Our first Join-Up

Monty Roberts is probably most famous for his concept of 'Join-Up' with a horse. It is very difficult to describe Join-Up in a few words because so much happens in the few minutes during which it takes place. The simple way of describing it would probably be to say that it's the moment during which you establish an initial communication between human and horse and the human shows the horse that it won't hurt him. It might sound quite airy fairy but in reality it's pretty scientific insofar as the human uses a body language that makes sense to the horse, so it's nothing magical.

Studying at the Monty Roberts farm gave us the chance to learn how to do this join-up and practice it on several of the horses available.

 Part one - rubbing the horse on his forhead

 Part two - sending him away on a circle

 And finally 'inviting him' to come

 The Join-Up

 The follow through - the horse follows freely

 Done!

 Inviting the horse

 The horse is coming in

 Join-Up

 Follow through - horse is following

Ta-da!