Monty Roberts Equus Online University | Monty's Horse Training Post: A.D.D or A.D.H.D.

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Watch Monty's horse training videos to learn how he demonstrates communication through horse training techniques that the amateur and professional alike consider to be the trainable skills of a horse whisperer yet Monty calls it horse gentling.
Monty's horse training techniques are non violent with intelligent natural horsemanship. In addition to video instructions, Monty has written many books related to natural horsemanship. Monty trains safe horses for nervous riders called Willing Partners. Monty trains world class race horses for sale.
“I am very proud to be a part of Her Majesty’s horse training and her passion for their welfare. I believe she is the leading monarch for the advocacy of horses in the world. She is a thought leader in this field. Her Majesty's horses are trained using the Dually Halter, making a difference in the training of sensitive animals by giving the horse the choice to partner in the training.” ~ Monty
“I communicate with a horse in what I call the Language of Equus; a silent language of gestures that is discernible, predictable and effective. Now you can learn from my videos, audio and notes to help you understand the horse as I do. This language is really quite simple, but simplicity becomes its greatest strength.” ~ Monty
Monty Roberts is a renowned horse trainer known as the man who listens to horses and the original horse whisperer. Monty's horse training instructions are accepted worldwide.
Monty has helped thousands of people globally through his Monty Roberts Online Videos to learn how to Join-Up with horses, training young horses, spooky horses, horses that bite. His mustang , Shy Boy , is his most famous horse.
Join-Up methods help horse and trainer to establish a bond of communication and trust. “You must somehow understand that we as horsemen can do very little to teach the horse. What we can do is to create an environment in which he can learn.” ~ Monty
Monty says, “We hear that ‘actions speak louder than words,’ but generally we do not live by it too successfully.” Now Monty has taught thousands of people worldwide how to build trust in animals through our actions and body language.
Monty’s principles really amount to common sense and immense patience. He believes that children and horses have the same behavioral patterns. They are both naturally “flight” animals. "If you frighten them and resort to confrontation, you’ll lose their trust." ~ Monty
"Simple one-on-one reassurances and praise reap long term dividends that can all be undone with the quick slamming of a book on a desk or shouting back." ~ Monty Roberts
"No one of us was born with the right to say 'You must or I'll hurt you' to any other living thing, animal or human". ~ Monty Roberts
"My life's goal is to leave the world a better place than I found it, for horses and for people too". ~ Monty Roberts

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Horse Behavior and Training

A.D.D or A.D.H.D.

By:

Changenme

Date:

2016-Dec-28 at 08:21AM

Can a horse have A.D.D or A.D.H.D.?

Kicki -- Sweden 2016-Dec-29 at 08:37AM

Hi Changenme,
What an interesting question!
To attempt an answer - or rather; to offer a theory - I need to get into what causes the condition in humans. Because no one (as far as I know anyway) has studied this in horse brains.

In humans it has been seen in various studies to be caused by anomalies in the impulse transference of dopamine mainly to the parts that controls attention, impulse control and regulation of activity. A person with this condition will (according to the most recent research that advocates a biochemical explanation model) have problems with executive functions in brain processes like impulse control, planning, organization, coordination and to access the work memory, which is in control of your ability to keep more than one thing at a time in your mind as well as sorting out earlier experiences so you can use them to learn from them.
The condition is most likely caused by genetic inheritance rather than stress, bad upbringing or trauma, although all those can certainly enhance it.

With this in mind, we have to ask ourselves if the brain of a horse works in the same way human brains do? My thoughts are that it doesn't. For one thing the two halves are just barely connected to each other, so - while nothing should be ruled out without a scientific proof - I doubt horses can actually have ADD or any other letter combination.

That said, I can see how this question could arise, and I have been toying with a thought about the problem horses have with taking in lots of information at the same time, could cause behavior that could be compared to that of people within the autistic specter.
BUT to go from there to say that a horse is autistic is probably a leap too far.

These are just my thoughts on the subject, of course. I hope others will chip in here too, because it really is an inte´resting question that should be addressed.

A follow up would be; IF horses could have autism - then how should we deal with them? In my mind, if we follow Monty's concepts, we have a pretty good thing going already, because the incremental and violence free training gives any horse the tools it need to learn without being overwhelmed.

Changenme 2016-Dec-29 at 10:48PM

Thank you. What a great answer.