How You Can Be A Horse Whisperer

So, I was in the market for a horse to convert from a racehorse to a riding horse, because I couldn't afford to buy an already trained horse.

I had heard about this horse through the grapevine and went to the racing stable area in Kuwait to see him.

He was running out in the paddock when I went there.

No one was around at all.

He was the most magnificent horse I had ever seen.

The minute I laid eyes on him I knew I had to have him.

I didn't know anything at all about him at this point.

But, my eyes knew what was in front of me.

I knew this horse was special somehow, but at the time I didn't realize how special he really was!

So, I bought him for the equivalent of about 1750 dollars (US), and arranged to have him brought to the stable where I rode.

Photo Credit: Mia Ponzo (This is a picture of Moon Dancer getting a bath with my friend Khalid - the horse trainer).

Upon buying this most beautiful horse I had found, I was given his "passport".

Not knowing much (actually not knowing anything) about racehorses, I immediately went to the computer and looked up his ancestry.

I didn't really think I would be able to find anything, but I thought it would be interesting to try.

I wasn't ready at all for what I discovered.

Upon looking up his sire's name, I discovered that the horse that I had just purchased for a pittance, was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars!

As it turned out, my horse's sire (Gone West) was one of the most sought after sires in America at that time (still is).

And I also discovered that his grand sire was the most famous horse in thoroughbred racing history.... none other than Northern Dancer.!!!

I couldn't believe it!

As it turned out, the previous original owner of my horse was one of the royal family of the United Arab Emirates.

My horse had been purchased at birth for something like $100,000!!!

But, because he wouldn't race, he was useless to them.

Since he was a gelding, they couldn't breed him either.

So, they sold him to someone... and that person sold him to someone else, and on and on, until I got him.

He was a blue blood!

I immediately renamed him (he was originally registered as "Saar Al-Gharb - which means gone west in Arabic.. he was obviously named after his sire)... but this amazingly stunning horse was a direct descendant of Northern Dancer, and when he ran he looked so smooth and beautiful that he almost looked like he was dancing.

Thus, he would be called "Moon Dancer", and that is officially his name, thereafter.

I had a blue blood racehorse suddenly.... and I didn't have a clue on how to train it.

I barely knew how to do anything with horses except how to ride them!

I certainly didn't know how to train them!

So, I got a friend who was also a riding instructor and horse trainer to do it for me.

He rode Moon Dancer constantly.

Moon Dancer sometimes complied and sometimes not.

He often would try to buck him off.

At other times he would simply take off running and try to throw him into the trees.

What we thought would be a fairly easy task was turning into the impossible.

Photo Credit: Mia Ponzo (This is a picture of Moon Dancer being ridden by Khalid (the trainer)

See how beautiful Moon Dancer is!

But Khalid the horse trainer didn't like him as much after Moon Dancer tried to kill him more than once!

Photo Credit: Mia Ponzo

It was then that I decided to take matters into my own hands.

So, I went online and started talking to cowboys.

I started searching for web sites where I could learn how to train my horse.

The trainer had basically given up on him.

But, I wasn't going to give up that easily!

I know I am an uncontrolled optimist, but I really wasn't going to leave it just like that.

And, this horse needed to start from the beginning.

He had zero ground manners.

He would walk over you, had no respect for any human, and simply wasn't trained.

He was also scared... traditional training involves some physical measures, including whips sometimes, and he was people shy, head shy, and just flighty overall.

This would take a miracle!

Photo Credit: Someone (This is s picture of me and Moon Dancer - (me in all my Kuwaiti garb) :)

This is the ultimate technique.

This is what Monty Roberts did to make himself into a real horse whisperer (and you can, too)!

The technique is called "join up" or "joining up".

Join Up is based on having a basic understanding of how horses think.

If you want your horse to do whatever you want him to, you have to be the big boss.

In order to be the big boss you have to be the "alpha" as they say.

This makes you the head of the herd.

The only way you are going to get your horse to do whatever you want, no matter what, is to make it think you are the head of the herd.

So, Monty Roberts presented an easy, simple way to make this happen.

The first time I read about it, I thought it was interesting, but not having tried it, I was wondering how it would work.

So, soon after, I had the opportunity to try it out for myself.

For this technique you will need a round pen or a closed arena.

While training my horse in the big arena (I was teaching him bowing, shaking hands, etc), one time he got impatient for his treat, and didn't want to bow down to get it, so, while his head was under his chest, he went for the candy, and bit my hand (not hard, but it still hurt and was disrespectful).

So, I looked him straight in the eye, and shooed him away loudly with a big flourish of my arms.

He ran off into the far corner of the arena.

I then turned away from him (giving him my back) and stood there totally ignoring him.

He stood there for a while, and then slowly walked back toward me.

He walked right up to me and got close, and when he did that, I immediately turned toward him again and shooed him away loudly and, again, with a flourish of arms.

Then I turned around again and waited.

Sure enough, he came back and put his nose over my shoulder.

I shooed him away for the third time.

This time he came back more quickly and was pretty much almost groveling.

He put his nose over my shoulder and was doing whatever to get my attention.

I turned around and looked him in the eye and said, you don't know what you did?.. and basically just started giving him a piece of my mind, but not in a very mean way.

He put his head down to the ground and was chewing and blinking the whole time.

It almost looked as if he would cry!

Then I hugged him, and petted him and let him back into "the herd"... after that we were "joined up" and he was mine.

From that day forward he was more respectful and obedient than he had ever been.

I was able to take his training to the next level.

This technique works every time if you do it right, because it is based on the horse's nature.

Horses have feelings, too, and if you respect them and understand them and their likes, dislikes, and fears, you can easily make an amazing horse out of even the wildest one.

All you need is time.

It's an amazing technique!

Photo Credit: clizbiz.blogspot.com