Horse Sense for People Using Gentle Wisdom Join up techq Enrich Our Relationships Home Work

by Roberts, Monty

• ISBN13: 9780670899753
• ISBN10: 0670899755
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-07
• Publisher: Viking Adult

Summary

The real-life horse whisperer returns with a book of horse sense that is practical, philosophical and provocative, and demonstrates how trust, respect and communication are the keys to fruitful relationships.

Author Biography

Monty Roberts has worked with horses for more than fifty years and has demonstrated his Join-Up technique and philosophy to worldwide audiences ranging from Queen Elizabeth of England to thousands of corporate executives

Table of Contents

Forewords	vii
Acknowledgments	xiii
Monty Roberts's Ideas to Live By	xxi
From Horses to Humans	xxv
Join-Up: The Journey	1	(31)
A Story: The Mustang Mare	2	(11)
How to Achieve Join-Up	13	(9)
Join-Up: The Journey	22	(1)
Join-Up in the Workplace	23	(3)
A Corporate Experience: Paradyne	26	(1)
A Corporate Experience: Transit Mix	27	(5)
Communication	32	(35)
Father and Son	35	(2)
Discovering the Language of Equus	37	(3)
Body Language	40	(8)
A Story: Cadillac	48	(4)
A Story: Reading Each Other	52	(3)
The Round Pen	55	(6)
Why We Need Join-Up	61	(3)
Imprinting Our Young	64	(1)
A Story: Barlet	65	(2)
Against Violence	67	(16)
The Road to Columbine	71	(4)
Violence Through the Generations	75	(5)
A Story: PB	80	(3)
Trust	83	(41)
What We Achieve Through Join-Up	83	(5)
A Story: Blushing ET	88	(7)
A Story: Tina	95	(7)
A Corporate Experience: CSX and Tropicana	102	(4)
A Story: Betrayal	106	(18)
Respect	124	(24)
A Story: Brownie	124	(3)
Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Learning	127	(6)
The Blackboard System	133	(9)
A Story: The Trouble with Harry	142	(3)
A Story: Where Do I Sign?	145	(3)
The Good Parent	148	(26)
Infants	148	(6)
Spare the Rod	154	(2)
A Story: The Water Glass	156	(3)
A Story: There Are No Back Doors in Life	159	(4)
A Story: Margaret's Chore Chart	163	(3)
A Story: The Boy with Baggage	166	(8)
Choice	174	(15)
Greg Ward	174	(3)
A Story: Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover	177	(3)
Crawford Hall	180	(4)
The Muckers' Story	184	(5)
Change	189	(17)
The Art of Listening	189	(6)
Slow Is Fast	195	(6)
A Corporate Experience: Change and the Nature of Leadership	201	(5)
Conclusion	206	(4)
Simplicity	206	(2)
The Power of Gentleness	208	(2)
Bibliography	210	(2)
Appendices	212	(1)
Corporations That Have Visited Flag Is Up Farms	212	(4)
Blackboards	216	(4)
For Further Information	220

Excerpts

Chapter One

Join-Up: The Journey

The horse has an important message

for humankind

I cannot imagine my life without horses. They have been my teachers, my friends, my business partners and my entertainment. Their message to me has been so strong that I have dedicated my life to interpreting what they are trying to tell us.

    When as a boy, I first watched the wild horses out on the Nevada desert, I was immediately surprised by the fact that there was a clearly defined language that they used. I was further surprised by the realization that it was a silent language, one of gestures, much like signing for the deaf. A horse squared up to another, rigid and on point with eyes directed onto the eyes of his subject, is saying, "go away." The positioning of their ears indicates the direction of their attention. Turning to a forty-five degree angle is saying, "You are welcome back into the herd." All the many motions and gestures of the horse add up to a sizeable dictionary of signs and actions.

    Later I became a trainer of horses, and over many years developed a set of training principles. The horses I work with are usually "raw," untrained horses or remedial horses that have been physically or psychologically abused. I often meet the horse I am to work with for the first time in a Join-Up session. Join-Up is a consistent set of principles using the horse's own language and designed to let the horse know that he has freedom of choice. I release the horse at the beginning of each session of communication, encouraging him to leave me, therefore exercising his right to flee in order to protect himself. I then encourage him to go away, in essence suggesting that he can do anything he wants. I require him to be responsible for his own actions and for their consequences. I continue to communicate that I will be responsible for my actions, too.

    I came to call the process based on these principles or concepts, Join-Up. Fundamental to the process and its remarkable success is my belief in the effective importance of nonviolence and trust.

* * *

The Mustang Mare

People often ask me if horses are capable of such traits as loyalty, trust, care and concern for other species. I am asked during each "question and answer" session during my demonstrations if I believe that horses possess a sense of caring regarding people. Many academics inquire of me whether or not I truly believe that there could be an interspecies understanding.

    My stock answer is that horses live within a social order that is based on the principles of trust, loyalty and mutual concern. I go on to say that they have taught me that without these attributes they could never have existed for their fifty million years.

Copyright © 2001 Monty Roberts. All rights reserved.