Monty Roberts Equus Online University | Monty's Horse Training Post: Dreaming in horses

Learn all about Equus • Dually Halter • Shy Boy Mustang • Jumping Horses
• Story of a Horse Whisperer • Riding Horsemanship • Dressage Horses • Willing Partners
• Horse Training • Round Pen Lessons • Performance Horses • Join-Up

Watch Monty's horse training videos to learn how he demonstrates communication through horse training techniques that the amateur and professional alike consider to be the trainable skills of a horse whisperer yet Monty calls it horse gentling.
Monty's horse training techniques are non violent with intelligent natural horsemanship. In addition to video instructions, Monty has written many books related to natural horsemanship. Monty trains safe horses for nervous riders called Willing Partners. Monty trains world class race horses for sale.
“I am very proud to be a part of Her Majesty’s horse training and her passion for their welfare. I believe she is the leading monarch for the advocacy of horses in the world. She is a thought leader in this field. Her Majesty's horses are trained using the Dually Halter, making a difference in the training of sensitive animals by giving the horse the choice to partner in the training.” ~ Monty
“I communicate with a horse in what I call the Language of Equus; a silent language of gestures that is discernible, predictable and effective. Now you can learn from my videos, audio and notes to help you understand the horse as I do. This language is really quite simple, but simplicity becomes its greatest strength.” ~ Monty
Monty Roberts is a renowned horse trainer known as the man who listens to horses and the original horse whisperer. Monty's horse training instructions are accepted worldwide.
Monty has helped thousands of people globally through his Monty Roberts Online Videos to learn how to Join-Up with horses, training young horses, spooky horses, horses that bite. His mustang , Shy Boy , is his most famous horse.
Join-Up methods help horse and trainer to establish a bond of communication and trust. “You must somehow understand that we as horsemen can do very little to teach the horse. What we can do is to create an environment in which he can learn.” ~ Monty
Monty says, “We hear that ‘actions speak louder than words,’ but generally we do not live by it too successfully.” Now Monty has taught thousands of people worldwide how to build trust in animals through our actions and body language.
Monty’s principles really amount to common sense and immense patience. He believes that children and horses have the same behavioral patterns. They are both naturally “flight” animals. "If you frighten them and resort to confrontation, you’ll lose their trust." ~ Monty
"Simple one-on-one reassurances and praise reap long term dividends that can all be undone with the quick slamming of a book on a desk or shouting back." ~ Monty Roberts
"No one of us was born with the right to say 'You must or I'll hurt you' to any other living thing, animal or human". ~ Monty Roberts
"My life's goal is to leave the world a better place than I found it, for horses and for people too". ~ Monty Roberts

← back

Horse Behavior and Training

Dreaming in horses

By:

natrat1

Date:

2010-Dec-09 at 12:00AM

Reading through the Q&A, I came across a question about do horses dream. A recent personal experience has answered this question for me. I have a 16yr old pony mare which I have owned since she was a yearling, so I know her well. After a successful show career, I decided to put her in foal at a late age. As she came closer to the foaling date I decided to camp down at the barn with her to witness the long-awaited event and also make sure I was on hand if anything was to go wrong. I 'slept' with my pony (at a distance from inside the horse float so as not to be a disturbance in the event of foaling) for 10 nights. I have a soft security light on the side of the barn and this was on at night for 2 weeks before so she would get accustomed to the light. In the last 5 nights I was awoken by strange noises from her yard, like muffled nickering sounds. Obviously thinking it was 'time' I peered out from the float to observe her sleeping flat out on her side dreaming! This happened a few times in those nights leading up to her foaling (which ended up happening at 10.30 in the morning anyway). During these dream events she did not appear to be in pain or distressed in any way. I watched my mare 'dream' several times (without disturbing her) and am convinced that horses dream.

horselover 2010-Dec-09 at 06:48AM

I have observed similar muffled nickering sounds in a neighboring horses and assumed that was just a noise she made- sort of like the horse's version of snoring. Would be interesting to learn if they dream or not but dont see why they would not.