JOIN-UP INTERNATIONAL, INC

Lead-Up® is a two-day program for at-risk youth, aged 15 to 21. The program’s goal is to reduce violence by creating peaceful leaders through interaction with horses. The participants are welcomed into a compassionate and non-judgmental environment, far removed from the violence, abuse, addiction and neglect they often experience at home.

During the Lead-Up program, participants are introduced to humane ways of handling and interacting with horses. They discover non-violence and non-aggression for themselves, principally through the experience of Join-Up® with a horse, the non-violent training system designed by Monty Roberts, world-renowned horseman and author of The Man Who Listens to Horses.

Lead-Up was founded in 2012 in Guatemala by Monty Roberts student Katie Cunningham Pokorny. A study published in 2016 showed Lead-Up provides youth with “tools of leadership, reduced violence and aggression, and better emotion regulation.”

Fired-Up is a two-day equine-assisted retreat for active-duty fire service personnel, both structural and wildland. The program aims to provide participants with tools to overcome the daily stress and trauma associated with operating in a high-risk environment.

Through the experience of Monty Roberts’ ground-breaking Join-Up techniques, and other ground-based horsemanship activities, participants learn trust-building, and develop tools for overcoming trauma, improving relationships, better self-regulation and emotional intelligence, improved self-worth, and a willingness to open up and ask for help.

Partner-Up is a two-day equine-assisted retreat for active-duty law enforcement officers. The program aims to provide participants with tools to overcome the challenges they face working in law enforcement, through the experience of Monty Roberts’ ground-breaking Join-Up techniques and other ground-based horsemanship activities.

Join-Up is a non-violent training system designed by Monty Roberts. Convinced there must be a more humane and effective system to train horses, Monty Roberts created Join-Up, a consistent set of principles based on the horse’s inherent body language and herd-behavior. The result of Join-Up is a willing partnership based on mutual respect and trust.

Learning outcomes from the two-day retreat include trust-building, overcoming trauma, improving relationships, better self-regulation and emotional intelligence, improved self-worth, and a willingness to open up and ask for help.

Horse Sense & Healing II is a 2-day follow-on retreat for Veteran participants of our Horse Sense & Healing program, that focuses on post-traumatic growth – how those living with post-traumatic stress can use their experiences to build a stronger foundation and thrive in various aspects of their daily lives.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of good horses find themselves in transition of career or ownership. And each year, a growing number of these horses end up at risk of inhumane treatment. Research by the ASPCA indicates there are over 1.2 million homes that have both the perceived resources and desire to house an unwanted horse. This number greatly exceeds the approximately 200,000 unwanted horses living each year in the United States.

However, a lack of high-quality training for remedial issues and wild / feral horses is one of the most consistent, ongoing needs for horses in transition. A well-trained, safe and pleasant horse has a much higher adoption rate, lower length of stay in a shelter and a higher likelihood of staying safe for life.

This is where the MRTHP comes in. By utilizing Monty Roberts’ world-renowned gentle and effective training techniques, Monty and his team re-train horses in need of adoption to help find their forever homes.