Hello HorseCrazy
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I have a quarter horse gelding who did the same thing to me. I had a lot of trouble joining up with him, but to my utter dismay, my husband who had never ridden or worked with a horse before in his life, but really liked watching the Monty Roberts DVDs with me, decided he would have a go and he achieved Join Up in less than 10 minutes. My horse was so hooked onto my husband that he just would not leave him. He would have followed him through hot coals!
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I have to admit that I was a bit upset. But I got over it pretty quick :-) because I realised how truly amazing this event really was!
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We talked about the difference between what I was doing and what my husband did and then we went back and watched the Join Up DVD again – and again.
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We found that my body language wasn’t right. My husband is a very confident man – while I am more passive and not so confident by nature. I wasn’t giving Ranger strong “go away” signals. He was also running past my signals to turn. I guess I wasn’t convincing him that I was going to be a good leader.
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After joining the Online Uni, I watched the Join Up videos there a number of times and found them to provide more information than the Join Up DVD.
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The things that made the difference for me with my horse were as follows:
1. Getting my body language right so that I could make Ranger go away (and know that I meant it).
2. Stepping in the right spot to cause him to turn.
3. Working out how many laps of my round yard = the flight distance eg. 1/4 to 3/8 of a mile. For us, it is 7 laps of our round yard each way. I think this was the key for us.
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I would recommend watching the Join Up videos over and over and over again here on the Uni. I also practiced on some other horses who have more inquisitive natures than Ranger does to hone my skills. That helped me also.
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The other thing, is that I got upset when it wasn't working. I don't like admitting that, but unfortunately its true. The horses can sense when your adrenaline is up as a result of anxiety and I understand now that I am becoming more familiar with Monty Roberts' concepts that the horses don't really want to be with someone when they are like that.
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So, one more bit of advice just in case you felt like I did - stop. Come back again later and have another go :-)
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Hope this helps
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Kind regards
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Gen

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to try it.
Besides, I'll never stop learning.
I've already learnt so much and I've only been on here a few short days.
Thanks Again
Meghan

Hi Horsecrazy,

Sounds like your friend's horse has a lot of energy!

When it's coming close to join-up time, you might want to lower the energy in the round pen a bit. Start with your hand that's not holding the long line up in the air. Drop your gaze to the horses' neck or even shoulder. Close your raised hand and gradually lower it down to your opposite hip. The aim is to make your body language a bit more passive to help him slow down. He should slow down to a walk.

If he continues to trot move your gaze back down his body. You may need to even look at the ground! Experiment with looking in different places and holding your arms in different positions until you can get him to be going the gait that you want. Good luck with everything, don't give up! :D

-Megan

Hi Megan
Thanks for the advice, i'll have to try it, i'll hopefully be seeing him this coming Wednesday, so cant wait to give it a go!