Connection training, hooking on and join up
This week I took a lesson with a student who hasn't worked with me for about 3 years.
Previously I had done around 1 years worth of handling work on the ground with her 2 year old arab mare.
And it was such a good reminder for me on why I don't like to do join up even though we do a version of it and asking our horses to hook on in our connection training.
My main problem with join up is that it doesn't clearly define to the horse what we want them to do.
So for horses who don't need connection training it is of no benefit other than as a free lunge but for horses that do need connection and relaxation training it doesn't adequately guide them through the process.
This is where it is important to be clear on your values and the purpose of the exercise you are implementing. The purpose of join up is ideally to help our horses self regulate and manage their emotions and stress and teach them how to approach us. Sending the horse around the round yard doesn't help them with this, they have to stumble across the answer themselves.
Now, I totally get all the building blocks are there for why this should work but at the same time, we're missing the real key.
Connection isn't forced, it's earnt.
And teaching a horse to learn how to self regulate and control emotions by running them only serves to get them more fit than you and dealing with high energy by running.
So we break it down and do relaxation exercises first, separate to, and before we do our send away and invite in exercises (ie free lunging). And we also teach them how to approach us separately by just giving them the invitation and rewarding them when they do. We also then do our hook on exercises by invitation and we think it's totally fine if they don't stay with us because that is an indication of the strength of connection and relationship we have with them and therefore we have to work on that more.
It does mean it can take a little longer to do it perfectly as a trick but it also means we focus on the connection first and the trick second so that the quality of the relationship and the horses ability to process their emotions is first and foremost and then we can challenge the strength of connection with how long they stay with us and introducing obstacles not the other way around.
Circling back around to my lesson…
I like to free lunge horses if I have the opportunity so they can have a run, stretch their back and have a buck if they want to, I don't force it of them if they don't want to. And what I saw as I sent her out on the free lunge was her energy come up and her body language became tight and tense so I quickly invited her back in - and because we had done this work previous to free lunging, I was able to do our relaxation and connection work to bring her energy back down and get her to focus and stay connected with me.
Instead of sending her around the round yard until she gave me relaxation and connection cues, I asked her to stay with me until she gave me relaxation and connection cues before I sent her back out.
And this is the real difference.
It is up to us to show our horses how to do this, not hope they stumble across the answer themselves. Because we are the ones that are creating the stress and the tension in the horse by driving them around a yard they cannot escape with a whip and no clear answer to what they are supposed to be doing.