Recommended Products
Below are some products that I highly recommend. All of these products can be purchased from the Intelligent
Horsemanship Association, a link to their site can be found on my links
page.
Disclaimer
Purchase and use of any product is the sole responsibility of the individual,
and I shall not be held liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of
products listed below.
DUALLY HALTER
The Dually (pronounced Dooley) training halter was designed by Monty Roberts,
and is an extremely useful training aid.
The Dually looks just like a conventional halter, except that as well as the
normal noseband, there is a double strand of soft nylon cord that goes across
the nose, with a ring on either side for attaching a rope to.
The halter gets its name from being ‘dual’ purpose as a rope can be attached to
the back ring to make it an ordinary halter, or to either of the training rings.
It is also ‘dual’ purpose in that it can be used not only for groundwork with
your horse, but also for riding in.
Like any piece of
equipment, the Dually halter is only as good as the hands that are holding it and it is
important to remember that this is a ‘training’ halter, not a magic wand or a
quick fix. Monty has produced a video entitled "How To Use The Dually Halter"
and I would recommended that you purchase the video along with the halter.
It is vitally important never to tie a horse up in the dually when the line is
attached to either of the training rings, and the halter comes with a label to
remind you of this. It is also not a safe halter to turn a horse out in since
the training rings could all too easily get caught up on something.
The Dually is available in three, colour coded sizes (red=small, black=medium
and blue=large.) The sizes come up big, so a small halter would probably not fit
anything much smaller than about 14hh.
WIP WOP ROPE (AKA Giddy-up Rope)
The Wip Wop rope is a rope made from very soft cotton fibres. It has a
loop to put your hand through at one end, and soft tassels at the other. It is used as a gentle method of encouraging forward movement from a
horse, and can be particularly useful in helping to overcome napping.
The rope can be used behind your leg, slapped across your shoulders, or flicked
over the top of the horse’s shoulders. It gives a visible and/or audible cue to
the horse, and the rider must be careful to allow and reward the forward
movement produced.
PERFECT MANNERS – how you should behave so your horse does too - by Kelly Marks
Anyone who has ever spent any time around horses will almost certainly have
heard horses being berated for having 'no manners'. The truth of the matter is
that ALL horses have manners - it's just that they have horse manners. If we
want them to learn what acceptable manners around humans are, then it is our
responsibility to teach them - and this book will show you how!
Former European champion jockey and show jumper Kelly Marks was the equine
problem solver on the BBC series 'Barking Mad'. She regularly writes articles
for Horse And Rider magazine and she starred in an Animal Planet documentary
called 'Whispering The Wild' where she and her team worked with the wild horses
of Namibia.
In 1993 Kelly met world famous horse whisperer Monty Roberts (in a petrol
station of all places) and began to study his methods.
Kelly soon became the first ever teacher of Monty's methods. She founded the
Intelligent Horsemanship Association, an organisation dedicated to bringing
together the best ideas of horsemanship from around the world to promote
understanding and fair treatment of horses.
Perfect Manners: How you should behave so your horse does too, is easy to read
and easy to follow. Using plain language, anecdotes, case studies and clear
photos (mostly of her beautiful little horse Pie, who I was lucky enough to have
done a Join Up with on one of my courses!), this book really helps you and your
horse to achieve a greater bond and to overcome specific problems such as
fidgeting when mounting, not wanting to load or being difficult to catch.
The book is divided into the following sections:
PART 1: RECOGNISING GOOD MANNERS
This section deals with what is understood by manners, the concepts behind
Kelly's techniques, some basics about the way horse's perceive the world, the
all important foundation exercises which will be the foundation (hence their
name!) of your work to create that special bond with your horse, some more
advanced exercises, and how to achieve the Monty Roberts' process of Join Up.
PART 2 - TEACHING GOOD MANNERS
This section deals with more specific problems you might have with your horse's
manners such as: catching, barging, tying, biting, separation anxiety, scraping
and banging, mounting, fear of vets, dentists, farriers, mane pulling, clipping,
and loading.
For each problem, Kelly talks about possible reasons why this problem may have
developed as well as things that you can do to help. There are lots of case
studies in this section, provided by not only Kelly, but also from her
Intelligent Horsemanship students and her team of Recommended Associates.
PART THREE- DEEPENING YOUR KNOWLEDGE
This section gives a brief history of behaviourism and an overview of
behavioural terms such as Positive Reinforcement, Shaping, Desensitisation,
Flooding and Latent Learning.
Don’t worry if this sounds too scientific for you, like the rest of the book,
Kelly has worded it so that it is all very clear, easy to read and easy to
understand.
Finally, this section talks about our own manners, and how we should behave both
to our horses and to other people around us.
This is a comprehensive book that will benefit every horse and owner.
FROM MY HANDS TO YOURS - By Monty Roberts
A well written and illustrated book which thoroughly explores and explains
Monty’s training techniques and includes the first ever ‘dictionary’ of the
language that Monty calls Equus. A non-verbal language that Monty uses to
communicate with the horse is a way he understands.
The book contains 13 chapters:
Chapter 1: The Nature Of Equus
Chapter 2: The Language Of The Horse
Chapter 3: Building Trust
Chapter 4: Join-Up
Chapter 5: Forming Partnerships
Chapter 6: A Look At Tradition
Chapter 7: The Wonders Of The Dually Halter
Chapter 8: Tools Of The Trade
Chapter 9: The Into-Pressure Syndrome
Chapter 10: Imprinting Good Behaviour
Chapter 11: Creating A Willing Performer
Chapter 12: Conformation
Chapter 13: Questions And Answers
A must-have book for all followers of Monty’s methods, and for anyone wanting to train horses in a non-violent manner.
These products can all be purchased from the Intelligent Horsemanship Association.
A link to their site can be found on my links page.