From Desperate & Dangerous To Grand Prix Prospect In 5 Days
From desperate and dangerous to Grand Prix prospect in five days. Keep your eye out for this combination – they are going places!
Some of the best and most spectacular horses can be the most difficult until you find the key that turns them into happy pussy cats.
And that picture certainly fitted Monty. I had tears in my eyes the day I took these photos.
He was soft, he was elevated, he was dancing into Gina’s hands with the most awesome power – and he’s on a long and loose rein. Wait ‘til he’s ready to be asked for collection! We ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
And they did it with the philosophy and attitude from Bobby’s Diaries, filtered through Gina’s own dressage experience.
Monty Joined A Spirit of Horse Clinic
Monty came into a four day Spirit of Horse clinic in October 2006. “Spirit of Horse” is the 4 day workshop version of Bobby’s Diaries, that we teach here at Tanjil South. This is the workshop that we’ve used to prove the stuff in Bobby’s Diaries with other people and other horses. This photo of Monty and Gina was taken in an afternoon private lesson about 6 weeks after the workshop.
Monty was a difficult and dangerous horse. He had savaged Gina’s non horsey partner, who was no longer willing to go in the paddock and fed up if he had to by leaning over the gate with a piece of poly pipe in his hand to protect himself. Gina herself had sported a few bruises over the years from being bitten and other “bad” behaviour.
Gina was a competent rider, working hard at it, riding most days, having regular and frequent lessons from excellent dressage teachers. She had tried bit changes, saddle changes, teacher changes, riding style changes and although she got some results, progress was not coming consistently and she still had a horse that most people considered dangerous.
Gina’s words:
“Although I was working with a very understanding and skilled dressage teacher, who has a wonderful kind training method, Monty still had some very dangerous habits, on the ground and under saddle. He was constantly biting – no matter how much I reprimanded him, he would not stop. He was often difficult to catch and would charge at me, teeth flaring. I wasn’t sure how to deal with this, so I would fill up his bucket with carrots and apples, so that he would come happily. But if he decided he was not going to leave the paddock, he would go backwards instead and we would spend half my riding time just trying to get out of the paddock. I tried to never get angry, because that made him even more dangerous.
Under saddle he would often use his energy for evil instead of good. There were many times that he would do things like not going forwards properly or going backwards and not going forwards at all. If I forced him, he would get angry and throw his whole front end in the air, twist his body and basically do anything that he could, to not do what I wanted. 17 hands of incredibly strong and determined warmblood fighting with me was very difficult to handle.
I am happy to report that all these things are now of the past. (Note from editor – apart from the odd hiccup as they settle in with the new method!) Monty now comes to me nicely when I ask him to, with no biting and with a nice look on his face. He follows me to the gate and then I put the head collar on, again no biting! He walks out of the gate nicely and happily I no longer even have to tie him up cos’ he stands there nicely for me and no biting still! It’s just so exciting! I have shed so many tears of joy that my Monty comes to me and follows me around like a puppy with no biting and a soft face cos’ he wants to be with me.
The riding has also improved dramatically. He can now carry himself for longer and longer periods of time in the most relaxed, soft and rhythmical way because he is my partner now and working with me. I am having so much fun with Bobby’s method, both on the ground and on board. I think it’s made me a calmer person in general.
I know my partner enjoys the success cos’ Monty doesn’t bite him any more either and he no longer needs to feed him with a piece of poly pipe in his hand and can even grease his hooves.
I hope you have enjoyed my success story and I am sure that there’s a lot more good things to happen. Well done and thank you to Jenny and Bobby for sharing this with us.
A very happy Gina and Monty.”
Gina’s Understating The Improvement In Her Ridden Work
Gina is so excited by their progress on the ground, that she’s understating the improvement in her ridden work, which was also dramatic. When she applied Bobby’s Way to her ridden work, on the first day of riding, Monty found self carriage on the buckle of a loose rein. When a horse is in self carriage, his stride is soft and rhythmic, he’s relaxed, he lifts his back up to better carry your weight in a relaxed manner and he covers the ground nicely with his stride.
By the end of four days, he was only coming out of self carriage occasionally. Six weeks later, using some new material that Bobby had given me that has been included in “Bobby’s Diaries”, he was elevating his back even more powerfully and using his body spectacularly – still on a very long rein and dancing into her hands. This was the day we took the photo you see here.
There is nothing unusual about the speed of Monty and Gina’s progress. Every horse has gone into self carriage to some degree in the four day workshop. Many people get it in the first day of riding.
Up ‘til now, most people’s attitude, even expressed to Gina, was “Get rid of that horse, he’s going to kill you one day”.
One of the loveliest things about helping these two find each other, has been listening to the admiring jokes about “Just leave that horse in the paddock for me on your way out” and “I’ll give you a dollar for him”.
I suspect that there is no amount of money that would prise Monty from her hands!
To buy the book and get what they’ve got, click here.
You can’t quite see the detail in the photo, but this was also the day that I lent Gina Bobby’s Pee Wee bit. It was a bit small for Monty, but according to him, it was still an improvement on the snaffle that he was riding in.
Gina was so impressed with my bit, she rang up and bought one the next day – a bigger size though!
If you’re interested at seeing more of the Pee Wee Bit, click here
