FAQ
 |
 What is Join-Up and why do you send the horses away from you when you begin to work with them?Join-Up is the training of horses using their language to establish trust. As I do Join-Up, I am dealing in the language of equus. I have learned that horses use ‘sending away’ within the family group. I have concluded that they do not regard this as an act of violence, but a use of temporary isolation as a form of discipline. There is no hitting and there is no force. The horses do not resent me for this, and they soon come to me as a friend. The horseman who does not understand why I send horses away has not yet learned the language of the horse. It is a part of their natural communication process. If I regarded it as violent, I would stop it at once, but it is not.If I can help remedial horses with this method, as I do for approximately 500 each year, then why would I ever stop doing it? These horses often come to me with the statement that if I can’t fix them, they will go to the slaughterhouse. I am successful with virtually all of them, and if you read the horses, they will tell you that they appreciate the work I do. Remember, Lomitas was banned from racing worldwide, and the best people of Germany tried to overcome his problem for months before they called me. He raced successfully ten days after I met him and has been a friend of humans since that time. Lomitas is one of the most successful Thoroughbred stallions in the world today; ask him if he agrees with my methods? |
 |
Loading a horse seems to be one of the great problem areas. Why can’t you just put some food in the back of the trailer and wait for the horse to go in? One could certainly do that, and horsemen often do. It is a problem if one never teaches the horse follow your requests to load. There will be times when the horse is not hungry, and it might take hours and hours before it decides to go in. With my system, the horse learns to load as a partner with you and allows the horseman the opportunity to enjoy a relationship with a horse that will load every time and with no stress. |
 |
As I go to mount my horse, he blasts away in fear… not a safe way to start the ride. Do you have any learning tools to help me?In my educational DVD called Fix-Up has a part of three hours and 15 minutes actual footage of a horse that wouldn’t stand for mounting. You will see that a Dually Halter is most effective in the schooling process for horses that won’t stand to mount. I recently worked with a Tennessee Walking Horse that had injured a man in his sixties who was a good rider for decades. It took me about a half an hour to get this horse ‘bomb proof’ regarding mounting. |
| My horse is absolutely terrified of bicycles and becomes quite dangerous in the presence of one.Can you help us?My recommendation is to school to the Dually Halter so that you have full control of your horse. One needs to stop down any desire to blast away from you at the sight of a bicycle. Once you have achieved complete control, then you can begin to present sights such as bicycles passing by and begin desensitization. Should you choose, you can get the DVD Gentling Your Spooky Horse and by executing these procedures you can change the mindset of your horse. |
 |
My horse is fed well and cared for, but I still wonder if she has digestive health issues. Is this possible? What can I do?Yes, horses have delicate guts, and even pleasure horses can have problems, because they can’t graze constantly, or we keep them in stalls. There is a product called SUCCEED that can really help. It’s natural and helps keep the horse’s stomach and colon working like they should. I asked SUCCEED to develop a version especially for the leisure horse. Click here for more information. |
| I can’t do Join-Up because I don’t have a Round Pen.The round pen is not the critical factor in applying these concepts. It is a convenient place in which to work. Should you use a square pen, horses will tend to “stop down” their energy in the corners. If you take a square pen and panel the corners off (or use jump poles or bales of hay) you effectively create an octagon. This nearly round enclosure will work very effectively. |
| Monty’s Weekly Question and AnswerJuly 28, 2010: Good day Mr Roberts, my name is Rian du Toit (39) and am currently residing in Namibia (South West Africa). Thank you for the wonderful information I received through your online university. It has really captured my mind and I cannot get enough time to work through all of your videos fast enough. I have only joined recently and already tried Join-Up and Follow-Up on three different horses (varying of ages between 1 year and 12 years). I am pleased to say that it worked on all three. Just three questions please: 1. With regards to the online university; would you be so kind and suggest a “curriculum” to follow? I know that your lessons are in a logical order for every topic (Topics: Join-Up; Dually Halter; Long Lining; etc), but I am uncertain in which order should I watch and practice the different topics. I also understand the importance of the six imperatives, but again, I am uncertain when to start with these training sessions? Which topics precede and which must be mastered before moving on? I would really appreciate your input (or someone’s input working with these kind of issues).2. The second question is how do you teach your horses to move away from pressure (let us say on the flank of the horse)? I use the technique of gradual increase of pressure on the horse until it moves away from the pressure. Reward to the horse is the relief of the pressure and praise. It works for me, but I am uncertain if this is the right technique? [Editor's Note: This week we will carry over the Q&A into a second week because of its length] Monty’s Answer: Dear Rian, if I had all my wishes, it would be my hope that every subscriber to the online university would request answers to the questions you have posed here. With that in mind I am pleased to attempt to give you my feelings with regard to each of the questions you have included. 1. While it’s true that we attempt to keep our lessons somewhat chronological it is also true that we try to give sufficient variation to the lessons so that we speak to the issues of the broadest base of subscribers possible. With few exceptions I can see no harm in following, somewhat, the order that we present our lessons in. Obviously, if you are a dressage rider and a Western lesson comes up such as sliding your horse to a stop you would probably want to modify your schedule a bit. While stopping your horse is still important, the extreme stop of the Western horse is inappropriate for the dressage horse. I can’t conceive of a lot of harm being done through reasonably altering the schedule. In conclusion let me say that I strongly recommend learning the language and training yourself to think like a horse and then listen carefully to your horse and let him tell you what he wants to learn next.
2. This is a question that leads me to believe that you haven’t seen all of the lessons that have been published to date. Moving off pressure was one of the first lessons we used for the University as I certainly believe it is an incredibly significant part of the training program of every good horseman. If I find that I am wrong and that you viewed the lessons then shame on me. If this is the case then I simply didn’t make it clear enough with regard to the principles of training your horse to move off pressure. This is a perfect example of my direction to the staff of the online University to feel the pulse rate of the students, respond to their needs and listen carefully to their requests. Let this be your invitation to accept that statement and to communicate with us if you still have questions after viewing the lessons. Let that same invitation be in place for everyone who subscribes to the University.
Did you know? You can now access the entire Ask Monty Q&A archive in Do you have a question for Monty that you don’t see here? If you have an email address, sign-up for Monty’s free Weekly Question and Answer and monthly E-Newsletter in order to send your question for consideration! Simply fill in the form to get started. |
 |
“Ask Monty” is a fantastic way for everyone to directly challenge Monty Roberts himself to solve horse problems. Because of Monty’s millions of fans around the world, he can’t answer them all personally of course, but he chooses really fascinating and difficult problems each week from the ones you send in and posts them on Ask Monty. By participating like this, Monty feels we can all move closer to a better understanding between horses and people too. If you want to join in and receive Monty’s E-Newsletter and Weekly Questions & Answers for free, directly in your email inbox, just fill in your details above (to ensure delivery, learn how to add us to your approved list by clicking here).
Include your question in the body of the email (best not to send attachments as they don’t work in our system) and remember, the harder the challenge the better! Monty loves hearing your questions and solving your problems, so go ahead and “Ask Monty” today.
We also encourage you to explore Monty’s book, “From My Hands to Yours,” a comprehensive how-to manual on his Join-Up® training philosophies which includes detailed illustrations of signs and reciprocal gestures on the language of Equus.
Read legal disclaimer here.