At the ISES conference last week, two studies investigated aspects of round yard training tested the assumptions and observations made by Monty Roberts in leading to development of his ‘Join-up’ method.
Experiments performed in the round pen showed that untrained ponies responded with flight behaviour to the handler’s speed rather than either his body posture (tense or relaxed) or eye contact (looking at the horse or looking away). In fact the ponies showed more alarm when the trainer looked away from them.
A second study which had been undertaken to unravel whether mares do indeed chase away youngsters, as indicated by Roberts, found that when a young horse is placed in the round pen with a mare, the chasing behaviour occurs only 27% of the time and that predominantly colts were chased. The study’s authors concluded that
‘the welfare of horses being subjected to round-yard training methods may often be jeopardised by trainers having unrealistic expectations based on incorrect assumptions that the behaviour exhibited mimics that of the horse-horse interactions in more natural environments.’
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