Natural horsemanship is the art of training horses without using force or violence. Caitríona is trained by Monty Roberts in his methods of Natural Horsemanship and Join-Up and became the third Irish Instructor in 2014.

She runs course in his methods, provides one-to-one sessions for both horses and owners, and runs clinics in different locations around the country. All course details are on the “Courses” page.

What is Join-Up?

Join-Up training methods are most simply expressed in the process of starting raw horses. Without the use of pain or force the trainer persuades a raw horse to accept a saddle, bridle and rider. Working in a round pen, one begins Join-Up® by making large movements and noise as a predator would and begins driving the horse to run away. She then gives the horse the option to flee or Join-Up®. Through body language, the trainer will ask, “Will you pay me the respect due to a herd leader and join and follow me?” The horse will respond with predictable herd behavior: by locking an ear on her, then by licking and chewing and dropping his head in a display of trust. The exchange concludes with the trainer adopting passive body language, turning her back on the horse and without eye contact, invites him to come close. Join-Up occurs when the animal willingly chooses to be with the human and walks toward her accepting her leadership and protection. This process of communication through behavior and body language and mutual concern and respect, can be a valuable tool to strengthen all other work with horses. (taken from montyroberts.com)