I don't know how many of you have scene Monti Roberts work with horses. He takes and unbroken horse or a horse with some behavioral issues and turns them around in fifteen to twenty minutes. Now, Monti works in a large round pen, but I saw no reason why the indoor arena, which is not that large, wouldn't work.
As I have written before Bouffe does not like being in the indoor arena; so, I thought I would try out Monti's techniques and see if they would work on Bouffe. I led Bouffe into the arena in just his halter and then turned him loose. He raced around, just like Monti says his horses do. I followed Monti's instruction and paid little attention to Bouffe as he jogged and galloped in one direction and then the other. I had looked at the time we started on my watch and after three minutes Bouffe showed no signs of stopping and I wondered if this was going to work since Monti is usually tacking the horse up by now. But I continued to wait: five minutes, ten minutes and finally after fifteen minutes, when I was getting ready to give up, Bouffe stopped, walked over to me, dropped his head and nuzzled me. Success!
I reattached the lead rope and walked Bouffe around the ring. He remained quiet, even when I opened the door so he could see outside. This was a wonder experience for both Bouffe and me, one that brought us closure together.
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