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 | Smudge The Mustang by Jo Bond
I’m currently sitting in Frankfurt airport, waiting for a connection, after having been in California for the last 3 weeks taking part in the Monty Roberts Advanced course. I just couldn’t wait to write about the most genuine horse I’ve ever met.
Smudge arrived at the Monty Roberts International Learning Centre as an untouched mustang in need of gentling. She is owned by a wild mustang re-homing charity and obviously the better she is to handle, the easier it will be for them to find her a good home. She is just 3 years old.
The Learning Centre is lucky enough to have a chute to use for the initial sessions with any wild horse. The chute safely holds the horse and protects the handler while the horse is gently introduced to the idea of being touched by human hand and to allow the first headcollar to be put on.
Obviously the horse is accustomed to the chute before any handling begins. The touching procedure is based on advance and retreat. The horse is touched and once he is settled with the sensation you move away and release the pressure. The horse quickly learns that being touched by a human is nothing to fear. No predator would ever walk away!
For the more dangerous areas such as the back legs, a false arm is used at first. I’m very grateful for the false hand as Smudge kicked so hard when the false arm touched her for the first time that she actually knocked the hand off the end of it and sent it flying over the trees!
Students working with mustangs in the chute, including using the false arm:
Using consistency, gentle handling, repetition, advance and retreat and the Dually halter I watched Smudge transform from a terrified individual into the most genuine horse I’ve ever met.
De-sensitizing Smudge to plastic:
Working with a mustang teaches one infinite patience and how actions really do mean more than words. You can’t tell her that you won’t ever hurt her. You have to show her that you are worthy of being trusted.
By the end of the course I could catch her easily, halter her, groom her and handle her legs. She learned about leading and backing up and therefore loaded beautifully into the trailer. The connection I felt we had after the Join Up took my breath away.
As a final demo for the charity we had her unattached, stood quietly with her foot on the foot stand while she had her feet rasped and trimmed. Her owner had never even been able to halter her and was very emotional when she put on her headcollar for the first time.
Teaching Smudge about leg handling for the farrier:
By creating trust and promoting learning we in reality didn’t ‘gentle’ Smudge. We just took away the fear that was hiding her true nature.
Details of the Advanced course can be found at: montyroberts www.montyroberts.com
Jo Bond, France |  | Jo Bond writes
Zamil The Foal’s Diary:
Wormers
Hi I’m Zamil (meaning ‘friend’) and I’m 7 months old. I am an arab colt and I live in a tiny village in SW France.
Until recently I had been living in a field with my mum and had never been handled. Jo Bond, my new owner, is busy teaching all about living with humans.
This week I learned about being wormed.
Jo started by using an old worming tube and gently touching my neck and face with it. Jo used the advance and retreat method i.e. she would touch me with the tube and if I didn’t move then she would move away (rewarding me for standing still). If I did move she would continue to hold the wormer next to me until I stood still and then she would move away. I soon learnt that the easiest option was to not worry about the wormer and to stand still.
She then put it into my mouth and took it out multiple times…rather than being scary, it got quite boring really. It then got lots better as she put some honey on it and repeated the whole process. Yummy!! It was so good that now every time that I see a wormer tube I can’t help but want to put it in my mouth.
She did this for a few minutes a day over several days. On the day she wanted to really worm me she did the honey tube first, then the real wormer (making sure she got it well into my mouth so I wouldn’t taste the paste) and then back to the honey tube. I can’t say that I even noticed the real wormer. She’s promised to start again with the honey tube a couple of days before doing the real wormer so that it continues to be as pleasant an experience as possible for me.
Jo Bond holds the Monty Roberts Preliminary Certificate of Horsemanship and trained with Kelly Marks in the UK. She now runs a centre in SW France starting youngsters and re-educating horses with behavioural problems.
www.bondwithyourhorse.com
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