Hi Monty, I thought you might appreciate this little anecdote. I sure hope it reaches you!
Yesterday I brought home my new, green, beautiful QH to my tiny town in outback Australia. He's 6, and has only ever been roped once a year for drenching & had minimal handling. As I pulled up at the stables, people came over to have a look. The kids were keen to help out but I said
"Look out, kids, this horse is pretty wild. Don't come near him unless you speak Equus."
A young girl said "What's Equus?"
and before I could answer, her mother said "It's horse language. Look in his eyes and wave your hands around means go away. Look at his feet and don't stand square on means that he can be near you. Don't make sudden movements."
Wow, I thought, since when has Equus become common knowledge? But I just said
"That's right. This horse doesn't speak human, he only speaks Equus, so you'll have to speak Equus too."
"OK", the little girl said, "I can do that".
We unloaded him into the round pen and let him become accustomed to me. The kids were hanging on the sides of the pen looking in, and I heard the little girl say to her friend "You can only speak Equus with this horse. He doesn't speak human".
"What's Equus?" said the other little girl. And so your knowledge spreads... :)
Post Script: This beautiful QH has settled nicely into his new home and has made lots of friends. He is taking everything in his stride and views everything with curiosity rather than fear. I plan to have a long & happy life with him, free from pain and full of learning.
I think it's absolutey amazing that Monty can create a whole new school of thought that spreads to the furthest reaches of the globe in just one lifetime. How wonderful that the new generation will grow up thinking that knowledge of Equus is as normal as knowledge of road rules :D
A wonderful story eternal_student - I am so pleased that the Equus language has reached your part of Australia - just wish there was more evidence of it around my area. I am doing my best to spread the word Your horse sounds wonderful so I do hope you have a very happy and safe journey together. Perhaps your horse is related to Uggs - his stud name was Super Snake and he came from Tabulam in NSW. His sire was Peppy Snake(IMP) Q1448. He is 16 now so I guess it is unlikely. Had a flyer from our Club re a horse whisperer from NSW who is running a clinic in Melbourne soon. I will check it out and let you know her actual name - she sounds as if she must be trained by Monty and Lyn Mitchell is relatively close to us. Looking forward to attending one of Lyn's clinics when I can get myself organised.
Great story Eternal Student! Kids get it so much better than us adults I reckon.
I am hoping to go to one of Lynn's clinics in the future too Maggie, perhaps we'll end up at the same one :)
Its heartening to hear stories like that. All I recieve here in Wisconsin when I mention that is a look that is very similar to the one you would give a person if they sprouted large antennae out of their head. If it's an especially bad day and I mention it in front of all of the wrong people they threaten to sell my (sisters) horse and lock me in a psychiatric ward. LOL. Good luck over there!
I'm stoked to hear that other people enjoyed that story as much as I did! :D Lol, that's no good, Soul! The only people over here who think natural horsemanship is a waste of time are the real old blokes, really. I just laugh and tell them that the proof will be in the pudding!
I would LOVE to go to Lynn or Rob's (NSW) clinics. Just so far away :( One day, though!
Maggie, Uggs and my QH do seem to have common ancestors (of course lol)! My boy's name is Mingo Star (not the one b. '72). His grandfather or g.grandfather was Dell Mingo. Dell Mingo's great grandsire was Pep Up, who was also Peppy Snake's great grandsire. Cool huh!
-Student
That is really neat external_student and I certainly didn't expect it when I asked. Pepper Snake seemed to have been a pretty popular boy! They are wonderful horses and I always regret not having had the time to effectively look after and train my Uggs while he was younger. He was fantastic with my father's fairly wild and neglected cattle - all I had to do was stay on and he did the rest - a bit like a well bred kelpie - it just seems to be in their blood. He loved cattle work so much that he started working my Dad's cattle in the paddock as he was initially allowed to run with them. He used to draft the calves off the cows and chase them around until they ran exhausted into a blackberry bush - poor little calves. My Dad was demented at the time. One evening when I arrived on the property near Inverell after my long drive from Melbourne all the calves were in the blackberry bushes. When I asked my Dad "how come all the calves are in the blackberry bushes?" My Dad looked perplexed and said "Don't know - they just run there". I think he wanted to tell me what my naughty horse had been doing but couldn't. Next morning I found out myself - there was my Uggs drafting off each calf then chasing it until it ran into a blackberry bush and then going after the next one. I ran from the house and stopped his fun! After that he had to be shut in a paddock by himself. He was very lonely when I left for Melbourne but a neighbour had a birth defected colt that they lent me as a companion. I was worried that Uggs may hurt the colt as he was full of energy and play but even though he would chase him around he was gentle with him. He helped the colt grow stronger and when I brought Uggs back to Melbourne the neighbours managed to sell the colt as a stock horse. By this time the colt was nice and quiet, halter trained etc. I was sad to leave the colt behind but Uggs soon befriended Nicky and more recently Tricka. All the very best with your fellow - I am sure he will be a true companion and a great horse. Uggs is still my favourite as he is so joined up to me. His life in Melbourne has not been great as he didn't enjoy dressage training and he gets too spooked for road riding so he only gets the occasional ride in our riding club area. He was a great jumper when he was young so maybe yours will be too - Uggs jumped five paddock fences in a row once when he spooked and took off on the lunge! Have lots of fun with your fellow - what are your dreams for him? I would love to have my time with Uggs all over again - I would do it so differently.
eternal_student, I have showed them the proof. They rave about how their horses when they were younger never would behave so well, and literally the next words out of there mouth is "I just wish it didn't take up so much of your time". They simply choose not to see. But someone needs to spend time with him, as I have been unable to convince the people in power back here that a horse being alone is not such a good idea...
Hang in there Soul and do better than I did with Cash. Remember slow is usually fast with scared abused horses but it is hard to convince others of this if they lack understanding of Monty. That is where things came unstuck with Cash - the girl who had befriended him just wanted everything to happen more quickly so she began to question my methods even though Cash was making excellent progress in my book. When people are unaware of Monty it is hard to convince them even with the proof.
Maggie, your words have stuck in my head- if I had my time with Uggs again I would do it all differently. I am (like everyone) very busy with work. I leave home at 6 and most days I'm not back til 7. I wasn't concerned about that until I read your beautiful story about your QH, and I suddenly realised that my time with Mingo will fly too and before I know it I will be saying the same thing! So this afternoon I started starting him. I popped the lunge roller on him and joined up with him again. I hadn't scheduled it in til next week, but I made myself find 20 extra minutes today and I ended up accomplishing some good stuff! So I can't thank you enough for waking me out of this silly amount of work I've been doing!!!
Soul, that sucks :( But don't worry, be comforted in the knowledge that there are other sane people on here for you to vent to when you need it lol!!! Unfortunately, sometimes one needs to show off a bit to really get the message home. There is a local "natural horsemanship" method here called Quantuum Savvy. It seems to use similar non-violent, commonsense methods. It too, of course, suffers from the same criticism from the same kind of people, but when the Quantuum Savvy instructor jumps on her horse bareback with just a piece of twine around the neck and performs unneccessarily complex maneouvers, they are quickly silenced lol! (On an aside, I would dearly love to be the one to show off, haha!!!) Maybe you could work on an "I told you so project?" Lol. Just a bit of cheeky food for thought! :D
-Student
Thank you eternal_student. I do hope you can continue to find those 20 minutes for Mingo. It is so very hard when you are working and when you have so many other things to deal with. Poor Uggs didn't have a chance with me as like you I was flat tack and then had to leave him for a month at a time on the property by himself. I should have purchased an old stock horse to help out not a beautiful young quarter horse. Still love Uggs to bits and even though he is now 16 years old I am finally trying to spend more time with him. He was really lame the last two years of wetter weather. The vets said he had undershot hooves at the front. Put natural balance shoes on him and tried most things to no avail but when this dryer summer came he miraculously recovered and is now fit and happy again. A bit too fit for me as he turfed me a few weeks ago on our second ride as he was so excited to see other horses jumping on our club grounds and wanted to join in. Hang in there with Mingo and grab those minutes as time does just disappear Uggs has had to take two long periods out for injuries which hasn't helped.