November 24, 2006 @ 2:12 pm
Horse Catching problems
I have had occasional problems with catching horses but my current horse goes through regular phases of being difficult to catch. This usually happens in the summer when he would prefer to be grazing and he is much worse now that he is almost retired, so he is not being regularly caught. You can often get near to him but he turns or runs away before you are able to catch him. He will be caught if the other horses are coming in also or if he’s hungry, but otherwise it is pot luck.
We have found various ways around this but no permanent answer:
- We leave a headcollar on him to help with catching but this is not sufficient to hold onto him if he decides to run away
- We usually approach him with a handful of food or a bucket of his favourite horse food. A bucket will often attract the other horses which can cause additional problems
- We avoid eye contact and do not look look directly at him when approaching
- We avoid trying to catch him when he’s just started grazing but this is difficult to when you do not live on the premises
- We have separated him from the other horses into a different adjoining paddock or create a small area with electric fencing
- We usually get someone to help to catch with the other horses
- It is very difficult not to become annoyed but this just makes the situation worse so stay as calm and relaxed as possible - this is much easier said than done!
- Set extra time aside to keep walking after him until he gets bored and eventually gives up. This once took 45 mins the first day, 25 mins the second day and 5-10 mins each day after this. He was already isolated in a small separate area of the field away from the other horses and it would had taken much longer if he was in a group of horses.
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7 Responses to “Horse Catching problems”
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November 28th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Another approach….. use a round pen and induce your horse to join up or hook on. Practice this in increasingly bigger paddocks.
Use clicker training to get your horse to come running to you and stick his head in a loop of rope. (this can be taught to an intelligent horse in less than 20 minutes)
Of course if you are hard on the horse when you have him caught up and the horse hates going with you…. well, nothing can help him change his mind about that except you having more consideration for him.
Yrs,
Patricia
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I have a mare I just got and she runs from me when I try to catch her. I don’t have a roundpen and I keep her at my friends who lives 30 minutes from me. It’s not possible for me to work with her every day. I was thinking about keeping her in the smallest pasture so I could treat it like a roundpen. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do?
January 10th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Thanks for your comments and apologies for the delay in responding but we have been in the UK for a number of weeks.
Patricia, I haven’t thought about clicker training with horses. My horse used to go into the stable when he heard my car pulling up and I often catch horses by rattling a bucket - which is similar in principle to a clicker. Unfortunately these do not work when they now prefers to stay in the field with the other horses.
Kelly, I think that your new horse needs to become familiar with you and your new surroundings. I’d ask the people you bought her from whether she had such problems previously and anythng they found to work with her. You need to find a way to get her to come to you. Will she come to you for food? Is there another horse where she is kept that she will come to? Is she settled with you once you catch her? If not, would it be possible to keep her in a stable until she is used to you? I hope this helps and she soon becomes easy to catch.
December 1st, 2007 at 1:23 am
I have a 11h.h 3yr old mini shetland gelding who is a disaster to catch, and put a fly mask on.
What works for me if taking a carrot out to the paddock and feed it to the horse as you put on a head collar or saddle etc.
gradually make the carrott smaller and smaller until u only need to take a small slice out into the paddock with you. My little pony and I have no trusting bond, but we are slowly getting there with the help of treats and loving pats.
December 13th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Thanks for your comments. I hope your approach continues to work.
A small amount of food used to work for my horse also and this has worked well for all of my other horses. We’re having no problems with him at the minute as he’s happy to come back into the stable after a few hours out in the field in the winter.
December 30th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Check out my YouTube channel. You will see clips of me and my newest mustang. He has been out of the wild for just three weeks but you can walk up and catch him in a 2 acre yard. Positive reinforcement is the best approach if the problem is being afraid. It sounds though like you might have a lack of respect problem. What ever you do, don’t let the horse think it can evade you. Set it up so that doesn’t happen…. maybe set up a portable pen within your pen where you feed, then close the gate while it’s eating so it will be there when you want to ride. Better yet is if you have a dry lot and have to catch the horse and take it to its stall for every meal for a while. A bit of work, but if it won’t let you catch it for one meal, it will let you on the next. Just take your halter out and call it to come. If it doesn’t even try, leave for at least five minutes, and after three tries just wait until the next meal. You can’t keep him from deciding to not come, but you can make it so that choice is not one he wants to pick. It is very hard though when you have a bunch of horses on a pasture and you are asking him to leave his herd and food.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Recent research indicates that eye contact is not a factor in horse catching problems. It certainly did seem to affect our horse when we had initial problems but not later when this problem became more habitual.