Well I think last weekend’s Monty Roberts demo in Bedfordshire was definitely one of my favourite ever demos. I have been struggling with knowing how to blog about it, because I usually choose two horses to write about from each demo, and every single horse that day was really fantastic – even the one’s who didn’t appear in the evening demonstration!

Kelly’s section with the little grey pony was magical – he was very nervous to handle and was showing some aggressive type behaviour when his owner handled his neck, feet, mane, wither or belly (Which doesn’t leave much!) The session ended with not only a great improvement with his acceptance of touch in all these areas but also with his owner achieving an absolutely beautiful join up and follow up herself. You could hear the whole audience sigh when he chose to follow her. I was convinced that would be my favourite horse, but then came George.

He is a lovely chestnut 4yo who was at the demo to have his first saddle and rider (me!) He came into the pen with high adrenaline and barging Monty about, and he kicked out dramatically when he was longlined and moved about the pen, and bucked with the saddle, but he felt fantastically accepting and easy by the time Monty legged me up and he rode round the pen a happy relaxed boy, so I was grinning ear to ear and convinced that George would feature in my blog in much more detail than this – but then came Tilly.

Tilly is a 16 year old grey mare who has had a really rough time of it through her life, and luckily now found owners who are willing to commit to her, and try to repair the physical and emotional damage.  Most of the remedial or mishandled horses that I work with are younger, and if they are as violently headshy as Tilly, they seem wild, high adrenaline, and tense. Tilly just seemed so sad. She had all the wisdom of a horse who has been to a lot of bad places and seen a lot of bad things. Of course, you can only speculate, but there was something about Tilly’s eyes that made you want to take her home and wrap her in cotton wool and keep the world from hurting her again. Her behaviour showed clear signs of ear twitching, nose twitching and hitting about the head – and she didn’t want to let anybody anywhere near these areas again. Monty worked with her from on top of Copy (the quarter horse). The audeince at this demo were especially lucky because Monty worked with a technique he that he had only used for this problem with 1 other horse before. This was new training evolving in front of our eyes. First he led her about, while riding Copy, in a Dually halter and 20 foot line. He used pressure and release to teach her where to walk next to Copy, but she was a very quick and willing student and got the hang of ‘ponying’ about very quickly. All the while she was getting used to Monty being up above her, in that vulnerable space in her vision above her head and ears. Monty then began to rub her neck and head from on top of Copy, giving her plenty of time between each rub to relax and benefit from the release in pressure. She was comforted by the presence of good old Copy, and she did not relate the handling from up high as the same as the negative experiences from her past, and she very quickly began to let go of her worry. Within a few minutes, Monty was able to hug her whole head, leaning right over the top of her and rubbing both ears, her poll, her forehand and the top of her neck, and not only was she tolerating it ... she was LOVING it.  

Then he asked for someone to come in to help from the ground, so I went into the pen to pass him a halter which he put on and off several times with no problem – this had been a difficulty for Tilly before the demo. He asked me to stay in the roundpen and come and put my hands exactly underneath his hands so that Tilly could transfer the acceptance to include handlers on the ground. She lowered her head into the stroking and looked so peaceful while I rubbed her head and ears and neck, I just couldn’t believe it was the same horse. She had changed so quickly and so completely that if I didn’t know better I would have been looking for the trick.

Having spent a few years trying to learn from Monty now, I know that things aren’t always quite as simple and easy as he makes them look, he really is always in the right place with the right energy and often that seems so obvious when he is working that as a a student you can miss the key lesson. I’d guess from the exact directions he gave me as to where to walk and when, where to put my hands and when to take them off, that there was a lot more to this than simply being up high – feel, timing, and body language all have a big part to play, and I’m looking forward to watching he footage back and dissecting exactly what Monty did and when that led to such a dramatic change.

In a way, the more you learn, the less magical things seem, because you understand the logic that explains everything that is going on, you begin to expect it, and you can reproduce it at home. But this time, I was truly speechless. And for me that really is quite a feat. I looked round at the rest of the team and caught the eyes of, Jim, Kelly, Linda and John who all looked equally spellbound.

I accompanied Tilly and her owner back to the stables (with Annabel Harling who was helping to bring horses from the stables all night), and before we took the halter off, I asked the owner to come in and stroke Tilly all over her head and ears to reinforce the lesson between the two of them. Tilly just loved it! She lowered her head to about my knee height and was so gentle and relaxed, the owner said she couldn’t quite believe it. The two of them looked so happy that I realised I was quite surplus to the situation, and, feeling like a gooseberry I snuck out to head back to the arena leaving them there in a timeless little bubble.  As I went though, the owner asked how long she should keep stroking her for. I said that she should keep stroking her right through the interval and until she could believe what she was doing!

Now I absolutely have to go now I have psychology papers looming and my designated blogging time is all used up, but I will come back tomorrow to tell you all about Taz and Rocky!

Rosie

xx