Hi Alex,

What a great question!
It immediately reminds me of Monty's DVD's "You and your wild horse", actually I have the videotapes, so it's quite old, but should still be available.
In this series of tapes Monty shows a wild mustang, uses an early form of gentling shute and does Join-Up with this beautiful horse. Details are too long ago, I should definitely watch it again, but I didn't want to keep you waiting...
You are right to suggest Monty's Join-Up with Shy Boy in the wild.

Now is there any actual reason for your question, or just an interest in general?
Whatever you do, let the horses get used to each other before entering the scenario yourself. And use a gentle riding horse, one you know very well and can handle quite professionally. It's the horse that will give the gestures, you'll have to guide it, like a reining horse. 
Stay safe and keep in touch with us!
Miriam

Hi Miriam,

This idea come to me because I want from my old horse Aman (12 years arab) to take for a trail ride my youngster Pamir (1,5 years old arab colt) without a rope to lead Pamir form Aman. Then because I don't think using a rope to follow us is safe and it doesn't give enough freedom for both of them. Then thinking what can I do so I get used Pamir to follow Aman and to think of him as his leader the idea of Join Up come to me :) Aman is pretty responsive to reining riding but I have to train him more before he is ready...or who knows... I have to try!
Then second question is if I am giving gestures from Aman's back to other horse I am hypothetically doing Join Up, at the end the horse will actually follow me or the horse I am riding and who will give gestures? Or it could be that if I am giving gestures then it will bond to me on the horse (centaur)...but he will not follow once I dismount?
I am really confused and I really want to try it but if someone else have experience it will be great to share!
If you think this question is good enough then I will send it to Monty and possibly we will have very good information and his experience or at least his thoughts ;)

Alex

Hi Alex. What an interesting idea. But Pamir isn't a wild horse, just untrained as yet. I'm presuming you are handling him & he knows the farrier & the vet. I smiled when I read Aman was your old horse, at 12. Hopefully you meant older & not My Apollo, part bred Arab, was 14 when I rescued him from an uninterested owner & a grotty, weed infested field. We had 24 wonderful years together. At the age of 30 Apollo competed in our riding club cross country, pairs class. Our partners, Alister on a 5 year old Morgan mare, had difficulty keeping up at times - my old fella was full of heart. We won, against all comers including a pair of thoroughbreds. It was a technical course including an open & close gate so not just a speed test but even at 30 Apollo had an eye watering turn of foot. I digress, sorry. Are Aman & Pamir at pasture together & if so, what do you observe - their relationship? If I were in your situation, I would prioritise nurturing Pamir, doing conventional Join up first, then adding 'centaur', progressing to an otherwise unoccupied paddock, a safe environment - incremental! Please work safely towards your goal & keep posting your progress. I'm looking forward to learning how you get on. Good luck. Jo.

Hi Alex and all.  What a great topic and I love where your mind takes you to, Alex.  Your thoughts on developing your young yearling to your riding energy[centaur] is, in my opinion, over-the- top cool.  `Seems like a wonderful exercise for conditioning a young horse to the trail and all of the unknown experiences that could crop up around the next bend in the trail.  If done on a routine basis, before long you would have developed a horse that would be sure footed , aware,and  confident, not to mention a conditioning process, physically and emotionally.
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Your original question was about join up and I assume that you have in mind the procedure that we all see on Monty`s videos.  I say to you that join up can happen in may different ways.  When you have focus and trust, you have a joining of two distinct energies.  Of course that can happen on horse back, but you have to set up the step by step procedure of learning for the yearling.  If I were going to bring this scenario alive, I would start at the mounting block and gentle the young one to you in an above the back posture with lots of scratches and loves. especially at the poll.  I would do this until you feel confident with the relaxation that you are  bringing to the energy of the two of you.  Then on horseback do the same gentling procedure in the round pen.  This probably should go on until you feel total relaxation with the three of you.  Then and only then, I would head for the trail.
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I have raised arabs for 30 yrs and can tell you that Jo is right -on with her assessment  of your 12 yr old.  With the right care, he is just coming into his prime riding years.  Arabs have an over-the-top zest for life and they are hard to wear down.
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Good luck with your adventure and please let us know how it is going for you.
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All the best   Bud

Hi Alex and all,
Great adventure ahead here! 

Next question: why not have your youngster get used to the Dually halter and start working him with a line first from the ground and later from the saddle of your saddle horse? Here you'll find many wonderful videos on the UNI too! It seems safer to me to be able to control your youngster on the trail. This will be easier after a couple of Join-Up's in the roundpen, just the two of you.

and have fun...

Keep us posted,
Miriam

Thank you everyone for supportive words!

Well, briefly Pamir (youngster 1,7 year old) was handled about 15 sessions by Pat Parelli methods (that was about 1 year ago when I didn't know Monty Roberts), he learned Yo-Yo game, single line lunging, and lunging without rope and make his gait transition thru mu body language and thru Shush kind of signal. After a few months total rest I started with Dually Halter, following with his head on my shoulder and stopping, then we trot the same way and stop again and sometimes even some canter the same way. There was period I was doing my running sessions of 4miles running with Pamir :P in the open fields. He like to be groomed already and it gives his feet without any problem. He is learned to be very gentle and responsive to almost everything a youngster need to know (by my humble opinion) and then left on his own for 5-6 months. I never make sessions longer than 15-20 min and sometimes I put 3 wooden poles on arena and we run thru them for basic idea dressage arena work. Last Saturday after 3-4 months without any training I take him to arena to go over all he was learned before and he was PERFECT as he ever knows that :) Very happy about how things happend.. I also know it is better to underhandle a youngster than overhandle it!

Going back to idea of Join Up from Aman back (I mean he is older than Pamir but NOT old at all! :) Your advice's are highly appreciated! Thank you! Aman and Pamir are at the same pasture and they have for several months boxes one to another. I have done a couple of trail rides with Aman and leading Pamir with a rope I am holding in my hand (don't have western saddle with horn) and first time was terrible but on second it was good and on third I have released Pamir to unknown place for him and he stick with us till the end of the ride (couple of hours), Pamir was happy with that... But next time I released Pamir when we were enough distant from the Barns and for some reason he run back to the stable and didn't stay with us...then it happens one more time.. Then I took him with his mother (mare that is living in the stable) and he stayed for the whole trail... I still don't know how and if it is possible to get used a young horse to run freely with another horse/horses and I really want to know how this could be trained or if it can't why from behavioral point of view.
So this is how my original idea evolved if I can use Join UP from another horse back so I can create bond and take youngsters outside on a trail ride without being feared they will run back in panic or whatsoever...
I know Join Up at pretty basic level and did about 10-15 successful and a couple of unsuccessful and hopefully if I share my plan with you to discuss you can advise what else could be added or changed in order to be successful :)
BTW, I did 2 join up's with Pamir but I think first was not successful as I was beginner...but second one was good and have a nice join up and then follow up circles both sides :) 

THE PLAN
1. Get Pamir inside arena without rope or halter, while I am riding Aman and try to do some exploring of if I can interact Pamir somehow and how responsive he will be to my gestures and Aman gestures (Aman trying to express me) and this could possible give me some idea if Join Up from another horse back will get to bond horse to rider and then again looking back to Monty's Shy Boy video when he changed horses he said that Shy Boy now is not that responsive to the new horse as he don't know it, and then when he start working from the ground he said that Shy Boy don't know him as he was on horse before that...so It might be that the bond will be created to Centaur but not to horse or rider individually.
2. If I get responses from Pamir then I could try to work with him and touching him from Aman and eventually to show him the invite gesture to follow me...
3. If he don't follow or respond very much I can try to send him away and try to move him around arena...if this work I can try to imitate some gesutres with Aman to see what result...
4. Basically I will just experiment and will let you know.

I will go and watch again Centaur series so they give me some clue of my approach in this idea I have ;)

Excuse me for my bad english and for being so scattered the way I write and express my way of thinking :)

All the best!
Alex

Hi Alex. Your thoughts are very interesting. I think your plan may work but remember to be flexible when necessary. Clearly Pamir is highly intelligent & open to the opportunities you have & will offer him in future. Whatever happens, stay relaxed, calm & when things don't go to plan take a moment to rethink the plan. You will benefit from regularly revisiting the lessons. They are packed with information & you'll find you absorb a bit more each time. Finally, take the time to congratulate yourself - you're doing really well. Oh, and do not apologise - your English is very good & most certainly infinitely better than my grasp of any other spoken language! Cheers. Jo.

Hi Alex and thank you for the update on your yearling regarding his early training.  This really helps all of us to get on-board with the timing of all the essential steps that would lead to the point that we could possibly offer the right help and direction of the training.
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.All training, i believe starts with an idea.  Your idea of having your young charge up close and personal to you and your horse while riding out on trail [following] is really good.  However,with that said, there will be some training exercises that need to well thought out and honed to perfection.  The very first one of these exercises that is a must, is the yearling needs to have his focal powers on you developed to a point of beyond question.  This will probably be your single biggest hurdle, because of the age and of course you would be with a limited attention span.  What i am speaking of here  is a join-up procedure taken to the outer limits.  Focus,  focus, focus, would be the order of the day.    This all gets a start in the round pen possibly with another horse and your yearling and will most likely take some time to bring about.  If you would like to see this procedure in action, go to google and Caroline Rider - holistic horsemanship, she has several free videos on her work, but the basis all starts with connection through FOCUS.  i  know that this approach works because i use it everyday with my horses.  The step by step building process will make your training much easier and considerably more effective.  Horses cannot learn well unless they are focused.  It is our job as trainers to achieve a  concentrated focus with our horses.   This procedure will jump start the whole process of connection and trust.  Check her out, she`s a good lady.
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`Hope this helps
Bud