February 2006 E-Newsletter

Contents:

• A letter from Monty: "The strongest lesson the horses have taught me"
• Article: Is it education or just a show? – Or, what is the message of Monty Roberts Demonstrations?
• This week's Question and Answer
• NEW SECTION! Monty’s Principles for People
• Catch Monty on tour in England and Scandanavia. Click here!
• Upcoming Issues

A Letter From Monty: "The strongest lesson the horses have taught me "

Dear Friends,

Last month, horses in Brescia, Milan, Rome, and Köln all agreed with me that communicating in their language, what I call Equus, engenders trust in a horse. Their language is universal; their willingness to learn is enormous. This drives me to work harder to teach all of you what, and how, I learn from the horses.

The tour date in Köln, Germany afforded me an opportunity to meet again with my friend Brigitte von Rechenberg DVM, University of Zurich, and Diplomat of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons. We share a common quest to bring the scientific study of Join-Up® to the world of animal behavioral science. In this E-newsletter, I have included a paper Dr. von Rechenberg, and others, authored. Please read it and share it.

This week’s question below is appropriately about trust. I am often called a horse gentler, implying that I am gentle when I train horses. I do believe that gentleness engenders trust in a horse. But as I said in the opening paragraph, I am a stronger believer in the power of the language of Equus. I describe my textbook, From My Hands to Yours, as the definitive guide to violence-free training because, to the horse, any pain is violence. There is no justification for calling pain discipline or anything else. The horse’s only motivation in the round pen is to survive. So to inflict any pain is an inconsistent message if you are trying to train that animal. Lots of trainers are gentle and that is a good goal. But the trainer that understands the language of the horse would never hit or whip a horse – never. Frustration, anger or lack of communication skills should not be a part of the training session. Trust lost, is hard to regain. If you aren’t having fun, do something different.

We are adding a new section, Monty’s Principles, which I hope you will share with educators, parents and others. Everyone interested in Join-Up concepts for people will find it revolutionary!

Your interest in improving results and relationships with horses keeps me going! I look forward to seeing you at one of my many upcoming dates.

- Monty

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Article: Is it education or just show? – Or, what is the message of Monty Roberts Demonstrations?

The man who can make hard things easy is the educator. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

When the first two authors of the following article saw their first Monty show in Denver (CO), they didn’t know anything about Monty’s work or him as a person. The show was held in a huge stadium and more than 4,000 people were present. Monty showed two green horses at the time and explained what he was doing with the horses. He predicted the symptoms of how the horse would start listening with the inner ear, followed by licking and chewing, moving their heads to the ground, and then they finally would Join-Up to him.

It was fascinating to watch the horses change their focus during the round pen work. In the beginning it was towards the audience. They hardly took notice of Monty in the center, being overwhelmed with the exciting and new environment. Only a few minutes after the work in the round pen had started, their focus changed towards Monty like a camera zooming in on the point of interest and during the further work: it was all only between Monty and the horses. It was amazing how he could direct the horses with just little actions and gestures and how they followed his instructions as if magic would be at work. But it was no magic, his explanations made it very easy for every horse person to understand what was happening in front of their eyes. The remaining authors of this excerpt had very similar experiences. Thus, Monty Roberts possesses the gift of the excellent educator.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. (William A. Ward)

We had seen the signs of how the horses communicate, we just didn’t know how to understand and what to make out of them. After all these years we had spent with horses, it was as if someone had turned on a light, and interactions with horses became so simple and so much more rewarding. This was especially true, since we were dealing on an every day basis with sensitive Arabian Horses, who wouldn’t take crap of any sort and especially nothing in combination with violence. We walked away from the show finally understanding why our leading mare could never be caught in the pasture, and the days when we had to bring in all six horses just to catch the one mare were over for good!

Monty Roberts taught us well by both explaining and demonstrating. All it took was to lower the eyes, to drop the shoulder, close the hands and to come from a better angle when walking up to her while she was grazing. Of course, since this first show in Denver, we have seen several others in Europe, have read all his books and learned a lot more while trying to apply his method not only on our own horses, but also to horses treated for veterinary problems, where working with the Dually halter and the Join-up can solve a lot of problems for the patient and the veterinarian. Now, if one show could teach us how to catch a mare without difficulties from a 100 acre pasture, what are the other messages going through to a large audience of interested listeners? There are many messages coming through regarding training, communication skills between horse and trainers; messages we understand because of good didactics and sound teaching. The most important message is that training works without violence and suppression, but is much more effective if leadership provides the comfort of feeling safe in the presence of the trainer. The horse can only feel safe if its language or actions and reactions are understood and taken seriously. Monty's audiences are thoroughly inspired to go home and apply his teachings to the horses they work with in their daily life.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. (Albert Einstein)

Monty's art of teaching is in contrast to many other methods, where the answers of the horses are not understood and constantly ignored and where the unfortunate attitude – so common in many training stables throughout the US and Europe – is “no matter how, but he (the horse) HAS to do it”. The shows also demonstrate that training is not restricted to techniques of classical and instrumental conditioning, which make use of simple, even rather mechanistic forms of learning. Here, communication between humans and horses is brought into training interactions. These interactions allow the horses to react and to act as horses with all their behavioral potentials. The training does not only imply functioning of the horses according to signs and commands from the trainer as in a one-way street. Monty’s Join-up demonstrates true interaction. It’s a two-way street of communication, where the horses keep their dignity, can talk back, and their concerns are taken into consideration. The spectators also learn that this type of interaction and communication will not only maintain, but also strengthen the horse’s trust, and create an important motivational basis for future interactions. As for didactics and methods, Monty’s shows combine verbal explanations for the audience with non-verbal language between him and the horse, and these go together with surprisingly efficient interactions during his round pen work. This highly efficient form of learning through the synchronous use of three channels of teaching provides an impressive way of “model learning” for the audience. The verbal teaching is lively, well understood by the audience, and more importantly: it is well related to the non-verbal communication. This allows the audience to encode information in the explicit-cognitive as well as the implicit-experiential modes of functioning. Monty’s welltuned verbal and non-verbal communications get the full attention of the audience, another prerequisite for model learning. Watching his performance, listening to his comments, and observing how the horses “talk back” is fun, - a rather exotic learning experience in today’s classrooms! There is another educational aspect of Monty’s shows that touches many horse owners, riders and other people drawn to animals and nature deep down emotionally. It raises the awareness of biophilia in people in the sense of Wilson (1984) meaning the ancient awareness of affinity and connectedness to other forms of life. Monty’s teaching not only changes interactions between humans and horses, but also between humans and other species, and even between humans and humans. His message of non-violent interaction between species is extended to a modern world where violence has unfortunately become the rule rather than the exception.

Coming back to our original question: Are Monty’s demonstrations (just) a show? Yes, they are, but with all positive aspects of competent teaching and essential learning, and for those who listen, they open a door to a better understanding of horsemanship. However, to speak with famous writer Gail Godwin, the answer may also be no. According to her, good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

Brigitte von Rechenberg*§, PD, Dr.med.vet., Dipl. ECVS, Head of Musculoskeletal Research Unit
Erhard Olbrich§, Dr.phil., Professor of Psychology
Jörg A. Auer*§, Dr.med.vet., MS, Dipl. ACVS/ECVS, Professor and Director of Equine Hospital; President Foundation
Hans-Dieter Vontobel, Dr.iur, Vice-President Foundation
Mathias Ackermann*, Dr.med.vet., Professor and Director of Veterinary Virology
Felix Ehrensperger*, Dr.med.vet., Dipl.ECVP, Professor of Immunpathology
* Vetsuisse Faculty ZH, University of Zurich, Switzerland
§ Foundation: Research for horses, Switzerland

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February 15 , 2006 Question and Answer

Question: How do you reward a horse that does not like to be touched?

Answer:

In the Join-Up process a major reward is to walk away from the horse. Since this does not require touch, it is easy to do. Walking away, however, should be used only when the horse gives you positive responses. Properly executed, Join-Up will, in a very short period, encourage your horse to accept touching; see chapter four of my textbook From My Hands To Yours: Lessons from a lifetime of training championship horses. No mustang I have ever worked with allowed touching at first, but all mustangs that I have worked with found value in it ­ eventually.

- Monty

NEW SECTION
Monty's Principles for People

“Violence is for the violator and never for the victim. Violators act through a sense of frustration. They reach a point at which they feel they are without choices. They go into an aggressive mode and attempt to bash their subject into agreement. If we are in conflict with one another, the most positive results are always obtained if we can agree to enter into negotiations that will ultimately produce solutions to the dilemma." (Excerpt from chapter three of Horse Sense For People, entitled, Against Violence)

We encourage you to send us your letters such as these:

I just finished reading the article regarding autism by Serena Sutherland. I happen to work with several autistic children in my position as an Occupational Therapy Assistant in a local public school system here on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Although I do not consciously engage the Join-Up method when interacting with the autistic children with whom I work I know that the technique is an integral part of my approach and is evident by the success I have in treating the behavioral problems of these children and others with emotional disabilities. I firmly believe that the Join-Up concept is an effective approach to inter-communicating with all people.

I enjoyed and connected with Ms. Sutherland’s article and appreciated your sharing it with us readers in your newsletter.

By the way, I happen to be a graduate of the Join-Up technique/training (summer of 2000). Thanks again for the life changing experience!

Sincerely, Leann R. Gadden

Click here for more information on Join-Up classes

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Look for these upcoming issues!

• An Army Chaplain shares his experience from Kuwait where 500 chaplains stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of Southwest Asia came to train how to illustrate the idea of the power of gentleness in relationships using Join-Up
• Marlou Bakker and her horse Walle from Maastricht, Holland, share their experience from Monty’s tour
• Click here to see a video preview of the DVD Gentling Your Spooky Horse: a young, unhandled horse.
• Calendar dates added in California, Ohio (Equine Affaire), Europe and Australia
• Read Monty's answer next week to the question: How much time do you have after your horse has made a mistake to effectively correct it?

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