I’ve had quite a few people over the years at my horsemanship clinics ask me about bits, and what I use. I’m actually a very simple person when it comes to bits, because in my opinion, bits come in 2nd place behind good training. I’ve seen people over the years use shank bits that had shanks so long you need wheels on the bottom just to keep it moving on the ground! I’m not against shank bits, I have a whole tack room full of them, but I am against the use of shank bits to MAKE a horse listen, or to MAKE  a horse stop or soften.

I’ll go into the progression of what I use for bits from when I first start training a horse, and how I upgrade the horse along the way:

The first thing I use when I’m first starting a horse is my Mundt Method Halter and Lead. I won’t throw a bit in the horse’s mouth for at least the first week in riding, because I have enough to teach the horse as it is, and I don’t want to be pulling around on his mouth, until I can get him soft and supple with just the halter and lead. Once the horse gets soft from only the halter on his nose, when you go to use my Snaffle Bit, half of the work is already done for you!

After the first week of riding the horse with the Mundt Method Halter and Lead, I’ll then progress the horse into a simple O-Ring/D-Ring Combo bit as seen here. This bit eliminates problems associated with an O-Ring—the tendency to pinch due to play within the joints. Copper inlay causes the horse to salivate more and tastes sweeter. A well-balanced, comfortable bit good for starting young horses and for use as training advances. Comes with engraved German Silver at the joints just for a nicer look. I’ll use this bit for 99% of my Training, even my Advanced Horses use this bit when we progress to the advanced stages of The Mundt Method. Once you get a horse to collect vertically and soften to just this type of bit, once you progress into the next bit, your horse will be as soft as butter!

This next bit is a simple Tom Thumb Snaffle, used in some aspects of competition, and is made to be used with one hand. It’s made out of sweet iron, and has copper inlay in the mouth piece to encourage the horse to salivate, and aid in softness. This bit is simply a snaffle bit with shanks on it, making it a great transitional bit for one-handed maneuvers required in certain types of competition. I won’t ride a horse in a shank bit like this one, or any shank bit for that matter, until I’ve been riding/working with them for at least one year! I want the horse to be soft and supple laterally with the previous bit, before I transition them to a shank. Shank bits allow you to encourage vertical flextion with your horse without the use of both hands. Having a horse that neckreins is a must before you use this bit.

I always encourage people to open their mind to training, and how to get your horse to be soft and supple, not use mechanical means to MAKE your horse listen to you, or become soft. A horse’s mouth is simply a ‘telegraph station’, telling you how stiff or soft his body is. Remember: horse’s don’t have ‘hard mouths’, they have hard stiff bodies. Once you get the body soft, the mouth follows.

Understanding your horse’s personal nature, will help you to tailor your efforts to his way of being. Understanding this law will help you avoid frustration, and keep your training efforts moving forward in the direction you seek.

There are only two types of horses in the world when it comes to personality types, and those are: hot blooded horses, and cold blooded horses. Knowing the difference between the two, and how to interact with each type, will skyrocket your success in your training, and allow you to teach the horse much faster, in a shorter period of time.

Let’s look at each one of these:

Cold Blooded horses: cold blooded horses are more laid back, relaxed, and generally more docile. Belgians, Fjords, some bloodlines of Quarter Horses and Gaited Horses fall into this category. They don’t have a lot of “get up and go”, and are very easy to desensitize, and take much longer to catch on to a lesson or a concept. But once they understand what you’re asking of them, they will never forget it. A good example of this type of horse is my personal horse I use for demonstrations Vegas. He’s very lazy and dreams about sleeping, and usually takes a bit to get up and start moving. He’s very easy to desensitize, and remembers everything I teach him. When I give him his “winter vacation”, I normally do groundwork with him the first time I start working with him in the spring, and that usually lasts about thirty minutes, and we go to riding just like he did when I put him up for the winter. He has an incredible memory.

With cold blooded horses you’re going to spend more time getting them to move their feet and go forward. This horse says, “Hey Justin, what’s the big hurry. You look stressed. Do I look stressed? I didn’t get this figure by running around. Let’s take a break”. This type of horse is also very easy to desensitize, and keep desensitized. Adding new objects such as tarps and plastic bags are accepted rather quickly because of their laid back nature.

Hot blooded horses: these horses are more athletic and have a big motor, and like to go forward. This type is very intelligent. Arabs, Thoroughbreds, and some bloodlines of Quarter Horses fall into this category. These horses are very easy to sensitize, because they have so much energy, and take much longer to desensitize. They catch on to a concept very quickly, and become bored at their job quickly because they are so smart. Adding variety to this type of horse is key to excel with them.

Hot blooded horses take very little coaxing to get them to move forward. Normally just a little tap and they come unglued and want to run forward. When working with this type of horse you’ll also have to do lots of changes of direction, to get their mind to start dialing into you. You’re not going to get to this horse’s mind by just running them around and knocking the wind out of them. With this type it’s like my dad used to always say, “you have to be smarter than the horse”. So with this type I’ll normally spend most of my time desensitizing them, and when I sensitize them, I’ll do more changes of direction so they don’t get their motor ran so much. Always remember to start out gently with this type because they will be more sensitive to pressure, and already want to start moving even if you’re thinking about it. So a little more desensitizing, and changes of direction in the beginning will help to dial in this horse to get him on your team.

As an end result we all want what I call a “goldilocks” horse. One that’s not too hot, and not too cold, but just right. To build the “goldilocks” horse, we have to remember to balance our sensitizing and desensitizing exercises. If we were to sensitize a hot horse too much, pretty soon we would have a renegade on our hands that would run and jump at everything that moves. If we were to desensitize our already cold blooded horse, he would stand completely still even if an atomic bomb went off, but if we were to get on him and tell him to canter, he’d more than likely buck us off because he’s never been taught how to move forward properly.

So the key to knowing what type of horse you have will help you to know what you’ll have to do more of in the beginning. With the proper balance of exercises, and tailoring your exercises to your individual horse, you’ll soon end up with a horse that will go when you say go, and a horse that will stand still and relax, when you tell him to relax. This is the key secret to getting what people refer to as a “push button horse”.

Pressure simply motivates the horse to look for a better answer. Anytime we are working with our horse, we are applying pressure in an active form or a passive form. As the old saying goes, “diamonds are not made without pressure”.

Pressure in relation to horses refers to movement. Anything that moves creates pressure. You can create pressure with one of my sticks, a hat, or even a plastic bag. The smaller the movement, the smaller the amount of pressure. The bigger the movement, the more pressure the horse feels.

I can create pressure with my stick, without even touching the horse. I can tap the air in front of the horse’s nose and be assertive with my body language, and make the horse feel uncomfortable without even touching him. Remember, anything that moves creates pressure; leaves rustling in the breeze, tree branches, a flag on a flag pole, etc. Sometimes you’ll want the horse to stand still and ignore the pressure, and sometimes you’ll want him to move away from the pressure. The more you get the horse to use the thinking side of his brain, the better he’ll understand, as well as learning how to read your body language.

There are two types of pressure when it comes to training horses. There is steady pressure, and then there is driving pressure. Let’s break these two categories down:

Driving Pressure: driving pressure is just that, driving pressure. It has a beat or a rhythm to it; one two three four, one two three four. When doing groundwork we mainly use driving pressure because it is harder for the horse to lean on because it has a steady beat or a rhythm to it.

For example let’s say your at a horsemanship clinic and your sitting in a chair. You’ve been sitting there for a couple hours and your butt starts to feel uncomfortable. You don’t move because you’re not so uncomfortable to where it motivates you to look for another place to sit. But now let’s say that the chair your sitting on starts to jump up and down very rapidly; bumpbumpbumpbump….. about 3 inches off the ground. You’ll want to move away pretty quickly won’t you? Well that’s the same concept we are using with our horses. Since they are such a bigger creature, we can’t get into a pushing match with them because they are in a different weight division; they are in the 1,000 -1,200lb weight division, and we are in the 130-200lb weight division. So what we lack in strength we make up for in technique.

A lot of people don’t know this about me; back when I was a young kid I took Martial Arts lessons, and was just crazy about it. So crazy I climbed the “belt ladder” so to speak, and flew through the lessons so fast, that over time, I became an instructor, and was teaching the adult class. Even though I was younger, the adults that were in the class didn’t want to spar with me on Wednesday nights! I didn’t have a lot of strength, but my instructor taught me that strength didn’t matter, it was all about technique. These older guys knew that if I got ahold of them that the game was over, they were going down. I got the nickname of the “takedown kid” because I could toss guys around who were double my weight, just by using technique. I was a scrawny kid with absolutely no muscle definition, but what I lacked for in strength, I made up for in technique. So now we can apply that same concept to our horses.

Steady Pressure: when you ride a horse you’re mainly using steady pressure; your pulling on the reins, squeezing with your legs, and the horse moves off of that steady pressure. Steady pressure is a consistent pressure. We don’t start using steady pressure on the ground, until we get the horse to respect our space, and become respectful of us using driving pressure. Once they get good at driving pressure, then we can start pushing them around on the ground and getting them to yield to our fingers, and light touches.

Horses are born with the instinct to lean and push against pressure. Mother nature tells the horse to pull away and fight against pressure to survive an attack from a predator. When a horse goes to take a drink from a pond in the wild, and an alligator jumps up and grabs the horse around the head, does the horse say, “oh your pulling me, let me just give at the poll for ya”….NO WAY! He wants to pull and get away! Or if the horse in the wild were to get his foot caught in some rubbervine. Would he just say, “well I’m just going to wait here, sooner or later someone will find me, no need in fighting”. Well he’s right! Someone WILL find him, and eat him! So they are born and bred to fight against pressure for survival. It’s your job as a horse trainer to teach your horse to yield and soften to both types of pressure. In fact, horse’s love to lean on steady pressure. And because they’re bigger and stronger than us, they always win. They know that when they lean on pressure, we’ll push back and they can out-muscle us.

Another point to keep in mind, is that horses don’t learn from pressure; they learn from the release of pressure. While pressure motivates the horse to look for another answer, it is the release of pressure that teaches him that he did the right thing. That’s why timing is such a crucial element in training horses. If your timing is off, you may be rewarding the horse the wrong behavior and sending him mixed signals. Whatever the horse is doing the exact second that you release the pressure is what you’re rewarding him for. So if he rears and you release the pressure, you’ve just rewarded him for rearing. If he pushes into your space and you back off, you’ve just rewarded him for being dominant towards you.

This concept also works in reverse. If the horse is responding correctly, but you don’t release the pressure at the right moment, he’ll learn to ignore you. You have to be very conscious to release pressure as soon as the horse even attempts to respond the way you want.

The secret to getting a soft, supple, responsive horse is having the correct timing to reward the horse when they try, and doing that using the lightest amount of pressure possible. When you apply pressure to your horse, you do so in stages just like the dominant horse does in the wild, using herd dynamics; that horse will first pin their ears, then lunge forward to nip, then turn their hindquarters and swish their tail, then they will kick, and then they will keep kicking until they get the job done. That horse doesn’t just walk over to the other horse and start kicking away. They start with the lightest amount of pressure possible such as laying their ears back, and then they increase the pressure until they get the response they want. Now….how long do you think that whole situation took? Probably about 4-6 seconds. The horse doesn’t walk over and pin their ears…..wait 3 minutes…..pin their ears again…..wait 3 minutes…..then go to nip bla bla bla. When they do it it’s all business.

When we apply pressure to our horses, we use pressure in stages, with a four-count beat; one, two, three, four, …ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, and with each set of four numbers you increase the pressure slightly. Once your horse does what you ask him to, you release the pressure to reward him, and let him know he did the right thing.

So you’ll start with the lightest amount of pressure possible, then increase the pressure. Say for instance that you pick up on the rein to flex your horse with 5 ounces of pressure. The horse ignores you, so you pick up with 10 ounces of pressure, and you keep moving up the scale, or increasing the pressure until they respond. But if you were to pick up on your horse using 2 pounds of pressure, and you did that consistently, your horse won’t get any lighter. Remember: your horse won’t get any lighter than the first amount of pressure you put on. That’s the secret to getting a soft, supple, and responsive horse.

Horses aren’t born knowing what is right and what is wrong. All they know is what they’re allowed to get away with. If you allow your horse to be pushy and disrespectful, he will become disrespectful. If you teach him to yield and move away from pressure, he will be respectful because that’s what you’re allowing him to do.

I don’t care if your horse is an hour old, two years old, or twenty years old. I never allow a horse to push me around and act disrespectful by barging into my space. When a horse treats me disrespectfully and pushes into my personal space, he’s really trying to see if he can move my feet. So instead I’ll immediately put his feet to work until he’s convinced that I’m the leader again. As soon as I get the attitude and effort I’m looking for, I’ll instantly reward that behavior and release the pressure. Horses only know what they’re allowed to get away with. It’s your job to make sure you teach your horse the difference between good behavior and bad behavior. Remember: anytime you’re around your horse, you are training him whether you realize it or not. You’re either training him to do the right thing, or training him to do the wrong thing.

The majority of horse “problems” aren’t really problems at all; they are really just symptoms of an underlying cause. Ninety-five percent of all the problems you will ever have to deal with as a horse owner will fix themselves if you do the groundwork and build your horse’s respect.

Most people think that their horse’s problem (biting, bucking, rearing, pawing, etc) is the real issue, but it’s not. What most people think is a problem is nothing more than a symptom of a cause. But people get so focused on the horse’s bad behavior that they can’t see what is actually causing it.

For instance, take a cinchy horse. A horse that pins his ears, snaps at you or cow kicks when you pull up the girth is nothing more than a disrespectful horse. When you get the horse’s respect, he’ll stop all of his disrespectful behavior because cinchiness is nothing more than a symptom of a cause.

If you have a weed growing up in the middle of your driveway, and you simply cut the weed off with a weed whacker, in a couple weeks it will grow right back. You keep doing this over and over and over but the weed keeps growing back because the root system is still intact. But if you were to go to the store and buy some weed killer, spray it on the weed and kill the root system, the weed will no longer grow back. It’s the same thing when training horses. Any problem that a horse could possibly have comes from either a lack of respect or fear, or in some cases, both.

You might say, “Well Justin, I’m new to horses. I don’t understand where my problem is coming from. I don’t know if it’s a lack of respect, or if it’s a fear-based issue.” Here’s the good news – it doesn’t really matter! As long as you do the groundwork, you’ll actually be working on both categories.

The sensitizing exercises (moving the horse’s feet forwards, backwards, left and right) gets the horse respectful and teaches him to use the thinking side of his brain because he’s constantly having to move his feet and change directions. The desensitizing exercises will teach the horse not to be fearful by exposing him to various types of objects that move and make a noise. If you build a solid foundation, a lot of problems will just disappear. Unfortunately, most people can’t see past their problem to see the cause.

The reality is if you just start my Method, or attend a 3-Day Fundamentals Clinic, or 2-Day Private Lessons, your horse will tell you where your problems are. If it’s a lack of respect, he will give you resistance when you go to move his feet. If it’s a fear-based problem he will react badly when you work on any desensitizing exercises. If you just start my Method, he will tell you where he needs you to help him and spend more time. You just have to be willing to listen and put in some effort is all.

It’s like a kid riding a bike who keeps falling off and getting gravel rash on his elbows and knees from hitting the road. Is the gravel rash the problem? Certainly not. Falling off the bike is the problem. The gravel rash is a symptom, and the cause is that he keeps falling off of the bike. If he quit falling off the bike, he wouldn’t have to worry about gravel rash.

It’s the same with horses. Most people’s problems are nothing more than symptoms of a cause. And luckily, groundwork (sensitizing and desensitizing exercises) is the cure-all answer. Even if a horse is giving me problems under saddle, I will still come back to the ground to fix it because the groundwork allows me to fix the cause of the problem in a safer position.

Over the years I’ve had horses brought to me with all sorts of problems ranging from, biting, kicking, rearing up, flipping over backwards, running off with the rider, bucking, doesn’t like men with hats…..yes….that’s actually true, and to be honest, I didn’t treat these horses any different than any other horse. When a horse is brought to me for training I’ll spend at least the first week doing nothing but groundwork, and building the horse’s respect. I’ll have customers say, “oh he’s fine, you can just hop on and ride, he only needs a tune-up.” To be honest, I don’t listen to any of that, and I do my own safety check. I never assume a horse is safe, no matter what the owner says, because horse’s have their own mind, and their own way of thinking. 99% of the time, when the owner came back to pick the horse up they say, “well? How did it go? Did he give you any problems? Did he rear up, or buck, or try to bite you?”….I’d say, “well, no actually, the horse never did any of that.” Then they give me this puzzled look like they feel they didn’t get their money’s worth because the horse didn’t try to kill me! Lol. I’d then explain to them that for the first week I do my groundwork, and the rearing up, bucking, and the horse hating men with hats isn’t the problem. They are just merely symptoms of a cause. Groundwork is the best insurance policy you can have with your horse.

Remember, doing your groundwork and building your horse’s respect is the #1 Law, which keeps you safer, as well as provides more control which will aid you in whatever you like to do with your horse.

At horsemanship clinics and private lessons, I come across people from various backgrounds with horses. Some compete, some show, and some like to simply enjoy trail rides and fun days with friends. Horses are beautiful creatures with big hearts, are incredibly intelligent, and can bring many positive qualities to our lives. On the flip-side, horses are very powerful, and most are not aware of their own strength. Horses are also the only animals in domestication with the quickest reaction time, making our physical safety something to keep in mind.

People will often come up to me and say, “Justin, I’m afraid of my horse”, or “I’ve recently been bucked off and lost my confidence”, or “my horse bites me and I don’t know why, and it presents a danger to our children. I would like to have fun with my horse, but if the kids aren’t safe around him, we can’t do much with him”. I always tell people that fear is completely normal. Don’t ignore fear. Fear is your body telling you that if you don’t stop what it is that your doing, your going to get hurt.

I understand these people, and their fears when it comes to their horses, because I’ve personally been there myself. People often make the mistake of thinking that I was ‘born’ with this knowledge of horses, or had some sort of advantage early on. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve been bucked off more times than there are grains of sand on the beach, had three horses flip over backwards and land on top of me (one encounter in particular the saddle horn missed my chest by mere inches, potentially killing me), ran through barbed wire fences, been kicked numerous times (you can see the fake tooth I have that got knocked out when I was kicked in the mouth), horses that spooked and took off and ran for miles down the road, and countless other situations.

Fear, in relation to horses, comes from having a lack of control. Answer this question: are you afraid of your car or truck? Of course not. And why do you think that is? Because you have complete control over your vehicle and you’re the one that calls the shots. You have an emergency brake to stop and hold the car in that position for as long as you want, a steering wheel to tell that car where to go, a gas pedal to say how fast you want it to go, and with the push of a button you can hear your favorite song and play it as loud as you want. Cars offer us a great luxury in this world that our ancestors couldn’t even dream of.

Now think of that analogy in relation to your horse. Why is it that you feel afraid? When spooked does the horse take the matter into his own hands? Can you steer your horse with a feather-light touch, or do you have to pull his head around like a big chunk of steel? Does your horse have such good brakes that when you stop him he even backs up a few steps immediately? Or does your horse grab the bit and run off with you when you pull back on two hands? These situations only present themselves when you have a lack of respect and control. If you have absolute control, you can tell that horse where to go, how fast to do it, and how long to do it until you say otherwise. You never hear anyone say, “honey I want to sell this horse because I can catch him in the pasture”, “I want to sell him because he’s too darn light and does what I ask everytime”. You never hear that. Be we always hear people who have horses who are poorly trained, or have developed bad habits through years that want to sell them because of that very factor: a lack of control.

How much fun, and confidence do you think you’d have if your horse was extremely well trained? Probably a whole bunch! You’d be able to do anything you wanted with a horse you had ultimate control of: Dressage, Eventing, Jumping, Reining, Cow Horse, Gaming, Barrel Racing, etc. When you have your horse’s respect and control, you have many more options.

So you see, fear only comes when you have a lack of control. If you take a proactive approach to your horsemanship, educate yourself, and learn the techniques it takes to get your horse’s respect and control, you’ll no longer be fearful.

When talking with me at Clinics, or just conversation in general, people often ask me where I get my ideas, and way of thinking. I’ve had people say, “You have a very different view of how the world works, and your ideas and way of thinking are very different. It’s very refreshing!” That makes me smile!

I believe that our experiences in life, are what makes us who we are. We are all a completely unique creation. The events that have presented themselves in my life, are ones that will never be repeated again in history. As is the same with all of you. Where you were born, your DNA, how you were raised, and the experiences that you will encounter throughout your life are completely unique, making you unlike any other.

I draw inspiration from people who have a true ‘rags to riches’ story, and they have always been a motivating force for me. What is it exactly that takes these people from the situation they are in, and 95% of the time these people live in a state of turmoil, poverty, or come from extreme adversity, and propels them into an unstoppable force? This is something that I have been in consistent reflection with. I read so many books on so many different things (when I have the time), that my family members have worried that I’ll become a social recluse. I’m far from that of course with putting myself and my skills on display at various horsemanship clinics, and public demonstrations. But I try my hardest to load my mind with information that I believe will help me in my journey through life. Just like the body needs exercise to stay in shape and healthy, the mind needs it too. I’m also not trying to put on people a philosophy of life that’s “just an interesting philosophy”, I want to give you a way of looking at the world, and yourself, that will help you achieve  your goals.

There is a story that I’m going to paraphrase here for you all, that was a real motivator for me. Here it is:

A young man asked Socrates to teach him everything that he knew. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk with him into the river. When the water got up to their neck, Socrates took the young man by surprise and swiftly dunked him under the water.

The boy struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. Socrates pulled the boy’s head out of the water, and dragged him to shore. When the boy came-to, the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air.

Socrates asked him, “what did you want the most when you were under water?” The boy replied, “Air”. Socrates then said the famous quote, “When you want knowledge like you wanted air, you won’t need me to teach it to you.”

I’ve also noticed throughout my experience, that the horse industry carries many rewards; and by rewards I mean ribbons, trophies, buckles, and World Championship titles. And believe it or not, most of these people who have achieved these results are self-taught. There are courses that are offered by some universities for Equine Science, or something similar, but nothing will ever trump hands-on experience learned by taking the reins yourself.

Here are a few of the stories I’ve read that have inspired me in my pursuit of horsemanship, of those who took their dreams in their own hands, and made things happen for themselves:

Col. Sanders

The Kentucky Fried Chicken founder was well into his 60′s when he started traveling the country trying to find a restaurant to sell his now famous recipe to. He lived in his car, and wore the same white suit for weeks. He was told “no” 1,009 times before he heard his first yes. You don’t learn that kind of persistence in class.

Thomas Edison

Thought by some of his teachers in school to be ‘too dumb’, Thomas Edison was taught by his mother in his early years because he was beaten at school with a heavy leather strap because his teacher considered him “addled” for asking so many questions.  He was chastised so much that his mother took him out of school after only three months of formal education, but never went past the 8th grade. When asked how many times he tried making the electric light bulb he replied, “roughly 10,000 times”. The interviewer said, “you’ve failed 10,000 times? Why don’t you give up? Thomas said, “I have not failed. I now know over 10,000 ways an electric light bulb will not work.” He went on to become probably the most prolific inventor of all time.

Isaac Newton

In early 1665 he was a 23 year old student at Cambridge University, on the verge of taking his exams to be a scholar in mathematics, when suddenly the plague broke out in London. The deaths were horrific and multiplied by the day; many Londoners fled to the countryside where they spread the plague far and wide. By that summer, Cambridge was forced to close, and its students dispersed in all directions for their safety.

For the students, nothing could have been worse. They were forced to live in scattered villages and experienced intense fear and isolation for the next 20 months, as the plague raged throughout England. Their active minds had nothing to seize upon and many went mad with boredom. For Newton, however, the plague months represented something entirely different. He returned to his mother’s home in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. At Cambridge he had been bothered by a series of mathematical problems that tortured not only him but his professors as well. He decided he would spend the time in Woolsthorpe working over such problems. He had carried with him a large number of books on mathematics that he had accumulated, and he proceeded to study them in intense detail. He went over the same problems, day after day, filling notebooks with endless calculations.

When the sky was clear he would wander outside and continue these musings, seated in the apple orchards surrounding the house. He would look up at an apple dangling on a branch, the same size to his eye as the moon above, and he would ponder the relationship between the two – what held  the one on the tree and the other within the earth’s orbit – leading him to ideas about gravity. Staring at the sun and its optical effect on everything around him, he began to conduct his own experiments on the movement and proprieties of light itself. His mind flowed naturally from problems of geometry to how it all related to motion and mechanics.

The deeper he went into these studies, the more he would see connections and have sudden insights. He solved problem after problem, his enthusiasm and momentum quickening as he realized the powers he was unleashing in himself. While the others were paralyzed with fear and boredom, he passed the entire 20 months without a thought of the plague or any worries for the future. And in that time, he essentially created modern mathematics, mechanics, and optics. It is generally considered the most prolific, concentrated period of scientific thinking in the history of mankind.

In essence, in ‘modern thinking’, these people are referred to as amateurs. There is nothing wrong with being an amateur. The people who started the underground railroad were amateurs. Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X, Orville Wright, Steven Spielberg, Henry Ford, and countless others were ‘amateurs’. The information for you to reach your horsemanship goals is out there, waiting for you. It’s up to you to go get it, practice it, use it, and make it work for you.

When people watch me ride Vegas and see how I can control him off just a feather-light touch, they often ask me how I got him to be so light and responsive. The answer is I started teaching him to soften to pressure from the first day I started working with him. The sooner you can teach your horse to soften and give to pressure, the lighter and more responsive he’ll be. If he knows how to give to pressure on the ground, it will be ten times easier to get him to do the same thing when you get on his back.

The key to getting your horse to be this soft and responsive is to remember Law #4 about Pressure from my 11 Laws of Horsemanship: Horses don’t learn from pressure, they learn from the release of pressure!  While pressure motivates the horse to look for another answer, it is the release of pressure that teaches him that he did the right thing. That’s why timing is such a crucial element in training horses. If your timing is off, you may be rewarding the horse’s the wrong behavior and sending him mixed signals. Whatever the horse is doing the exact second that you release the pressure is what you’re rewarding him for. So if he rears and you release the pressure, you’ve just rewarded him for rearing. If he pushes into your space and you back off, you’ve just rewarded him for being dominant towards you.

This concept also works in reverse. If the horse is responding correctly, but you don’t release the pressure at the right moment, he’ll learn to ignore you. You have to be very conscious to release pressure as soon as the horse even attempts to respond the way you want.

Horses aren’t born knowing what is right and what is wrong. All they know is what they’re allowed to get away with. If you allow your horse to be pushy and disrespectful, he will become disrespectful. If you teach him to yield and move away from pressure, he will be respectful because that’s what you’re allowing him to do.

One thing is for sure, life is too short not to have some fun with yourself and the people around you. When you take your horsemanship so seriously that you can’t laugh at yourself for making a mistake or you can’t laugh at a situation, life can get pretty darn boring.

My family has a great sense of humor. We love to tell jokes about ourselves, other people and our horses. I think that sometime people forget that when they meet me. When some people meet me, I think they’re a little shocked and possibly, offended about some of the stuff I say. They have to understand that that’s how I like somebody. If I make fun of your horse that means that I really like you. I really want you to make fun of my horse a little bit too. Or, if you make fun of the “face” I’m making, that’s just good humor.

The problem with the world right now is that we live in such a politically correct time that it honestly make me want to puke. Everybody is so hyper sensitive. Give me a break! Everybody needs to get off of their high horse and learn to take a good look in the mirror and laugh at themselves. Believe me, I may tell a joke about another country, your dog, your spouse, what you do for fun, but I’d love you to make fun of me, because that’s just the way I am.

One thing about me, is if you meet me and are around me for any length of time, if I don’t start making fun of you or joking with you, it means I don’t like you. It’s just that simple. When I interact with people I like to have fun. I like to tell a joke about them, and I like for them to tell a joke about me. It’s a shame when I’m traveling around the country that I see so many people that don’t have this play drive in them. You know what, I need to be myself and the people who do like me will like me and the people who don’t like my sense of humor, they’ll be drawn to somebody else. And that’s alright. It doesn’t mean that I’m right and somebody else is wrong. It just means that we only live once and we all have our special way of enjoying life.

Now sure, I want to be respectful of other people by all means, but at the same time, I have to be true to myself. Several years ago, I wasn’t true to myself for about 5 months. I tried to talk the way people wanted me to talk by being politically correct – never making fun of something controversial and acting how the real conservative people in the world wanted me to be. Or in better terms, being politically correct. And guess what? I got more complains then about how I spoke and how I acted then than what I do now because it wasn’t real. I wasn’t being true to myself. I’ve come to realize that I can’t make everybody happy. And the more you try to make everybody happy, the more complaints you get. When I’m at my Horsemanship Clinics I give people 110 percent and that’s all I can do. Some people are going to love me and some are going to hate me. I’ve come to realize that no matter what you do, somebody is always going to complain. So you might as well do what you want to do and have fun doing it, and let the people sort out what they like and what they don’t.

I think the reason why people are attracted to Justin Mundt Horsemanship and me is because they know that I’m just like them. We could have a BBQ, and we could talk about our horses and make fun of them and ourselves, and have a joke about what’s going on in the world. Life doesn’t have to be all that serious. There’s enough other things in life that are pretty darn serious that if we can’t make fun of ourselves, our horses, our dogs, our husbands and wives in a fun way – not to be mean, not to belittle somebody, or tear somebody’s confidence down or run them into the ground – but if we do it correctly, it can actually lift people’s spirits.

So you know what? When you come to one my Horsemanship Clinics your going to see the real Justin Mundt. You’re not going to get some watered down “persona” to try and impress you. And it is either going to be somebody you’re attracted to or somebody you’re not attracted to. If you’re not, that’s OK. But remember, you only live once. If  you’re not prepared to have a good time, life can get pretty darn boring. Keep that in mind and remember, a smile is always better than a frown.

What is experience? Experience means more than just having read about it, heard about it, or even seen it. Experience means that you can not only talk the talk, but you can actually walk the walk. You can actually do it.

Nothing beats hands-on horse training experience. I know people who can write five books about training horses. They know the theory, they understand it, they can talk it – they can even teach it! But if you were to ask them to actually do those things with a horse, they couldn’t. They’re not very coordinated and struggle to perform the exercises. Basically, they don’t have any hands-on experience. But if you ask them to explain it to you, oh my goodness they know what to do then!

I’m very selective myself on who I take advice from. I try my best to seek out those who I would like to emulate, learn what they do best, and forget the rest. Everyone you encounter can teach you something (even what not to do). The more you read, the more you study, the more horsemanship clinics you go to, the more aggressive you are about learning The Mundt Method, and the more you practice with your horse, the more experience you will get.

Horses have certain ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting, and when you work with them long enough, these patterns start to become predictable. You can start to make sense of these things in ways you could never understand just by reading about it in books or watching it on tapes. As helpful as tapes and books are, there is no substitute for getting some hands-on practice with a variety of horses.

When I first started training horses (and by training I don’t mean just riding, I mean training horses for sale or for the public), I was rather limited because I lacked good ol’ fashioned experience. There was one horse that a customer of mine brought me to train, but “forgot” to tell me that this horse bucked off seven other trainers before he got to me! And since I was just starting my horse training services, and lacked the experience to properly teach this horse, I’m sure you can guess what happened. You got it….he bucked me off. Four times a day for 30 straight days! This horse knew how to buck, and loved doing it! I would literally shake in the morning while eating my Lucky Charms Cereal (thinking it would help!), because I knew I had to ride this horse. This horse added to my experience. I learned from him exactly what I did wrong (as well as what the other “trainers” did wrong too), and am now able to properly instruct any other horse that comes into my place. I was able to refine my feel and timing, make some mistakes, learn from them, and then move on.

Every horse you encounter will add to your experience. Each horse is an individual, and as a horse trainer, you must be willing to adapt to each individual horse. Each horse will teach you a new way of expanding on what you already know. In order to train your horse, you must first train yourself. The techniques and tools are available to you. All you have to do learn to use them and then put in the effort. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, and at times it will be frustrating, but the more you practice, the better your feel, timing and experience will get.

There is an Arabic quote that rings true; “Ask the experienced rather than the learned.” These people might be book smart, but lack the actual experience to get the job done. Getting experience isn’t hard, it’s just about putting in the effort. Why do professional horse trainers with years of experience charge more than, say, a “backyard” trainer who does it just for giggles? Because the professional has put in the time, the years, and has worked with many more horses than the other trainer; therefore, since the professional has more experience, their services are worth more, because they can get better results.

Make an investment in yourself! Get out there, attend clinics, read books, watch videos, spend more time with your horses, take private lessons, learn learn learn. Knowledge is power, and the more you learn, the more experience you will get, and the more you can help. As Financial expert Dave Ramsey says, “the weak can’t help the weak”.

Justin has used his deep understanding of the equine mind gained from training hundreds of horses to develop training tools, tack and equipment that get the job done! Working with horse owners at expos and clinics across the United States, Justin has had the opportunity to develop and refine products that make training easier for both horse and rider.

This is Justin’s #1 Horse Training Aid!

To get specific results from your horse, you need to be able to give clear and specific cues. The JMH Training Stick and String provides unparalleled effectiveness in letting your horse know exactly what you want him to do. From the very first time you use it, you’ll appreciate the Stick’s balanced feel, ergonomic, padded grip and versatility as a training tool. Use it as an extension of your arm, with or without the string, and discover for yourself the immediate difference it will make in your training.

Price for Training Stick and String: $52.95