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2/28/07: I am the owner of a Welsh Pony for years now. Some weeks ago she started to refuse to stand up when I come into the stable box: she will lay down when she sees me entering her bow and will not stand up. A vet told me that she is healthy 100%. What can I do?

2/21/07: What do you say to the people who state that your techniques are not gentle, but violent in a psychological way?

2/14/07: We recently purchased a 17 month old colt. He has been started but still needs work. He drives and can be ridden by a light weight person in the barn. However, his training must have been confined within the walls of the barn only because he gets spooked when a car passes by. We have worked with him extensively and he is doing better. However, we have only been leading him instead of driving or riding. We do not have a barn large enough to work him in; therefore, we are working out in the open. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Mary

2/07/07: How old of a horse can be schooled by your Dually halter? How old should a horse be to start training in the round pen? I have some yearling Arabian colts and I would like to start them on your halter, yet my trainer states that he does not like to put them in a round pen until they are two years old. I have never seen you use that halter without working them in a round pen. Comments? Allen

Answers to February 2007 Ask Monty Questions

Answer: If she is indeed healthy, then you have a pony that is not happy to see you coming and probably doesn’t want to go to work! She needs a change to make her work fun again. You should change her routine, take her to new places and challenge her with new things to learn.

Do Join-Up® with her and let her know that you value her trust. Put a treat in her feed box (never feed from the human body) when you come into her stall and reward her with a good rub when she gets up. Gradually this “bribe” can be scaled back to the occasional, while she learns that its fun again to go to work.

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- Monty

Question: What do you say to the people who state that your techniques are not gentle, but violent in a psychological way?

Monty's Answer: I say that is a very wrong conclusion. Oftentimes people who make this statement about psychological violence will agree to come to our courses, and when they leave, they have a different opinion. I maintain there is no violence in my work, but I invite you to watch the horses and let them be the final judge. Normally, when I am finished with a horse, he will follow me in a complete state of relaxation. This would not happen if he were treated in a violent way. One should be mindful that discipline is essential. Both human and horse require negative consequences for negative behavior, but violence should not be a part of the training process.

These same people will often say they are educated scientists with an intellectual approach to training. I would like to remind them that I graduated number one in my class from Hartnell College in California specializing in Agricultural and Animal Sciences. I went on to California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo where I triple majored in Animal Science, Biological Sciences (including psychology) and Agri-Business. In 1959, I concluded my six years of university training. In 1998, I was awarded the honor of “Alumni of the Year.” Later in my life, the University of Zurich assigned two professors to study my work and after two years of observation, they recommended me for an Honorary Doctorate in Behavioral Sciences. I received that diploma in 2002. I am proud of my academic background, but I believe my experiences with approximately 70,000 horses in my career has been far more helpful to me than my scientific schooling was. I think it is good to have a broad education, but often I am challenged scientists. When I ask how many horses they have trained, they will say they don’t train horses; they only study their behavior. It is my opinion that a good horseman needs both.

- Monty

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Question: We recently purchased a 17 month old colt. He has been started but still needs work. He drives and can be ridden by a light weight person in the barn. However, his training must have been confined within the walls of the barn only because he gets spooked when a car passes by. We have worked with him extensively and he is doing better. However, we have only been leading him instead of driving or riding. We do not have a barn large enough to work him in; therefore, we are working out in the open. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Mary

Monty's Answer: All transitions in training present us with problems. Making the transition from inside to outside can often present you with episodes of spookiness similar to what you described. My recommendation is to school to the Dually Halter so that you have full control of your horse. One needs to stop down any desire to blast away from you at the sight of an automobile or a tractor, etc. Once you have achieved complete control, then you can begin to present sights such as bicycles passing by or automobiles, tractors or the like.

Should you choose, you can get the DVD Dealing with Your Spooky Horse and by executing these procedures you can change the mindset of your animals to be far more accepting of items which drive him crazy at this point in time.

- Monty

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Question: How old of a horse can be schooled by your Dually halter? How old should a horse be to start training in the round pen? I have some yearling Arabian colts and I would like to start them on your halter, yet my trainer states that he does not like to put them in a round pen until they are two years old. I have never seen you use that halter without working them in a round pen. Comments? Allen

Monty's Answer: Anytime after an animal is weaned, the Dually Halter can be used to great advantage. With regard to the time frame for the round pen and Join-Up®, etc. I have written a book called From My Hands to Yours that fully describes the chronology in each of my recommendations in this area.

One can do a Join-Up as soon as a baby quits screaming for its mother. I explain the details and numbers of Join-Ups that I recommend in the book. Join-Up can be done as a yearling and then at whatever time you choose to do the starting and riding process. Join-Up is a gentle method of horse and human communication through body language used to start a wild horse, an untrained horse, or to establish communication to work with a horse of any age in order to establish trust. The book would be great help to you, but those are the important points.

- Monty

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