INTRO: A week’s training with Monty Roberts in California fully lived up to expectations and the effect on our Exmoor ponies has already been profound.

In August this year (2009), my husband, Nick, and I had the amazing opportunity to visit Monty Roberts at Flag Is Up Farms in California and attend the only special 5-day training clinic that Monty teaches himself during the year. Six years previously, after training with his certified instructor, Maya Horsey, in Dorset, I had completed the Monty Roberts Introductory Course in Horsemanship with distinction. When Monty handed me the certificate at his Towerlands demo, the meeting left a lasting impression and a commitment to continue learning for as long as I had anything to do with horses. Since then our yard has extended from Arabians to include a growing number of Exmoor ponies and we have endeavoured to stay true to Monty’s philosophies to practice positive, trust-based methods of horsemanship. Maya Horsey is now Monty’s head instructor and runs his International Learning Centre in California and she told us that five full days with Monty were not to be missed!

Flag Is Up Farms is an eclectic mix of equine projects – including a thoroughbred racehorse breeding and training programme, a constant stream of client’s horses visiting for starting or problem-solving, and an outstanding Therapeutic Riding (RDA) programme including the Willing Partners programme - where young horses and ponies are backed and trained to create superb riding horses. There are also the heart-rending abused and traumatised horses and ponies being rehabilitated, and wild mustangs taking their first steps to accept a life of domesticity. All of this forms the basis for the Learning Centre which attracts global students all year round, while Monty spends much of the year travelling the world to promote his methods.

Each day of the clinic, including lunchtimes at Monty’s house, was a non-stop, full-on learning experience, packed with progressive practical training sessions, questions and answers, philosophical talks and discussion - and Monty’s energy was incredible. Forty students had come from all over the world and a number of his own instructors took the opportunity to watch and listen to this legendary horseman. When Monty talked, you could hear a pin drop and every one of us came away from the clinic with the priceless gift of increased understanding.

At the central core of Monty’s philosophy is the belief that ‘violence is never the answer’. He achieves this through understanding and replicating natural equine herd behaviour – with his renowned ‘Join-Up’ - and follows this through in horse/human training and interaction. The use of the Dually head collar allows handlers to safely teach the horse to ‘come off the pressure’ and to focus and yield because it wants to. The self-tightening – and loosening - rope noseband of the Dually allows a clarity of communication which the horse can accept and which doesn’t cause pain, so it quickly works out that it can release itself from the tightening of the noseband by stopping, turning or moving towards or away from the handler, as requested. These fundamental principles build a rock solid foundation for the mental and physical development of a horse or pony which can be carried through its entire career. Without this key understanding between horse and human, issues can develop such as barging and lack of spatial awareness, leading and loading issues, and backward-thinking attitudes and resistance in riding.

Having the opportunity to watch Monty work through a variety of extreme case studies with the accompanying detailed discussion, certainly made the penny drop for us as to why these methods make all the difference throughout a horse’s life. Before we left for California, we had hit a frustrating plateau with our Exmoor pony stallion, Hawkwell Versuvius. While he is kind in temperament and relatively pliable in training, there were pockets of resistance in attitude that could surface randomly, and which we didn’t fully understand how to deal with. One such thing was loading. Whereas he could load fairly easily to go somewhere, he was resistant about loading either at the show or to come home. He was also resistant coming out of the line-up and would sometimes step backwards rather than forwards. When we rode him briefly in the spring before the visiting mares arrived, I encountered the same pockets of resistance – sometimes he’d let me get on happily and ride out well and other days, he was less enthusiastic and more evasive. Frustrated with frequent advice to ‘just give him one’, we needed inspiration!

When Monty works with a horse, he is looking for the horse to trust, focus, listen, respond and respect him. Once he has gained understanding and connection with the horse, work can begin to cause the horse to want to do whatever Monty asks of him. If that basic foundation is not established, the relationship between horse and handler can be an uneasy one. Monty’s methods centre around clarity of communication with the horse and even the most mistrustful equine can be reached – enabling it to overcome deep set fear or anger towards humans.

We watched Monty work with a beautiful young Andalusian stallion who had undergone training in Spain with a harsh bridle called a ‘serretta’, which has metal teeth in the cavesson that puts a lot of pressure on the nose. Damage is caused if the horse does not submit and this had resulted in a broken nose for the stallion while they were trying to train him to walk on his hind legs. The horse had been sold on and his new owners brought him to Monty in despair as he would no longer accept a rider without bolting and had lost all trust. Maya Horsey did an exemplary Join-Up with the stallion and it was moving to see how keenly he wanted to connect and follow her.

Then Monty and his young instructor, Gabriel Coglianese worked the horse in long lines and de-sensitised him to close contact, gradually building up his trust using a plastic bag on a stick to stroke him all over. The horse had developed a panic bolting response to a rider mounting him, or loosening the contact once on. Monty and Gabriel re-programmed his attitude by asking him to take a few steps backwards before riding forwards and asking him to change direction whenever his pace quickened too rapidly. These patient, confidence-building sessions continued during the week and after a few days, the stallion was able to be mounted and ridden quietly at walk, trot and canter, with no bolting. His eyes were soft and his lovely nature had started to return.

We also watched the team work with wild mustangs and rescue horses, including a white pony mare who was in foal. She had been kicked and beaten so badly that her first reaction to any human approach at all was to attack. The pony was herded into a special horse shute, where the handlers could approach her and then walk away to show they meant no harm. Over a couple of sessions, the mare grew to understand that it was possible to be touched by a human without being hurt and she became progressively calmer. On the second session, the team brought her out into the sand pen, where her first reaction was to try to bolt away. Meeting the tightening noseband pressure of the Dually, the mare quickly learned to stop and reconsider her flight instinct. In a short time, she was able to be rubbed on the forehead and stand and be touched all over with the plastic bag on the stick. Later on, this progressed to a ‘hand’ on a stick as she accepted having her legs and feet touched. Soon, the mare stood still when asked, led happily around the pen and let Gabriel pick up her feet. The change in the little mare’s demeanor was palpable relief as she began to realize that not all humans meant harm.

These heart rending stories are relentless and there is no space here to relay the numerous case studies we were privileged to watch. However, the extreme rehabilitations show that a positive, trust-based approach can benefit all horses and ponies and people who acquire this knowledge can all build better partnerships with their animals.

After realising that I hadn’t been giving enough attention to achieving the lightness, responsiveness, focus and clarity of communication with the horses that comes with well-applied Join-Ups and Dually halter sessions, I couldn’t wait to get home and see if it made a difference with Hawkwell Versuvius. We only had one day between flying home and attending the EPS annual breed show and, in fact, it took just half an hour to completely change my relationship with Bear, which has improved every day since.

Soon he was focused on me, politely stepping backwards, walking without hesitation towards me, with no barging, and standing patiently when asked. The main result was that, in creating those all-important few resistant-free backward steps, his attitude became more ‘forward-thinking’ and he moved with me without hesitation, in whatever direction I asked him to go. The trailer became no problem and his behaviour at the breed show, including his movement and transitions, was far improved from previous shows. We’ve just started riding him again and, this time, there is a real co-operation in his attitude and he feels much safer to get on. The foals are responding well to handling, head collars and leading and the youngsters are more accepting of handling such as the farrier and general manners.

I’m not saying that we’ve solved all our ‘quirks’ or that we won’t encounter issues and drama – as the ponies all have their own strong personalities and ‘things happen…’ - but we’ve certainly acquired some tools to help us understand them and build a better relationship. This year, after his UK tour, Monty Roberts is launching an Online University to make his enormous archive of case studies, experience and knowledge available to horse owners across the globe. Information on training clinics and courses can be found on his website. Anyone interested in finding out more can visit www.montyroberts.com or the Monty Roberts section on www.equinetourism.co.uk.

by Dawn Westcott (Holtball Exmoors Herd 11)
Copyright Dawn Westcott 2009


Exmoor pony Stallion Hawkwell Versuvius