join up - can u do to much? pro / cons?

I think it depends on the horse. I did it regularly when I was preparing to back my girlie. It worked like a dream, the only downside was when I introd lunging she would catch my eye as she went round and thought I was sending her away all the time :-)) longreining was a lot more successful so did that instead!

Now I only reinto it if she has in the height of summer forgotten that when I come along witha headcollar its because it is time to come in....:-) I dont need to keep doing it, although there are elements of it in most things we do I guess.

Im convinced it helped forge our bond, which is a very strong one.
 
My old share horse 'joined up' with me (followed me around arena through cone 'obstacle courses' etc) without us ever doing 'join up' sessions. In fact he started doing it the very first time when he was free in an arena and I was moving jumps. All of his own accord and from curiosity/friendliness. Chasing him away would have been confusing and upsetting for both. So, for him, the right number of join up sessions was 0.

I think as a 'quick fix' to get a horse to regard you as their mother/herd leader it can probs work v well. Personally with a relatively calm/educated animal I'd rather just build trust naturally over time.
 
When I was on one of Kelly Marks courses she said you should only need to do join up a few times. not to keep on doing it. Why would you any way, once you have achieved a couple of good join ups then you have joined up.
 
I've done join up with my little mare a couple of times and now whenever I lunge her, loose or on a lunge line she tries to come in and join up with me after a few circuits. It is quite cute but a little frustrating when you are trying to lunge!
 
Brambridge04 said:
As above really, is this something u should do regularly, or once or twice, what are pros and cons ?
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Yes, you can definately do join up too much, and bore and confuse your horse in the process. MR himseld recommends it is only done a few times. It really doesn't need to be done more than that.

Its something which I think people should get properly trained in if they wish to do it, as a successful join up is made or broken on the handler's body language and recognition of the horse's own language.

As others have said, whether or not join up is right for the individual horse is a biggie.
 
It makes your horse feel vulnerable then an offer of friendship is readly accepted by your victim, not how I'd like to make friends.:eek:

In the wild it would be seen as life or death more screaming than 'whispering'
who ever is doing it. So '0'.
 
I have done my own form of join up. I am not a fan of making the horse go away from you. I like the horse to want to come to me not through force.

I just let my horse free in the school, I just stand in the middle doing nothing. Then when she looks at me or drops head I move away backwards, dropping my head. Then as she looks at me more I move away more. Then she will join up with me.

I want to be the passive leader not the aggressive leader.

Have only done it once, worked brilliantly. We now work at liberty and she is great. I do normal ridden stuff and long reining e.t.c. too.
 
I think it's great that more people are questioning what they are told to do with their horses, pressure halters and Join-Up make my bl. boil, it has all been over sold, to people that want to do the best for their horses.

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing!
 
My horsey had done loads of so-called join-up/NH with previous owner. When I bought him I had LOADS of problems, partly due to him being utterly confused as I did not know the methods the old owner had used and neither did anyone else at my yard. Poor fella! We had to re-teach him to lunge as he kept spinning round to face me and wanting to come to me. We also had to teach him to lead politely in a traditional headcollar as he was soo used to being yanked about in a pressure halter.
Anyway he will work at liberty with me now we understand each other. And I think it's because it took him that long to trust me and want to be with me. I suppose the best compliment your horse can give you is to want to be with you on his own accord, without having being chased around first!
 
You can do it too much. Like lachlanandmarcus, I do it as a last resort when my horse doesn't want to be caught. It has made a difference with him as previous owner could only catch him by removing field mates and it used to take me two hours to catch him each night. No one else on the yard has ever been able to catch him.

I wouldn't recommend doing it alot for the sake of it though.
 
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