aloof pony

Dear Annika and friend,
As for your question regarding your pony and his resistence to join up. First of all you need to realize that ponies are wired a little differently than horses. There need to be reliant on people is not as strong. They are very independent and have their opinions. The second thing is you can not change the personality of a horse or pony. You learned to accept and work with them as they are.

There are many different teachings out there on the idea of joining up. I choose to call it connection. In my opinion being fully connected to a horse does not mean they will abducate their will to us 100 percent of the time. It's a give and take and the relationship takes time to develope.

A few suggestions I have for connecting would be to spend sometime doing nothing , just being with your horse . You can read in his stall or just sit with him in the fields.This allows you both to be in each others space without any agenda. This sets the space for the heart connection.

Pushing a horse from behind is helpful to build respect. If you watch horses out in pasture the lead horse will push the lower horses out of the way so that they have the food. So set up this situation. If your pony is eating push him off the hay or grass. Make it yours, keep playing that way for maybe five minutes. Then invite him in to share with you, spend five minutes sharing .
Then do exercise over again , push him away. He may get a little mad because he's not used to this behavior from you , but it will teach him to respect you and get him to pay more attention to you. His focus will improve.

Another exercise would be to play with him while in a big space like and arena or paddock , get him to move out of your space , push him from behind, you don't need to make him run just move him, continue this exercise till he makes the decision to turn and faces you then he made the choice to connect. Look for other signs of connection , he will lower his head, lick and chew. At this point you can usually walk to him and he is ready to follow. I prefer to make daily connections using this technique. That way they are free to make their own decisions. As for the question with the lunge line . It is a line of connection and definately a good tool ,but to bring it to a higher level you would want to master this invisible connection were they read your energy , and look forward to connecting and looking for your direction.

Just remember a more sensitive horse will be more tuned in. A less sensitive horse like your pony will take more time and you'll need to find out what motivates him and use that to make it enjoyable for him.
Nancy