So I've had my boy for a few years. Unfortunately we live in the city, and the yard that we were had was treating the horses very poorly (paddock wire fence fell down and wasn't repaired untill a horse walked through it and tore itself to shreds, not enough food for horses, a horse (of 20 horses) colicking every week... etc). We moved him out to another place which is unfortunately an hour’s drive out, so riding takes about half the day. The result is that he only gets worked around twice a week and I don't see him often. But he is super well cared for and is happy.
Long story short, after a week of rain (I live in South Africa where we have been having major drought, we arn't prepared for rain XD) I went out to ride. The ground was horribly slippery, and I was riding horribly. Eventually I gave up and decided to do join up. I taught Aragon to lunge without a roundpen and just on the lungeline, but I hadn't lunged him in years and years (again because I see him so seldom). He's normally incredibly lazy, but I stuck him in the round pen, and he took off at a fast canter with a good few bucks thrown in for good measure. We changed direction a few times (Running in front of drive line, moving backwards. He did a mixture of turning with his butt to me and turning with his head to me). Despite him being super laid back and lazy, I was able to keep him going pretty fast with only a little use of body language and a leadrope. Eventually his inner ear locked onto me and stayed locked on, but I never saw any of the other signs. I chased him around for quite a while, and never saw any of the other signs. Eventually I decided to just see what would happen, and I invited him in. It took quite a few seconds, and then he came in. And kept on coming in. Pushing right over me (unlike him) and eventually stopping with his but in my face. I figured that I had also stopped him with the exit to the pen right on the other side of me, got a bit aggressive (I didn’t like that pushing past), and sent him out again. After a while, he started just stopping and staring facing me when I asked him to change directions (still ear locked on nothing else). I would send him off again. Eventually when he did this again, I turned and invited him in. Again, a few seconds wait, and he came in, and started pushing past me (this time the exit was not on the other side of me) and I immediately sent him out again. Eventually he would only trot and not canter (he was exhausted and had figured out that the leadrope I had barely hurt even if it did touch him), and I was exhausted. So again, when changing direction and he turned and just looked at me instead, I invited him in. This time he came up to me nicely. Not to my chest as I’ve seen others do, but just to the side. He then followed me around in various little circles with his head at the right place. So I went and called it done for the day.
My questions are:
1. What could I have done better? When I invited him in and he just pushed past me, should I have gotten really aggressive?
2. Is it fine if they aren’t showing all the other signs of join up beyond the ear lock on?
3. What should I do I ask him to change direction and he just stares at me and won’t move? I chased him out usually, but he wasn’t that responsive on it.
4. Is there even a point in doing a join up if I only see him around once a week? The entire process exhausted us both, and so at this rate it would replace any riding I do on him (which I enjoy and I’m not so sure about sacrificing that).
Long story short, after a week of rain (I live in South Africa where we have been having major drought, we arn't prepared for rain XD) I went out to ride. The ground was horribly slippery, and I was riding horribly. Eventually I gave up and decided to do join up. I taught Aragon to lunge without a roundpen and just on the lungeline, but I hadn't lunged him in years and years (again because I see him so seldom). He's normally incredibly lazy, but I stuck him in the round pen, and he took off at a fast canter with a good few bucks thrown in for good measure. We changed direction a few times (Running in front of drive line, moving backwards. He did a mixture of turning with his butt to me and turning with his head to me). Despite him being super laid back and lazy, I was able to keep him going pretty fast with only a little use of body language and a leadrope. Eventually his inner ear locked onto me and stayed locked on, but I never saw any of the other signs. I chased him around for quite a while, and never saw any of the other signs. Eventually I decided to just see what would happen, and I invited him in. It took quite a few seconds, and then he came in. And kept on coming in. Pushing right over me (unlike him) and eventually stopping with his but in my face. I figured that I had also stopped him with the exit to the pen right on the other side of me, got a bit aggressive (I didn’t like that pushing past), and sent him out again. After a while, he started just stopping and staring facing me when I asked him to change directions (still ear locked on nothing else). I would send him off again. Eventually when he did this again, I turned and invited him in. Again, a few seconds wait, and he came in, and started pushing past me (this time the exit was not on the other side of me) and I immediately sent him out again. Eventually he would only trot and not canter (he was exhausted and had figured out that the leadrope I had barely hurt even if it did touch him), and I was exhausted. So again, when changing direction and he turned and just looked at me instead, I invited him in. This time he came up to me nicely. Not to my chest as I’ve seen others do, but just to the side. He then followed me around in various little circles with his head at the right place. So I went and called it done for the day.
My questions are:
1. What could I have done better? When I invited him in and he just pushed past me, should I have gotten really aggressive?
2. Is it fine if they aren’t showing all the other signs of join up beyond the ear lock on?
3. What should I do I ask him to change direction and he just stares at me and won’t move? I chased him out usually, but he wasn’t that responsive on it.
4. Is there even a point in doing a join up if I only see him around once a week? The entire process exhausted us both, and so at this rate it would replace any riding I do on him (which I enjoy and I’m not so sure about sacrificing that).