Monty Roberts | Join Up Ask Monty

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Question 1: What is Join-Up and why do you send the horses away from you when you begin to work with them?

Monty's Answer: Join-Up is the training of horses using their language to establish trust. As I do Join-Up, I am dealing in the language of Equus. I have learned that horses use 'sending away' within the family group. I have concluded that they do not regard this as an act of violence, but a use of temporary isolation as a form of discipline. There is no hitting and there is no force. Click here to read on.

Question 2: Loading a horse seems to be one of the great problem areas. Why can't you just put some food in the back of the trailer and wait for the horse to go in?

Monty's Answer: One could certainly do that, and horsemen often do. It is a problem if one never teaches the horse follow your requests to load. There will be times when the horse is not hungry, and it might take hours and hours before it decides to go in. With my system, the horse learns to load as a partner with you and allows the horseman the opportunity to enjoy a relationship with a horse that will load every time and with no stress.

Question 3: As I go to mount my horse, he blasts away in fear... not a safe way to start the ride. Do you have any learning tools to help me?

In my educational DVD called Fix-Up has a part of three hours and 15 minutes actual footage of a horse that wouldn't stand for mounting. You will see that a Dually Halter is most effective in the schooling process for horses that won't stand to mount. I recently worked with a Tennessee Walking Horse that had injured a man in his sixties who was a good rider for decades. It took me about a half an hour to get this horse 'bomb proof' regarding mounting.

Question 4: My horse is absolutely terrified of bicycles and becomes quite dangerous in the presence of one.Can you help us?

Monty's Answer: My recommendation is to school to the Dually Halter so that you have full control of your horse. One needs to stop down any desire to blast away from you at the sight of a bicycle. Once you have achieved complete control, then you can begin to present sights such as bicycles passing by and begin desensitization. Should you choose, you can get the DVD Gentling Your Spooky Horse and by executing these procedures you can change the mindset of your horse.

Question 5: My horse is fed well and cared for, but I still wonder if she has digestive health issues. Is this possible? What can I do?

Monty’s Answer: Yes, horses have delicate guts, and even pleasure horses can have problems, because they can’t graze constantly, or we keep them in stalls. There is a product called SUCCEED that can really help. It’s natural and helps keep the horse’s stomach and colon working like they should. I asked SUCCEED to develop a version especially for the leisure horse. Click here for more information.

Question 6: I can’t do Join-Up because I don’t have a Round Pen.

Monty’s Answer: The round pen is not the critical factor in applying these concepts. It is a convenient place in which to work. Should you use a square pen, horses will tend to “stop down” their energy in the corners. If you take a square pen and panel the corners off (or use jump poles or bales of hay) you effectively create an octagon. This nearly round enclosure will work very effectively.

Want to learn even more? Click here to read on about Monty’s most comprehensive learning tool ever; his Equus Online University.

March 17, 2010 - Ask Monty Question

Do you have a different relationship with horse started with Join-Up® than a traditionally broken horse?

Monty's Answer: There is no question that you have a different relationship with a horse trained in the absence of violence when compared with one who has known the whip. Ask yourself how it would be for you with regard to your childhood learning, "Wouldn't you have preferred a different relationship with your parents if they were forcing you with a whip instead of encouraging learning through communication and non-violent discipline?"

Ask yourself what sort of relationship you might have had with a teacher who grabbed you by the collar, slammed you down in a chair and said, "You will learn or I will use this whip on you". Compare that relationship to teachers that you came to respect and who used non-violent techniques.

While writing a book about education I met with UK teachers who had had the ruler used on them and a pointer across the knuckles. These methods were used in our recent past and in many parts of the world are still accepted. I train in the absence of violence and I say it is more effective.

Did you know? You can now access the entire Ask Monty Q&A archive in the Equus Online University!

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We also encourage you to explore Monty’s book, “From My Hands to Yours,” a comprehensive how-to manual on his Join-Up® training philosophies which includes detailed illustrations of signs and reciprocal gestures on the language of Equus.

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