Hi - I guess I'm the student in the class who raises her hand every few minutes with another question...thanks for your patience.
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I completed Join-Up with my pony yesterday (the story is here - http://www.montyrobertsuniversity.com/forum/post/2114229385) and he was really beat afterward. So I didn't really notice a difference from him. He's always been sweet and even tempered and docile. But today I decided to jump right into the Dually training (maybe a mistake cause I'm still not super solid on what I'm doing there) and when I walked and he stayed (practicing the Sweet Spot) I gave him a good tug on the Dually and he looked totally shocked. Same thing for the 15 minutes we worked - he started to get the drift, but still seemed slow to follow and somewhat shocked when I tugged (almost betrayed?).
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He's been sluggish all day (cause of the tough workout yesterday?) and whenever I raise my hand to pet him or stroke his face or unbuckle his halter he flinches like he thinks I'm going to hit him (on either side of his face) and turns away.
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Did I do something wrong? I can't understand what he's saying. Besides the sluggishness, we had it pretty good before trust wise.
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Horse Behavior and Training
help - behaviour change in my pony since Join-Up/Dually
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Not that I am expert, but maybe you should slow down, work on trust and join-up longer, then slowly introduce the halter. I have been training my rescue 4 year old for about 6 months now. It has taught me great patience goes a long way...
Gosh I think you must be right. I went out there to feed him this morning and he just won't even let me near his head without a struggle (which I don't remember being the case before). It makes me sad. How do you think I can regain his trust? Or am I just messing with his head too much?
Hi Jefra!
Please DO ask, it gives us all the chance to learn!
What I would like to know first is: did you fit the dually properly, the upper noseband should be directly under the cheekbones. The reaction you describe could come from getting pressure on the weaker part of the nose, where the cartilage is and the respiratory canals.
Natural Horsemanship starts with very small signals, increasing them should the horse not react adequately. Maybe your horse was shocked by your tugging, when he made his first "mistake".
All your movements should be "as if through heavy oil", so approaching his head with your hand should be with closed fingers, starting with the back a closed fist, opening it slowly, after touching the horse. You might start at the shoulder, then move up the neck towards his head.
Horses re-act, so his reaction might be a sign for too harsh action on your side.
Earn his trust by bodylanguage, being fair and consistant.
i joined up with my 18mth gelding.he was so good.now he follows me anywhere,picks his feet up, leads with no prob.but has just stared to nibble almost biting me.i think he is so comfortable with me he thinks he can treat me as another horse.how do i stop him without breaking the bond we have.i think i should send him away if he bites and then approach again to see if he has learnt the lesson.but am i doing the right thing?
Hi Vivienne,
Congratulation on Joining-up with yor youngster!
We on this forum have found out, that young male horses do nibble and sometimes bite as part of their play, also doing this with their handlers. Monty has described a method of reacting in "From my hands to yours", distracting the horse by touching his shin with your foot, as soon as he bites. This requires good timing on your side.
You might also put a Duallyhalter on and school him as soon as he comes into your personal space. Respect of your personal space should be easy for the horse after Join-up.
This is a good start in life anyway, will give him good manners when being handled.
Be consistant and let us know how things go.
Miriam
hi miriam.thankyou for your reply.i thought i might have to send him away from me but your idea makes more sense.i have put a dually on him and schooled him and that is going well.i will try montys foot on shin if he nibbles and bites again.he has no malice in him and always thought he thought he was playing with me.after years of ponies and horses that i thought were ok but had their quirks...i now am learning that i can stop the quirks with gentle contact and consistent handling. even my mostly well behaved 12 yr old is learning that taking a step to the side at the mouny=ting block is not acceptable.i'm using monty's siddling up on her. thankyou again will let you know how me and finley(young gelding)get on.