Have you tried the Monty Robert way with horses?

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Hi! I have reacently heard about the Monty Roberts way of taming and training horses. I would love to hear more details about this method. What is your opinion of it , for or against. Do you know where I could find any books explaining the details of the tecnique? Thank You. Adrienne

-- Adrienne Grass (AdrienneA_Grass@hotmail.com), October 24, 2000

Answers

Almost any horse magazine will have advertisements about different trainers and their books or video tapes, I have seen them in Western Horseman.

-- Ronya Hammonds (surnuffbusted@juno.com), October 24, 2000.

I've read his first book and tried it on my totally green, formerly abused mare. (Picture trying for two hours to get a halter on a horse while confined in a 10x10 stall and failing, she was that scared of people) The principles work: read the horse's body language and use the circle method if you have a round pen. (I didn't) It will not happen as quickly and easily as he says it will. It has been almost a year since I brought this horse home (we ended up just herding her onto a trailer with a pasturemate as bait and letting her out everyday and back in without touching her) and she not only has a halter on, but has been shod by a farrier, wormed, immunizised, saddled and riden with very little effort on my part. I was in no hurry with a new baby and all. It is a good feeling to have a horse go from frightened to death of you, to not even flinching when you work on her. Every step of progress was a chance to celebrate. What I do not like about Monty Roberts is that he has become very commercialized. There is a good website for training difficult horses with lots of step-by-step with pictures and everything. I emailed them with questions and they emailed right back. They want no money at all. Let me know if you want the site.

-- Epona (staceyb@myway.com), October 24, 2000.

I've read his book, and watched the videos, and what he says makes sense, although not as quickly as he makes it look. I've found with some of our horses, and two are mustangs we adopted from the BLM, that gentleness and patience really do work. Know a few people that think the only way to train a horse is to hit them between the eyes with a 2x4 when they don't do as you wish! I would like to take the 2x4 to them! Some day, I really think, those horses will get them. Epona, I would love to have the address to that site, too! Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), October 24, 2000.

I've used many of the same techniques that Monty Roberts used, but I found out about them from Dr. Robert Miller and Pat Parelli first. There is a WONDERFUL bit about Pat working with range mustangs that needed tohave bloodwork done on them on his website (www.parelli.com - - I think.) It's great. His work is great and he has nifty tapes available to teach you too. There is information on the site about a Tv program that will be running this year on Pat & friends taming down the mustangs and RIDING them bareback inside of 24 hours. What more testimonial would a person want than that? Horses trained by the methods used by John Lyons, Pat Parelli, Dr. Miller (esp. his book on imprint training foals), and to a lesser degree, Monty Roberts, are the easiest to deal with. Period.

I say Monty Roberts last because I don't find his info as useful as the others. I'm also not thrilled with the way he's hyped himself and told a few whopping lies...I won't deny that the man gets results, and has done the most for popularizing non-abusive horse training in recent years tho!! Despite a few niggling reservations, the man has done a great service in many ways.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), October 24, 2000.


The website I mentioned: www.ecis.com/~kbr/index.html

It's called KBR Horseworld and the site is endless. Their specialty is wild horses and burros from BLM. Scroll down to the training section and you'll find lots of suggestions for training. I know I'll be spending alot of time there since a neighbor gave me a skiddish Morgan. He spooks at realty signs even without them blowing in the wind, yet has no fear of oncoming cars. Gave my mailman a heart attack because he jumped into the road as I rode past a realty sign. Wicked herdbound too.

-- Epona (staceyb@myway.com), October 25, 2000.



Epona, thanks for posting that website. I know I'll get a lot out of it, as I need all the help I can get! Love those horses! Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), October 25, 2000.

I like the Monty Roberts way to START a horse, but you need John Lyons or Pat Parelli to get a really well behaved and trained horse.

I agree with some of the other posters about Roberts and his whoppers of stories. He has a good technique, why he felt the need to lie about his background, i don't know. I have seen him in person and found him to be a snob as well. I am not good looking or obviously have lots of money so he looked right through me several times when answering questions in a smaller group.

Personally I subscribe to John Lyon's Perfect Horse and find it to be a wonderfull source of information as well as his tapes. I do want to take the Pat Parelli training as well. I think the two training styles actually complement each other. My daughter has seen John Lyons in person and was very impressed - he also talked to the students at her school (horse sciences).

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), October 25, 2000.


Check with your library. They usually have, or can get, any of the horse books and videos that you would like.

My farrier just took in three rescue horses, two of them untrained. There are three of us working with them. although we all learned horse training from different people, the focus on trust and relationship is the same for all of us. Monty Roberts, John Lyons and Pat Parelli have more in common than they do differences. For instance they all can appear to be pompous bouffoons in public.

No one single method will apply to every horse every time, so be sure to get a well rounded education and work on trust and relationship with your horse and use your intuition for what your horse needs at any given moment. To me, training horses is similar to raising children. They need love, affection, socialization, playtime, games, positive reinforcements, corrections, discipline and education, no matter whose method you use.

Epona, have you encouraged your horse to get close enough to the real estate signs so he can sniff them and see they are not going to "get" him? Maybe it's his fear of encroaching suburbia? Remember, nervous riders make nervous horses.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), October 27, 2000.


Check with your library. They usually have, or can get, any of the horse books and videos that you would like.

My farrier just took in three rescue horses, two of them untrained. There are three of us working with them. although we all learned horse training from different people, the focus on trust and relationship is the same for all of us. Monty Roberts, John Lyons and Pat Parelli have more in common than they do differences. For instance they all can appear to be pompous bouffoons in public.

No one single method will apply to every horse every time, so be sure to get a well rounded education and work on trust and relationship with your horse and use your intuition for what your horse needs at any given moment. To me, training horses is similar to raising children. They need love, affection, socialization, playtime, games, positive reinforcements, corrections, discipline and education, no matter whose method you use.

Epona, have you encouraged your horse to get close enough to the real estate signs so he can sniff them and see they are not going to "get" him? Maybe it's his fear of encroaching suburbia? Remember, nervous riders make nervous horses.

Y'all have fun with your ponies. Come Sunday, I'm climbing on the back of a six year old foxtrotter and snuggling her from there.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), October 27, 2000.


Hello,

I just ran across this thread. I have used both the John Lyons and the Monty Roberts methods. John Lyons is awesome in my opinion for your overall training of any horse. However, I did find the "whose boss" Monty approach is wonderfull. I had our boss mare, while feeding our herd, get pushy on me. I ran her off from the herd till I saw all the points he mentioned. Took all of about 15 minuites and WOW that mare respects me and my space totally since then. This is a really great thing considering getting pushed around in any size herd is nothing less than dangerous. Also used it on a yearling who one day decided no fly spray. Hasn't been a problem since.

-- Stacia (OneClassyCowgirl@aol.com), October 31, 2000.



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