Sumana9

I am by no means an expert and I am interested in seeing what others have to say, but from my experience I generally try to do join up the day the horse arrives if he/she is in good condition. I put the horse in the round pen and provide water and hay to see how the horse reacts to the new environment for about an hour. If she drinks, eats and appears to be calm then I will try Join-Up. I never push the first time, but 9 times out of 10 Join-Up will be successful. Mr. Roberts often works with horses presented to him for the first time the day of the Demo and does Join-Up before anything else. Again I think it depends on the condition of the horse but I have found the sooner I am able to make a connection (Join-Up) with a new horse the better, because this connection will often settle and calm the horse. Good Luck.

Hi Surmana9, I aggree with what comanche said. I will buy my first own horse very soon and he is also a colt of a year an almost 9 month (will be two years old in April). I would be interested in exchanging experiences with you as your new horse is about the same age. I have been working with "my" horse and did Join-Up successfully - yes - but learned from experiences I made when working with him later on that the band of trust could be stronger and - most of all - the level of respect for my personal space. Now the weather is too bad to go back into the round pen and there is no arena we can work in and I hurt my knee and must stay at home for a while so I cannot wait to read about your experiences before I can tell you more about mine. Good Luck, VioBerlin

Hey, VioBerlin, Happy New Year! and Congrats on your new horse. Glad to hear you finally having one again. Good luck
Christy