I have a close to 3 year old Quarter horse mare and she doesn't do join up! Every time I bring her into the arena and start the join up process of chasing her away from me she just stands there and looks at me. I can look her straight in the eye and throw the lunge line at her but she doesn't move away form me she just stays there. Any suggestions on how I could get her to do join up?
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The process of sending your horse away has to start from the 4 o'clock position - get monty's book from my hands to yours - I have never seen a horse who would stand when this was done. Looking him head on straight in the eye will not send a horse away.
Can it be that your mare is already joined-up, because you know her so well ?
Why should she flee from a person, that has never given her reason to do so?
Let someone else give it a try, so you know if it's you who doesn't speak her language or actually speak it too well. Ofcourse doing the join-up properly is critical.
Let us know!
EvyG- I do send her away from the 4 o'clock position and I don't just stair her in the eye, I try to send her away with my whole body but she just looks at me like she's bored.
miriam- I have thought of that before, that she's already completely joined with me and that I've never harmed her into fleeing from me. I think I'll try and get my dad to do join-up with her and see if it works for him.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Nish,
Do review the J-U instructions in Monty's book and online. I ran into a similar problem when I was on my Advanced course at Flag Is Up. The horse I was working with hadn't been taught to move off of pressure, so that was part of the problem.
The rest and bigger part was me-I wasn't projecting a big enough, assertive enough leadership role with my body language. And, I was too close to the horse- past the initial zone where he was aware of me, past the decision zone where he needed to decide what to do about me, and into his pressure zone--the bubble of space right around the horse where the horse feels that it is too late to flee and he has to stop, turn and possibly fight. So he turned and stopped to face me instead of fleeing as I intended, no matter how much flapping and line throwing I did in an effort to move him off.
What we did to handle that was to go back to more Dually work, making sure he moved off that pressure well. Ground driving, to further hat him on cues and pressure. I also worked on getting him to move his hips and shoulders away on cue. Manners in his stall, as he would push into me while I was grooming him because he liked the scratching, and that's how a horse tells the other horse "yes, that's the spot"--in other words, lots of training on moving off of pressure in various fashions.
And I practiced my J-U skills and improved my body language with other, easier to move horses. When I finally went back to do a J-U with this horse at the end of three weeks, it went very well.
Also, I would suggest video taping your practice J-U's with other horses, to see what you are doing with your own body--it's a tremendous help!
I'm sure you can get your own horse to J-U with you successfully. Practice with other horses, get your body language more correct and hat your horse a bit more so she has a better idea of what you are asking of her regarding moving off of pressure.
Good lucK!
I had this problem when trying to long line. My thoroughbred just stood there and wouldn't budge. The next training session I free lunged him, in saddle and bridle, and used the plastic bag on a stick to get him going. It worked fantastic and I even got him to canter for the first time ever. Now I just need to incorporate the bag, stick and long lines together. Will keep you posted.....