Bonding , Rein-Backs, And Happy Children

I have found a marvellous book called 'How To Get Into The Head Of Any Horse In Minutes', by an old cowboy called Marv Walker. It is along the lines of join-up and the Monty Roberts stuff, but a lot easier to understand.  I have always been into the physcology of horses, and love finding out how they tick.  I have always said you can learn more from just watching your horse, than from any teacher. As I one-time teacher, I also said 'you can teach anyone the mechanics of horse-riding, but to be a rider, you have to have feel, and that can't be taught'.
The basics of this book teaches herd dynamics in very simple terms.  The horse either becomes the leader, or he follows. You have to make yourself the leader of the herd, plain and simple. If the leader wants a space, he claims it.  The followers move out of his way.  If the leader walks off, the followers....yup you got it. They Follow. In the wild, horses fight, sometimes to the death, for leadership. As you don't want to physically fight your horse, you have to use your brain, and not allow him to challenge you. You must be the leader at all times.
With this in mind, I have made a round(ish) pen from electric fencing.  Charlie was a doddle.  In we went. I sent him round the outside. I was carrying a lunge whip.....not to crack it, but as an arm extension.  Following the book, after a couple of laps I moved to the outside to block him.  He changed direction.  Two more laps, he stopped to await instruction.  Then I turned my back on him and walked off.  He followed. He followed every change of direction and pace.  Job done.  We have had what Marv Walker calls a bonder. Since then, whenever I am in the field, he comes to me and follows me.  I can feel the difference. 
I had him in the stable the other day, while the others were grooming.  Having given him a quick brush, I sat down.  First he came over and put some straw on me, then he stood guard. One ear on me, one flickering round to listen for danger. What a good little man he is.

On Saturday I was in teaching mode.  First up Chanice Who Helps On Saturdays, on Daisy. We used the round pen.  And a couple of fence posts set very close together.  First we used them to practise riding into a halt. Next we used them to make tight figure of 8's. I got Chanice to use her legs to move Daisy's hind legs and I could see it dawn on her face (Chanice not Daisy), that she could control each leg. Hers as well as Daisys. We then went for rein-back. I did a lot of loose work and what I call 'Follow Me' with Daisy last summer. Yes, 'Follow Me' is the same as a Bonder, or Join-up in theory.  Hence Daisy reined back at a click of a finger, with Chanice learning the ridden aids.
We then tried with Lulu and Jo.  Having done it once, Lu refused to do it again. I have never come across something so stubborn to reinback. Needless to say, in the field she is reining back at a vast rate of knots just to a finger-click.
After all this work, we grabbed Polly and Lauren, and went for a walk down the lane and back.  I was going to take Charlie in hand, but wanted to be able to grab Daisy should anything untoward should happen. I'm not sure what that would be, as I don't think aliens landing would freak out Daisy, but you never know.  So I took the dogs on leads, and we had a lovely walk, with Lauren and Chanice grinning away.  Sadly there are no pictures of this as I had lost my phone at this point.