Join Up

E

eahotson

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 June 2003
Messages
4,885
Location
merseyside
Visit site
Like CPTrayes in the latest Parelli post in which she witnessed one horse being driven from the herd by another for bad behaviour I have also witnessed this.It was fascinating to watch and the young pretender that my gelding chased out was kept out for quite a long time.He was also kept moving!! He has to do the submission thing quite a lot before he was forgiven.The point is though he was an offender and he knew what he had done and what he had to do if he didn't want a repeat episode.Its not a random thing.One horse doesn't just decide one day to do it to another horse.It is also a domination thing.Not that that is always a bad thing but a combination of domination and randomness is not right.Difficult to express this properly.
 
Join Up can be done as gently or aggressively as a person (or horse!) decides. As can lungeing, riding, jumping, grooming ... and so on!

I teach Join Up to humans and I make sure they understand that our purpose in the lesson is not what we're teaching the horse (our teaching horses are gettin on in life just fine!) but it's about what the human is learning about the essentials of horsemanship i.e. reading the horse, how they use their own body language, their eye contact, peripheral vision, their energy, focus, mindfulness, congruence, (commonsense things come into it sometimes as well) - things that the truly brilliant horseperson will often take for granted - but the rest of us have to work like crazy at!

Kelly
 
IHK said:
Join Up can be done as gently or aggressively as a person (or horse!) decides. As can lungeing, riding, jumping, grooming ... and so on!

I teach Join Up to humans and I make sure they understand that our purpose in the lesson is not what we're teaching the horse (our teaching horses are gettin on in life just fine!) but it's about what the human is learning about the essentials of horsemanship i.e. reading the horse, how they use their own body language, their eye contact, peripheral vision, their energy, focus, mindfulness, congruence, (commonsense things come into it sometimes as well) - things that the truly brilliant horseperson will often take for granted - but the rest of us have to work like crazy at!

Kelly
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply.I think I understand better now.
 
As someone who was fascinated by join up in the early nineties, the QED program I felt was fascinating. I remember vividly watching every move made by both man and horse, I read everything I could about it and went to countless demonstrations. I was a bit disappointed with my own horses 'opinion' of join up, I had around 30 at the time, all were ridden, willing and viceless.
None of them I felt deserved being chased around a round pen to achieve nothing that they were not already doing. My horses then were all backed and brought on in the traditional way. The only things different to any other stables locally was my ban on riding crops and spurs on any of my , and all were ridden in a French link snaffle, which I felt was about as mild as I could justify.
Looking back now, it's nearly twenty years since I first saw join up, formalized and marketed in that way, and for me at least I do not feel it is sophisticated enough in today world of NH practitioners whose techniques are more advanced and varied. I feel that it is a mistake to base a training regime on such a limited technique.
 
I have never done 'join up' properly, but I had a very strong minded mare who occassionally, just decided not to be caught. I would do 'join up' with her to catch her and it worked just as on the box! In a funny sort of way, I always think it was when she had doubts about whether I was in control or not (she is v strong minded) and was much happier afterwards!!

I have a much meeker gelding as well and would never had the courage to do join up with him, because I always feel I could get it so wrong so easily and confuse him.

But it is a fascinating concept a truly moving moment when your sometimes bolshy independent mare decides to follow you while licking her lips!
 
I think my mare does something similar with her field buddy when I first turn her out each day. They're both fairly dominant mares but mine is more dominant so has to reassert herself as the leader of their little herd of two every day.
Last night it was quite funny to watch. Mine marched straight up the field to the other one, stopped her grazing and moved her around for a while. No kicking or biting, neither of them got beyond a slow trot but it was a clear message in what it takes to get a dominant mare to respect you: you have to move her feet, and you have to remind her every day. After a couple of minutes they were grazing quietly close together, which in itself is interesting because my mare doesn't like other horses coming in her space.
Maybe she felt the need to reassert the relationship before she could let the other horse into her bubble (after all, she needs her there for grooming and fly swatting!)
 
Totally agree that it is natural and can be useful but personally I wouldn't do it with any horse who was already doing what it was asked. Think it would be far too confusing...
e.g.
- horse leads nicely into pen/arena
- horse gets sent away (out of herd, to be eaten by wolves)
- horse has to do lots of pleading to be allowed 'back'
Personally I think I'd be teaching either that horse shouldn't lead nicely or that I'm not a herd leader to be trusted!

Many more fun things to do when free-schooling :-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top