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05/27/05: How long do you train your reining horses before showing in competition?

05/20/05: We are starting a two year old filly, and putting a bridle on her and taking it off is virtually impossible. Can you tell us how we can overcome her dislike of the bridle going over her ears?

05/13/05: I have a six-month colt foal – should I be doing Join-Up with him yet?

05/06/05: I have a 7 year old Quarter horse gelding that is a cribber. What should I do to get him to stop this? And second, will the other horses in my barn learn this bad habit from him?

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Answers to May's Ask Monty Questions

Question: How long do you train your reining horses before showing in competition?

Answer: Most of the world-class trainers that I have known would answer this question in a fairly similar fashion to how I will answer it. It is very difficult to expect a horse to execute the procedures necessary for competition with less than one full year of training. Even at that level the reining horse should still be considered a baby. It is my opinion that with one year’s training any competition should be limited to very few competitive events. A sustained schedule of competitions for the horse with one year’s training will generally result in resentful horses.

              I consider 2-3 years to be optimum in maximizing the performance of the reining horse. Even after three years, with a horseman-like approach, the reined horse is apt to continue to improve. Most reined horses reach their full potential in the 8-9 year old range.    

- Monty

Question: We are starting a two year old filly, and putting a bridle on her and taking it off is virtually impossible. Can you tell us how we can overcome her dislike of the bridle going over her ears?

Answer: I would estimate that 90% of head-shy horses are man-made, caused by people striking the horse’s head with ropes or whips, or ‘twitching’ an ear. It is also important, however, to acknowledge those 10% of horses that are head-shy without the intervention of a human. In these cases, physical discomfort of some type is the cause, and it is imperative to have your horse checked for lice, ticks or other parasites as well as dental problems before you start to re-train the behavior. 

Trust is the key to enabling your filly to relax while you handle her ears. Trust is the key to everything I do around horses. The first step is always using Join-Up to build and repair trust using the horse’s language, Equus. You should then start handling her head, using the advance and retreat methods outlined in the ‘Head-Shy Horse’ chapter of my book, “From My Hands To Yours”. If at all possible, buy the Dually halter so you can train your filly to yield to pressure on her head instead of flinging her head up into the pressure. It is important that when the filly momentarily accepts the feeling of your hands around the sensitive areas on her head, you walk away instantly, thus releasing the pressure on her.Once you and your filly are comfortable and relaxed with this process, you can move onto introducing a hair dryer to her. Spray her with water so she is wet over her head and neck, and have a handler hold her so you can operate the dryer. Holding the hair dryer away from your filly, gradually move the flow of air over her hindquarters and up to the shoulder, beginning to condition her to the flow of air and motor sound. Start to move the flow of air over her head and ears, and use advance and retreat methods until she begins to accept the stimulus. Once she is comfortable with the air blowing directly on her ears, you can start to use your hand on and around her ears, and introduce a brush/clippers etc.

Please find and read a copy of my book “From My Hands To Yours” if possible, as this book outlines the process in far greater detail, with diagrams and photos to assist your learning. We also have a video named ‘Fix-Up 1’ that details the process, and you can attend training programs here at Flag Is Up Farms to help your filly re-learn the appropriate behavior.

- Monty

Question: I have a six-month old colt foal. Should I be doing Join-Up with him yet?

Answer: The process of establishing a relationship with your foal through Join-Up should begin once your foal has been successfully weaned and no longer calls out for his mother. Done properly, Join-Up will create a lifelong understanding between weanling and human. One or two Join-Up sessions should be enough to develop a trust-based relationship.

Keep in mind that too many sessions will be counterproductive – your foal will have the concentration span typical of babies of all species, so any work done needs to reflect this. After completing Join-Up, you can develop your foals’ skills at leading, being handled all over and having his feet picked up. I recommend that at this age, your foal has a natural life, spending lots of time at pasture with other horses. Following these guidelines should result in a happy, well-adjusted individual ready to begin his life with humans.

Chapter 10 of my training manual From My Hands To Yours details the process of bringing up your baby from birth to backing in greater detail.

- Monty

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Question: I have a 7 year old Quarter horse gelding that is a cribber. What should I do to get him to stop this? And second, will the other horses in my barn learn this bad habit from him?

Answer: Cribbing, or crib-biting, is also called wind-sucking and a few other colloquial names. It is a habit generally thought to be motivated by boredom. I have never seen a mustang in the wild cribbing. Many of the old books will classify cribbing as a stable vice. This seems to be rather valid, since it generally occurs where horses are kept in small confines.

A cure for cribbing has been sought for many decades. There are stories about trainers that used rather harsh techniques in an attempt to train the habit of cribbing out of the horse. I have never heard of the discovery of a successful system of training any horse not to crib. Once the habit begins, it is with the horse for life. Cribbing is closely related to thumb-sucking in the human.

In recent years, certain veterinary colleges have studied and perfected a surgical technique that has been effective in about 85% of the cases. I have personally seen many horses that were corrected through this surgery, and found that they were unable to collapse the pharynx and gulp air into the stomach.

The University of Kentucky did an experiment in the 1960's and 70's on whether or not one horse could learn to crib from another. As I recall, their findings suggest that there is some learned habituation from one horse to another.

- Monty

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