Follow the leader: the psychology of join-up

You’ve probably heard about join-up, and may have wondered if it was really worth the effort. It is – and CHRISTINE ARMISHAW explains why.

Join-up is essentially a trust exercise between you and your horse. Developed by the legendary American horseman Monty Roberts, joining up is a technique that gives your horse the choice between accepting you as a herd leader or not. The moment of join-up happens when the horse decides it’s better to be with you rather than to move away from you, and it can be achieved with horses of all types and ages.

But how does it work, and why is it worth doing?

Firstly, how does it work. Monty, known as the man who listens to horses, studied the way wild mustangs interacted with each other. He noticed that if a young horse was running amok and being a nuisance, an older horse, usually the boss mare, would drive them to the outside of the herd. Initially the youngster appeared unconcerned, rebellious even, until their survival instinct kicked in and they realised being on the outside meant they were more vulnerable to predator attack. Additionally, rather than grazing happily in the middle of the herd, being made to move to the herd’s outer edges was physically draining.

In join-up, we tap into this equine psychology and take on the energy of the boss mare. With our horse in the round yard, we shoo them away from where we’re standing in the centre, making them circle the yard and change direction with every few rotations. You may find your horse reacts with quite rapid movements, running, bucking and snorting – but that‘s nothing to worry about, because there’s a really important reason why we’re doing this. By mimicking the boss mare, and making the horse move their feet, we’re asserting ourselves as the leader, not in a domineering way, but similar to what the horse would experience within the hierarchy of the herd.

Eventually, your horse will decide that it’s hard work being pushed around and around the outside of the circle (and the magic number here seems to be seven minutes), and that they’d rather come in and be with you. The reason they choose you is because you’ve created respect by making them move, and a horse feels security when they are told what to do in a confident way. By joining up, they’ve accepted you as someone they can trust to keep them safe.

The benefits of join-up are many, so yes, it really is worth doing. If I’m working with a horse for the first time, whether they’re a youngster or an older horse sent to me for training, I always start with join-up. That’s because I want to know how the horse thinks, how they process information, how long it takes them to do that processing, and whether or not they’re a bit reserved or little more rebellious. These are all things we can figure out from join-up, making it a really useful technique.

And the value of joining up transfers to when you’re riding out on the trail or you’re doing something new and potentially spook-worthy. If you’ve put your horse in a situation where you’ve moved their feet and they have eventually chosen to join-up with you, they’re more likely to continue to trust you to make decisions for them because they recognise you as a good leader.

The key to join-up is to be confident and decisive when you’re asking them to move around the yard. I’ve seen some riders, lovely, kind people who want to bond with their horses, who don’t want to be too bossy, or push the horse to move too much in case they won’t like them. But the end result is the opposite of the bond they were hoping to achieve! The horse decides their human doesn’t really know what they’re doing, can’t be trusted, and that they will have to look after themselves, which creates stress in the horse because now they have to watch out for predators and make decisions about where they think it’s safe to go next.

Often I’ll show a client how to join-up with their horse, but when it’s their turn to try, the horse just stands and looks at them instead of moving around the yard. Which brings me to an interesting point. It’s not about waving your arms around or making a lot of noise, it’s all about the way you project your energy and the way that you make the horse feel as you move them around.

If you’ve been really forward and decisive when you’ve worked on join-up,  even if the horse thinks there’s a tiger waiting somewhere on the trail, in much the same way that the herd trusts the boss mare to keep them safe, they’re more likely to relax and trust you to let them know if there’s any real danger.

I had such an interesting case the other day. A lady who had returned to riding after 15 years away was having trouble picking up her horse’s back feet. The horse wasn’t trying to kick her, but kept snatching their foot away so she couldn’t hold it. However, the horse offered no resistance at all when I went to pick the foot up and gave it to me immediately.

Often this kind of behaviour is because the horse doesn’t respect you – and respect isn’t something you can demand, it’s there because you know how to project your ‘boss mare’ energy so the horse knows they can trust you to keep them safe and make good decisions on their behalf. So, into the round yard we went to work on join-up. At first the lady couldn’t move her horse properly – she fumbled around and the horse just stood and looked at her. But then she figured it out and after that one session in the round yard, there was a marked improvement when she tried picking up the hind feet – it wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely better.

It’s important to work on join-up as many times as you need, particularly if you’re building a partnership with a new horse, or if you’ve got a horse who’s determined to do their own thing! Join-up is a great groundwork tool that lets you focus on your bond with your horse, while making sure that you’re both on the same page. You get to see your horse from another perspective, and they get to see you from another perspective. I think it’s a really good way of creating a different and deeper layer of relationship with your horse.

Christine Armishaw Equestrian offers a variety of coaching and other equestrian services at her Otford Valley Equestrian Agistment & Training Centre just south of Sydney, NSW.