Wednesday July 10, 2019

Greetings!
Question  

Hi Monty.

My question is, can we train our horses not to be reactive to herd behavior? I have a six-year-old mare who was taken away from her mother relatively young, at 11 months. She displays a lot of naughty behavior, e.g. is moody around other horses, pins her ears if they get close, tries to kick, squeals, can also challenge her handler i.e. me, and can be quite argumentative and stubborn when riding, she is more reactive to young horses not so much to mature horses, a friend has suggested she go out with a herd to learn some manners....your opinion would be much appreciated.

Thank you
Kind regards, Gillian

Answer 

Dear Gillian,

Thank you for your question. It gives me an opportunity to outline my thoughts on this business of separating the young from its mother. First let me outline that most young horses are weaned as babies between five and eight months of age. I am of the opinion that a young horse will do better when weaned at around five months of age. 

The problems you have outlined have virtually nothing to do, in my opinion, with the date of weaning. There are two major factors in producing the type of behavior you inquire about. One is too much inappropriate contact with human beings and too much time before weaning. Those who have suggested more contact with a mature herd are probably not so far off. 

It is my sense of your question that there is far too much inappropriate contact with human beings. I suggest you learn through From My Hands to Yours a more appropriate handling of this mare as it is described in my textbook. May I also suggest the concepts I use be visited on the Monty Roberts Online University which has more than 500 short lessons specific to my concepts. Let us know how circumstances progress with your mare and we will attempt to help wherever possible.

Sincerely,
MONTY'S EQUUS ONLINE UNIVERSITY
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NEXT WEEK'S QUESTION

Dear Monty,

Unfortunately my five-year old Haflinger mare lost her eye because of an accident. I wondered how you would work with her, because she can not see anything on her left side and your training methods are based on body language. Have you ever worked with a (half) blind horse and how would you do that?

Sincerely,
Noa van Os (The Netherlands)
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