I know a man who starts horses with a contraption attached to a
surcingle he calls "A monkey on his back". He says it gets a horse
used to things moving around in the air above him, where a human
seated in a saddle would be. He takes little flags and crosses them,
ties them in a bundle so they are sticking out all over and waving in
the breeze, and lets the horse walk around with it a while so it gets
used to it. He said he started doing that when he was young and
breaking horses. he would have them all calm under saddle and he said
either his hat would blow off or someone would holler hello at him and
he would throw up a hand to wave and startle the horse. he said it
gets the horse used to movement up there. What do you think about
that? So far he seems unaffected by anything I've tried ... I could
fix the bundle up there loosely and if he got nervous just pull them
down. Or just hold them in my hand and wave them over his head as we
walk along..
Janice --
even good horses have bad days sometimes.
