WHAT HORSES HAVE TO DO WITH RATS Galleries
Join-Up© with Horses and Monty Roberts
Join-Up© is a body language of gestures that communicate to the horse that the horse can trust the human. While many great horse trainers use some aspects of Join-Up© in their work with horses, Monty Roberts has elaborated the technique and language (Equus) of horses extensively. He has transformed our understanding of hor ...
Updated: Nov 29, 2009 12:01pm PST
I have put together this chart (still a work in progress), which attempts to describe Join-Up© with horses according to Monty Roberts. The material is from various sources by Monty Roberts, except some of the descriptions are in my own words as I've tried to keep to an outline form. Eventually I want to add an add ...
Updated: Nov 02, 2009 1:50pm PST
![Listening Words :
(Above: In an astounding example of inter-species communication using the horse's language of gestures,
the human tells Mr. Dickens, "I speak your language, and I will not hurt you." The horse responds, "I hear you clearly. Your words are precise. I will give you a chance; I will trust you; I will join you." This moment in time is one interchange from a longer
conversation between the two. Join-Up and Follow-Up with horses is a profound method to gain a horse's trust. Somewhere the equivalent method exists for rats.)
All credit for these adapted (for rats), or reproduced, "Ideas to Live By," goes to Monty Roberts, Horse Sense for People, Viking, 2001, xxi-xxiii.
Contact Monty Roberts.
I have written some of these as questions when the principles of Join-Up, as applied to rats, is not known.
Contact me by
email.
The rat can do no wrong; any action taken by the rat, especially the unsocialized rat, was most likely influenced by the rat trainer.
Many people watch, but few see.
The rat uses a predictable, discernible and effective language. A nonverbal language. The rats are talking.... [Just listen, in the form of watching.]
A good rat servant can hear a rat speak to her. A great rat trainer can hear a rat whisper to her.
The most important piece of equipment in rat training is the hands that hold the rat. The rat's language can be the teacher.
"No blade of grass has ever run from a horse. Do not use food as a reward." No sweet potato has ever run from a rat. Do not use food as a reward.
How is the rat a flight animal? (The horse is a quintessential flight animal.) When pressure is applied to the relationship, does the rat, like the horse, almost always choose to flee rather than fight? [How does the herd concept affect the flight mechanism?]
"If your horse wants to go away, don't send it away a little, send it away a lot." If your rat wants to go away, do you send her away? Send her away a little, or send her away a lot?
There is no such thing as teaching, only learning.
It is not the great trainer who can cause her rat to perform. The great trainer can cause the rat to want to perform.
If she is about to learn, stay out of her way. If all learning is zero through ten, where Join-Up and Follow-Up are zero through one, then the most important part of learning is zero through one.
No one has the right to say you must!
Make it easy for her to do right and difficult for her to do wrong.
Always work to cause your rat to follow the path of least resistance. Then place an opening for her to pass through so that the path of least resistance becomes the direction you want her to go in.
Everyone has the right to fail.
It is a teacher's duty to create an environment in which the student can learn.
Everyone must be responsible for their own actions and the consequences thereof.
Violence is for the violator, never the victim.
Keep it simple. Simple is best.](/photos/random.mg?AlbumID=8556537&Size=Thumb&AlbumKey=5teSV&rand=1365 "Listening Words :
(Above: In an astounding example of inter-species communication using the horse's language of gestures,
the human tells Mr. Dickens, \"I speak your language, and I will not hurt you.\" The horse responds, \"I hear you clearly. Your words are precise. I will give you a chance; I will trust you; I will join you.\" This moment in time is one interchange from a longer
conversation between the two. Join-Up and Follow-Up with horses is a profound method to gain a horse's trust. Somewhere the equivalent method exists for rats.)
All credit for these adapted (for rats), or reproduced, \"Ideas to Live By,\" goes to Monty Roberts, Horse Sense for People, Viking, 2001, xxi-xxiii.
Contact Monty Roberts.
I have written some of these as questions when the principles of Join-Up, as applied to rats, is not known.
Contact me by
email.
The rat can do no wrong; any action taken by the rat, especially the unsocialized rat, was most likely influenced by the rat trainer.
Many people watch, but few see.
The rat uses a predictable, discernible and effective language. A nonverbal language. The rats are talking.... [Just listen, in the form of watching.]
A good rat servant can hear a rat speak to her. A great rat trainer can hear a rat whisper to her.
The most important piece of equipment in rat training is the hands that hold the rat. The rat's language can be the teacher.
\"No blade of grass has ever run from a horse. Do not use food as a reward.\" No sweet potato has ever run from a rat. Do not use food as a reward.
How is the rat a flight animal? (The horse is a quintessential flight animal.) When pressure is applied to the relationship, does the rat, like the horse, almost always choose to flee rather than fight? [How does the herd concept affect the flight mechanism?]
\"If your horse wants to go away, don't send it away a little, send it away a lot.\" If your rat wants to go away, do you send her away? Send her away a little, or send her away a lot?
There is no such thing as teaching, only learning.
It is not the great trainer who can cause her rat to perform. The great trainer can cause the rat to want to perform.
If she is about to learn, stay out of her way. If all learning is zero through ten, where Join-Up and Follow-Up are zero through one, then the most important part of learning is zero through one.
No one has the right to say you must!
Make it easy for her to do right and difficult for her to do wrong.
Always work to cause your rat to follow the path of least resistance. Then place an opening for her to pass through so that the path of least resistance becomes the direction you want her to go in.
Everyone has the right to fail.
It is a teacher's duty to create an environment in which the student can learn.
Everyone must be responsible for their own actions and the consequences thereof.
Violence is for the violator, never the victim.
Keep it simple. Simple is best.")
(Above: In an astounding example of inter-species communication using the horse's language of gestures, the human tells Mr. Dickens, "I speak your language, and I will not hurt you." The horse responds, "I hear you clearly. Your words are precise. I will give you a chance; I will trust you; I will join you." This ...
Updated: Jul 06, 2009 9:02pm PST
Monty and Kelly: Horsemanship Essentials on H&C
/ 2 3 "Monty and Kelly: Horsemanship Essentials" All twenty-one embedded videos from Horse and Country These gallery pages contain all the videos from this great series. From the introduction on the Horse and Country site: "In this series, Monty Roberts and Kelly Marks share more of their natural horsemans ...
Updated: Mar 05, 2010 7:31pm PST
