Hi Marv,
I went to your website and *read a bit* of the comment on the bonding procedure. Sounds like the "round pen reasoning" that many clinicians are using nowadays. I acutally live only 3 miles from Monty Roberts. I read his book and it sounds very like the same thing. Send the horse away until they join up with you voluntarily. I have actually done this sort of thing several times with my filly (although I will confess I have this personal dislike for *constantly swinging a rope* around and around at a horse - just me - I find it really irritating and many of the horses I know where people have done this method are ok when you lift a rope at them, but go right back to being bossy as soon as you put it down. It becomes this game. But I digress =) ). Anyhow, when I work her she is fine. She will follow me without even a halter on. Stop when I stop, go when I go. Do sharp turns on the haunches and even back up to voice commands.
Maybe I am wanting too much, but it still just feels like good behavior, not a real connection. When time comes to go back out, she seems to just tolerate being with me, not really enjoy it. She perks up when she runs to her herdmates. She won't usually pay any attention to me when I go to catch her, except when I took a carrot with me a few times. She doesn't move away at all when I go to put the halter on, just doesn't seek me out either. Maybe I just need to be satisfied with what I have at this point, and give it time to develop. If your method *could* help me, I would be happy to *read* it. I am always interested in learning what people do. I view all of it as tools in a kit. You don't use every tool every time, but the more you have to work with, the more chance you will be able to handle different situations when they come up.
Thanks for your help.
Unfortunately, I wasn't any help.
I added color to a few lines and phrases that tell why I wasn't able to help. The asterisks (*) are mine, added for emphasis and attention.
I wish I had a million dollars for every person with a horse problem who contacted me already convinced they knew what to do to solve their horse problem and all they are really interested in is me validating their convictions. Oh well...
If I get called somewhere to work on a problem and I find out they are following someone else's advice, they have no need of me because my techniques don't play well with others.
And much to my surprise there are those who need their problems and nothing will take those problems away. I once went to Life For God's Stray Animals in Lithonia, GA in the early 80's to adopt one of over 1,000 animals and they told me they were special needs animals and none of them were available. They told me in so many words that they were the only ones who could take care of their needs properly.
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