I have stewed over Monty Robert's horrible reply to Christina's post for a month. If I had the submitter of this post, I would have been humiliated by the reply. Monty made that person feel that their question was stupid and that it didn't justify an answer. No help, no suggestions, nothing. He just told her to study some more. Every good instructor knows that their are No Stupid Questions...And Every Question deserves An Answer!!!!
I am a computer instructor. And I deal with Monty's hypothetical computer problem all the time with my clients. Many times, I use horses as an analogy for computer problems, but never, have I left a client with no answers.
Monty, you teach Join Up at clinics, so surely you have seen many students learn this technique. And I am sure you are familiar with the many mistakes that your students make all the time. You could have told Christina (and all of us at this university) some of these common mistakes. This would help her figure out what she was doing wrong.
Monty, I have a challenge for you. Since I am great with computer instruction and you have a computer problem. And you are great with join up and I can't seem to get my horse to join up. We should get together. I will trade you a computer lesson for a join up lesson! And we will both learn.
Sincerely,
Catherine in California
Dear Catherine
I found your discussion very interesting. I don't know how Christina is feeling. But basically Monty is right. In the shows and the videos everything looks easy because it's done by professionals. I would like to add another step: I think in the concept should be put more weight on the training of the owners with difficult horses than the horses. There are two different kinds of people to train: 1) trainers (to resolve specific problems with owners), 2) owners (not everybody can become an expert of horse behaviour and training). In my opinion the trainers should go to the owners to resolve their problems at home. All this will probably correlate to your own professional experience. If somebody has a computer problem you don't offer a course, you will go to your customer and show him how to resolve the problem.
Rudi in Switzerland
Hi Rudi and Catherine,
I so agree with you about the owners being in need of training.
I find alot of owners are frightened of their horses and fear breeds fear along various behaviours that prevent learning.
First I like to talk with an owner to understand what their issues are.. eg. how do feel when he/she does x or y.
Then look at what the horse is doing and connect that up with the behaviour in order to move foward.
I often wonder what happens to the owners and horses after a successful demo.Old habits die hard!
An owner was due to arrive on her horse at my place yesterday she didnt make it and I discovered she had bought this mare without saddling it up and riding it. Her ride to me would have been her first on her!If your saw the mountains I live we live in it makes this all the more poingnant. I am going to her tomorrow to start over as I have a better idea of where she is at.
The other owner did turn up safely however let me do all the work. I go to her place tomorrow as well to let her do all the work!
Catherine if you are struggling with join up get a trainer to come to you and work it through by them observing you.
I am a new trainer and I have a trainer watching me so I can improve my technique.
Amanda in Spain.
I agree the Non Answer to the Question Was Rood.
Really there are plenty of Join-Up Video Lessons Here. I also believe that they are strung out through out the Lesson List. The Lessons should be tagged with the techniques covered in The Lesson. This way we can search for all the videos that show the techniques on different horse personalities to gain a better understanding of the How To Be Successful.
The Join-Up Lessons Break the Process Down Quite Nicely.
But not all horses are so good. For My Dominate type horse I searched out the Lessons "Georgia Phobias" (an incomplete series) and The one about the Head Shy Horse, there is one other Leasson about a horse that had Ground Issues. By searching out and Studying these Lessons. Study = roll back the video at each place I felt something went by so fast I missed that little Gesture.
Also the Extended notes sorta fill in the Gaps missed in the video. So they should be read before and after the video to help you catch all the little details.
Would be nice if Monty's On Site Demo's were Video and put up here. Then we can learn from the Many Types & Breeds of Horses as they respond to Monty's Techniques. Monty spends so much time traveling, it would be nice if we could benefit from his encounters. His Vision would be Better Served by All