl for a 4H project, I started leasing a white mare named "Storm". For father's day, I took my dad out to the barn to ride with me and he asked if any of the horses were for sale. There was a chestnut gelding named "Paulie" at the time but I wasn't expecting what happened next. My father had been promising to buy me a horse since I was old enough to walk but I couldn't afford all the expenses that went along with that kind of responsibility. So at 35 years old, my dad wrote me a check for Paulie and I finally had a horse to call my own. I learned cutting lessons from his back and went to a few competitions in those first few years. Because of all his medical expenses,I just couldn't keep shelling out money for everything he needed to make him comfortable (he was a cribber so needed his back re-aligned once a month, neck cracked, and acupucture) I had a friend who was better able to handle everything he needed done so I traded him for a black solid paint mare. I realized I had gotten in way over my head with her because she was so darn independent and literally scared me when I was on her back. I was 37 years old and couldn't afford any accidents to keep me from my job. I listed her for sale as a project horse and a wonderful woman with a loving heart and lots of time for riding and lessons bought her and is having the time of her life with her. I was lucky in that I was only horseless for a week before coming across Sonny. He was a taller then usual Haflinger and when I laid eyes on him, I fell in love. I knew I wanted to do everything right with him and had many friends who praised the Parelli system but there was just something about Monty that stayed with me so decided that that was the route I was going to take. I have very quiet hands and my barn owner calls me their own horse whisperer because I get more done with a quiet word and a pat then some do with a yell and a yank. Join up with Sonny was beautiful and he follows me everywhere. And as soon as I get my dually halter this week, I will be working on basics with Sonny this coming weekend. I can't wait to see how our relationship grows and prospers with Monty's help!!!
A beautiful story country girl. All the best with Sonny.