I see many people recommend "join up" as a way to fix many behavioral problems and claim that it's the best way to gain trust.
I personally never use join up on my own horses, i only use "join up" and i dont call it that i call it what it is wearing the horse out, when im working with a horse who hasnt had proper handling to the point it is dangerous to work around unless it has been worn down. I dont use it regularly, i usually only do it once just to a) get the horse caught, or b) if the horse is dangerously nervous where i feel he may strike kick or charge. when i do it, i catch the horse do a full grooming and then move from there depending on the horse and its level of previous training.
people claim it FIXES many training issues, but i disagree with that because if you do it all the time you wont have any issues to work out because the horse is so worn out it could care less what you do with it, to me its the same as lunging every time you ride.
like i said i do think it is a good tool to help calm nervous horses to accept being touched, and in some cases being mounted, maybe blanketed, each scenario could be different, but i dont see it as an everyday training device. or something that should need to be done with a properly trained horse.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com to me if you cant ride your horse fresh out of the stall without lunging or doing "join up" there have been many important steps left out of the training process.
im not asking this question to argue, i just want to know what you do it for and how often. what are your beliefs on it. no rude answers and no TD's please, there are a million ways to train horses and i just want some opinions on this method.
Join up isn't to wear a horse out. It's to gain your horse's attention and respect and the horse decided whether or not it wants to wear itself out doing it. I do round pen work with my gelding sometimes just to get a little extra exercise in but I by no means wear him out. With him if I were to do join up, I would send him for one lap around the round pen, ask him to stop, and he'd walk up to me. But he know how to do it. Horses who don't are the ones running around forever in there until that light bulb goes on in their heads. I personally don't even like calling it join up. I ' m not a fan of Monty Roberts and "join up" has been around since the ancient Roman days. Monty just slapped a name on an already regularly practiced method so that he could make some money.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com For horses in training, I will do it with them. Some horses only need a couple laps around the round pen, other horses need more work because they just don't quite get it yet. I do round pen work with the 2-3 year olds mostly to see how they're feeling that day (if they're in a bucking mood, if they're lazy, etc) so I'll be better prepared to ride them. But I do ask for them to turn to me and walk up to me when I'm done as a respect thing.
I don't agree that "if you cant ride your horse fresh out of the stall without lunging or doing" join up "there have been many important steps left out of the training process". Some horses have a lot of pent up energy when they've been stalled and if they're young will want to play around when they get the chance. I'd rather give a horse 5 minutes in the round pen before I get on to get all that out of their system than get on them and have them try it. And I know you make them listen and obviously train them not to when you get on them, but I still think if they've been cooped up for awhile you should give them a few minutes to stretch and kick up their heels and whatever so that they'll be happier and it will be easier for them to concentrate on what you're asking them. Especially with young horses. My gelding is 11 and I rarely if ever lunge/round pen him . I can just grab him, hop on, and go. I can go 2 weeks without riding him, then hop on and go like nothing. But after no turn out for 3 weeks due to an injury, and another 3 letting him fully recover with turnout, I did lunge him since it had been so long since he'd been ridden and he was obviously very fresh.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
One of my mares I round pen her for 5 minutes before I ride because she goes into what I like to call "angry bucking fits" when you first put her on a walker or in the round pen sometimes. I usually do it because it's hilarious to watch, other times I want to see if she's in that kind of mood and she isn't always. If she is in that mood though, she's more likely to throw a playful buck when I ask her to lope if I don ' t let her get it out of her system.
I don't think it fixes training issues, but I think it can help fix respect issues, although there is a lot more to fixing respect issues than just this.
Sorry for the novel. Hope this gives you some insight.
EDIT: Not all fresh horses need it. Part of it is a training thing. An 11 year old won't need it, because he is trained. A 3 year old with 30 days under saddle might because they're still new at everything and are still learning.
