Wow and some more wow.

The previous night Debbie told me about the deer and said that if I open my shutters in the morning I'd see them grazing on the front lawn. And she was right. I sat up in bed, pulled the shutter down and there she was, grazing away right in front of the house, then standing up on her hind legs to nibble the bottom leaves from the trees.

Deer on the lawn right in front of the house

After a very welcome shower, I ventured into the kitchen and met Pat, Monty's wife and Lisa, the Editor from Horse Magazine, who had organised he competition I won to come here. Several cups of great coffee followed, during which time Monty came through into kitchen, just passing through as he was busy working, but I got to shake his hand and probably said something really stupid; it's a funny thing to meet someone who's been your hero for years and years because no matter how many times that moment is played out in your imagination, the reality is somehow overwhelming and tongue tying.

Monty's iconic smile

He looks just like he does in all the pictures, just like David Attenborough, he's developed a sort of personal uniform of beige canvas jeans with a great big cowboy buckle - probably won in a competition - a blue shirt and a red scarf pinned with a silver brooch, and of course the classic cowboy hat.

We then went down to the Mustang pens where two untouched wild young horses were just being brought in. The pen has a set of barriers at the back that forms a chute with enough room for the two horses standing one behind the other and then gates were shut so each was in it's own small enclosure with a wall to one side and lower panels to the inside.

The reason for this is that they feel safe in the chute as well as being safer for the humans. 6 young women who were doing an exam were working three to each horse, gradually acclimatising them to being touched, first with a hand, then they brought in halters and got the horses to accept that they weren't dangerous by rubbing them with the halters and gradually slipping them over until, with the minimum of fuss, they had them on.

They were using were the Dually Halter, something Monty invented as a teaching aid. They work in a similar way to the bitless bridles that I've been riding with on Sam's horses, so that when the horse resists and pulls back, the cord that rests over the nose tightens and and isn't so comfortable as when it's loose. Not painful, just uncomfortable. The horse learns very quickly that the more they resist the more uncomfortable it gets and the moment they stop resisting the handler slackens off the pressure and the cord loosens off again.

The first horse to come out of the chute with the Dually on was leading around quite well after a matter of only a few minutes. The second took a little longer but it was very interesting to see the learning process taking place. At first he just planted his feet and dug in, and there's very few humans strong enough to force a horse to move if it doesn't wasn't to and none of the women were anywhere near big enough to do that, but with the Dually halter on the horse learns that resistance is uncomfortable and co-operation takes the discomfort away. The key is to take the pressure off the second the horse stops resisting and it's amazingly effective.


After lunch we were offered a ride, which was really the moment I'd been waiting for. Having never ridden a Western saddle it was fascinating to see it all going on, it's much more complicated than the English saddle and they are absolutely huge, I doubt very much if I'd be able to saddle up by myself. Whilst we were all getting saddled up Monty was up on his horse Chrome, doing his amazing spins and reining backwards with only the slightest touch on the reins.

Monty and Chrome doing the spin -
one hind leg stays absolutely still while the rest spin

I had watched the way horses can be trained to side step up to the mounting block but actually getting to stand up there and get the horse to do that with just vocal cues was amazing. So many horses just won't even stand still at the mounting block, never mind side step right up to it. I had a stretch to get my leg over the big saddle but I managed and then I was on. The saddle felt very wide compared to what I'm used to but not uncomfortable. The stirrups though were a bit tricky and I didn't feel sure that my feet would stay in them for long.

First Monty showed us how Chrome works with cattle, cutting one out of the herd and then turning one way then the next to keep it from rejoining the herd. He told us that Chrome makes the moves by himself, he knows his job so well that he instinctively understands what he has to do and it's obvious that he really enjoys his work. Then we rode into the big arena and Monty did some more of his tricks, showing us how Chrome can change his leads in an incredibly precise way, again with the most subtle cues. I had seen all this on the Equus Online University, which was great for me because I understood what he was doing it, but even so it was something special to see it right there.

We did a few circuits of the arena, had a bit of a trot and I was feeling ok. Then we went into a canter and that's where the difference in the saddle really kicked in. I found I didn't have the grip that I do with an English saddle, with it being so wide at thigh level and that's where I tend to grip, rather than with my knees. Then my left stirrup fell of and soon after that the right went too and I knew I was in trouble but all I could think of was how embarrassing it would be if I came off. The only way I was managing to stay on was by grabbing hold of the pommel which meant I had no way to use the reins to slow the horse and without any leg grip either he was just speeding up. Fortunately I came up behind Debbie and was able to call out to her to stop in the hope that my horse would get the message and pull up too, which he did.

Embarrassing enough but at least I stayed on. During dinner we watched some footage of Monty and Kelly Marks working with two horses that had been impossible to load into horse boxes and how they used the Dually Halter to get the horse to co-operate, tentatively at first, then a bit more confidently until the horse would follow Monty into the trailer without even a lead rope on.

To think how many horses are traumatised by the loading process, becoming ever more resistant with each attempt and how easy it can be to turn it around and get the horse to accept the process it makes me just wish everyone knew the trick to doing it was so accessible and so effective, and all without causing any pain to the horse.

After dinner we went down to the teaching centre for a screening of the final cut of a programme made by Discovery Military channel, featuring three Iraq veterans who, like 1 in 5 returnees, all had come home with PTSD and spent years in therapy with no effect and were just medicated to the point where they could live without exploding, but they were all really suffering badly with it. Monty had them doing Join-Up to help them understand that there are ways of being in the world that don't involve violence and maybe they'd be able to turn their lives around and find a way to trust people again.

Their experiences in Iraq had damaged their ability to trust because they had to learn to trust nothing and nobody in order to stay alive. Shockingly we heard that one of them, a strong, beautiful young woman had not only been subject to the terrors of combat, but had endured sexual assault from the male soldiers and resorted to locking herself in a cupboard to stay safe. It was certainly quite an eye opener. Thousand of young men and women must be in the same state as those three and if only they could all benefit from the Monty Roberts experience they might have some hope of getting their lives back. That was the end of my first day and it had been pretty much wow all the way and I slept for 12 hours straight.