Catching 5 year old

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Carrieandolaf

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Hi , olaf is doing amzingly recentley we are jumping competetlently at 3ft3 and eventing ! But one slight issue ... We have put olaf in our 3 acre field with 3 other elder horses , and we have had no trouble catching him until today ! When ever we touched him he swang his bum to kick us ! We had food but he is very sly and quick so therefore after hours of trying we had to leave him as he went to the other horses for back up and they started kicking !!! Being so young we wouldnt want him to go feral ! What do you think ! Has he got to spoilt ? X thanks again x
 
Go to him several times a day and offer a slice of carrot from the hand without any attempt at trying to catch. If he won't take it from the hand, toss it near his nose on the ground. The object of your training at this stage is just to get him to look forward to your approach.

The next step is to get him to take it from your hand.

Then to take it as his nose brushes past your hand which you hold quite still. He does the moving, not you!

When you have achieved this, attempt to gently put a hand on his cheak.

Next step is to gently scratch that ridge below his cheek bone, etc.

After a while, you will be able to handle his head.

Then give him a scratch with the head collar in your hand. You might find you have to start the process from square one again.

And so on.

Slow, tedious, time consuming, frustrating. Once trained, recognise the symptoms of a relapse and counter them before the habit gets engrained. There is no quick fix.

If you think the above is a bit tedious, try training a goshawk to accept the hood, let alone come to call!

Here is a rather bad video shot with a head cam showing how to deal with a youngster who is showing the first signs of becoming headshy and hard to catch. After half an hour, she was actually nuzzling the head collar left on the ground, trying to get her head into it for the reward!

https://youtu.be/IyQ_HHbMn-A
 
Dry Rot said:
There's a big difference between bribery and reward.
Click to expand...

This, my young cob knows if I carry treats, he's expected to do something, I am currently building his confidence in going out by himself and will distract him with a treat on route, treat could be a scratch, a mouthful of grass or a sugar free mint, as I walk at his withers and ask for walk on or halt, he is doing well, same with his feet, he kicked the farrier, which is a big no no, now he will pick his feet up when asked and gets his treat when all four are done, treats for feet are being replaced with a good lad/scratch, he comes to a whistle in the field, not always to come in
 
Dry Rot that was directed at the OP - not you. Your method could work if the OP can avoid having the horse do the same as it did with the feed.
 
I had an ex-riding school 15yr old horse when I was a kid who did this for a while after I bought him. We had to take a drastic approach of getting a very long piece of white rope and employing several people to carefully but purposefully walk in a line towards him and use it to cordon him into the corner of the paddock so that I could get him.

It could cause some horses to panic and jump out of the field, so we had to be tactful, but soon I was able to go out and get him on my own and he soon settled into his new home.
 
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