Were you born with a special ability to relate to horses?

March 3, 2021 – Ask Monty Newsletter

Question: Were you born with a special ability to relate to horses?

Do you think you were born with a special ability to relate to horses, or do you think it’s something you developed over time?

Monty’s Answer:

Well, I guess my answer would be, “I don’t know”. Explore for a moment the possibility that you would visit a class of children learning to swim. Let’s say they were taking their third lesson. Imagine that you spoke with a child that seemed to be swimming very well. Suppose that you asked this youngster, “Why is it you’re swimming so well and the others don’t seem to have caught on?” I suggest that this child would say, “I don’t know, it seems easy to me.”

One should remember that I began showing horses in competition at four years of age. I suppose it’s possible to surmise that it is easier for me to think in the world of horses than the world of people. One thing for certain is that no one chronicled these concepts as I have outlined them. It is true that Xenophon wrote about working with horses in a slightly similar fashion. His writings date to about 360 B.C. and probably more closely approximate my work than anything written since.

I find it amazing that in 1996, when I launched my first book, most horsemen took the position that I was dreaming when I suggested that there was a discernible language that I dubbed the language of Equus. About four years later, traditional horsemen began to write that I wasn’t the first one to discover it saying they knew of people that talked about the language long before my time. In 2005 I heard, “Well, of course there’s a language. We’ve known it all along.”

At the current time, surveys have suggested that about 40% of all horses will receive some form of my concepts during the early training process. It is my hope that this trend will continue. It seems that this is an often traveled past for concepts considered new and original. This doesn’t bother me so long as the horses ultimately benefit from the discoveries I’ve made.

Sincerely,