Join up and fitness.?

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Skhosu

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Loose schooling some horses today, it occured to me, with join up, or any of these lungeing etc. NH/parelli type things, is it really fair to do this with 2/3yr olds that have never been ridden/fittened, how many do themselves injury?
Any thoughts?
 
yes, i don't like it, personally. i've watched quite a few demos, and working a young horse at trot and canter for 20-30 mins in a small round pen must put a HELL of a lot of strain on immature and unstrengthened muscles, tendons and ligaments.
there are slower, gentler ways of achieving join-up. it is possible at walk in a large stable, as long as you are patient!
 
It depends entirely on what you do and how much of it, as Kerilli points out. Personally I don't think Join up is what it claims to be, and would rather the horse had a choice as to whether to be with me or not once I'd shown leadership skills but not knackered them out.

Youngsters also are a LOT more in tune with body language, so best if you really know what you are doing if you play natural horsemanship with them. Having said that they can be the most rewarding to do this work with, because of the blank canvas status.
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I would do some with a youngster, but not chasing them around endlessley - get drive away into walk, trot and canter by all means, but allow them to come back down quickly for both reward and their joints' sake.
 
In any form of NH... join up is not somethig you do every day. You might do it once or twice, then the odd reminder every few weeks. I can't see it hurts. It is not done for fitness, you are working on the horses mind, not its body.

As for loose schooling, if it is a short session, I can't see anything wrong with it. Youngsters tear about in the fields and jump just for the fun of it.
 
There are some studies showing that working harder as a youngster improves tendon strength and reduces injury rate later, as they still have high levels of the enzymes required for building and maintaining the tendons, these drop dramatically after 3/4 years. I think they were referring more to concussive work like road work though. Can't really remember been far too long since Uni!
 
The whole point of join up is to have the horse run for the 'natural' length of time, they are only ever suppose to run for a quarter mile, if your youngster breaks a sweat after this distance it is seriously over weight or not being allowed out the stable enough!

I have seen people run horse's in to the ground trying to 'join up' due to a complete lack of undertstandin, it's really sad to watch but there will always be people out there who take good ideas and use them unwisely.
 
Agree, it also concerns me that if you have a highly strung youngster with a high flight mechanism, you do run the risk of them injuring themselves if you start chasing them around and their adrenaline is seriously pumping. Far better to teach a horse that you can move its feet at alll 3 paces without sending it through the roof.
 
Young horses at play in the field are generally not in a round pen, going round in constant circles..
What about boots etc, youngsters in stressful situations are more likley to injure themselves, so surely should have protection on?
 
Just been reading a Richard Maxwell book and he thinks you can achieve 'join-up' just long lining and long reining, although it's a by-product if you like rather than a goal in itself. I've had a 'natural horseman' achieve join-up with mine just on a long line as we have no round-pen or menage.
 
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