Catching a horse

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cassiejames600

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OK, so i ride this little mare she is just under 14hh so she isnt big at all but she is 22 years of age!!
I go into her feild and she automaticly pins her ears back and turns her bum to you, some days she may lift up her leg at you and today she decided to charge at me! its drop my confidence with catching her, i see my problem is that she sees me with meaning she is going to be worked :/
but are there any tricks i can do to make catching in easier, safer and quicker as it took me an hour today!
 
do you always just go to ride her???????????? i like to vary my horses routine - sometimes ill go in his field witha carrot and brush - groom him there, sometimes i lead him to his stable to have a good groom - sometimes i just go in his field to talk to him lol, i often take a book on nice days and sit under a tree reading - when he wonders over he gets a good old scratch x
 
I really feel for you - my first pony was like this. I remember on several occasions sitting at the bottom of his field crying my eyes out because I just could not catch him.

What I did (and it did take time, so be prepared!) was to go to the field (always with a handful of feed/polos/carrots) and just wait for him to come over to me.

Stand with a very subdued body language (i.e. look at the floor, round your shoulders, generally try not to look threatening and DON'T look her in the eye!). when she eventually does, just stroke her a bit. don't have a headcollar even with you. then walk away from her.

Next time, progress to putting the headcollar on and then taking it off and walking away. The time after this, bring her in but don't ride her, just groom her & pop her back out.

I don't mean that you shouldn't ride her till you've completed all the above, so you should continue to do so, but you want to get her thinking that she doesn't know what you might do with her when you catch her - it might be a lovely groom & no work, or just a feed, or a face rub or a ride.

The ideal would be to bring her in once or twice a day with a different one of the above.

You should always walk towards her in a loop (i.e. never directly at her) and don't wave the headcollar or anything, just keep it over your shoulder.

I hope that makes sense? Best of luck!!
 
she knows its knocking your confidence! dont rely know what to suggest, im firm with mine so use methods that other people prob wont like. im not soft in other words. my new mare turned her arse on me the other day so she had the headcollar wrapped round her bum, funnily enough she hasnt done it again but she knows i wont take it!
 
Yes as she isnt mine and i dont really loan her i only go up to work her for the owner, but then again she can be like it with everyone i think its because i ride her as my friend has done her all week apart from tonight and my friend said she didnt leave a headcollar on because she is first to the gate? so i dont no really lol,

Thank you Maletto thats real good advise and i think sitting under a tree reading a book is really nice, i may try that :)

I am going to try go up more often and not work her as im off college now for 10 weeks!!, this week coming i need to work on her as she has got dressage on the 4th, but i will give her every other day off i think and maybe just groom her by the field or take her down and give her a real good groom

Thankyou guys! :)
 
I used to have a horse like that too. I would get a few carrots and cut them up. Then I would go to him in the field with the head collar. I gave him some carrots and then put his head collar on still giving him bits of carrot. Then I bribed him all the way to the gate!

It worked for a while, until he realised I was bribing him.... So I still gave him bits of carrot etc, but instead of walking to the gate I would run alongside him.. that seemed to distract his mind. After a month he would come out no bother! :D
 
miss_buffay said:
she knows its knocking your confidence! dont rely know what to suggest, im firm with mine so use methods that other people prob wont like. im not soft in other words. my new mare turned her arse on me the other day so she had the headcollar wrapped round her bum, funnily enough she hasnt done it again but she knows i wont take it!
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That made me laugh!
Our first horse (a looooong time ago) did something similar the first time I tried to catch him. We'd had him about a week and had left him to settle in his field, not doing much except feeding him. Then I went to catch him with a rope halter, in the middle of the day, he was grazing. He turned his bum on me and bunny hopped. I jumped back and by chance caught him a good one with the rope halter. He immediately stopped stood still and allowed himself to be caught. That taught me a valuable lesson and I have recently treated a new pony in exactly the same way for exactly the same thing! I certainly don't put up with bad manners these days.
We make sure we catch our horses for a variety of purposes at different times of the day and do give titbits as a reward. If necessary, I take a bag which will rustle and make sure that the horse can hear it and associate it with the treat.
 
Now see if i decided to swing the headcollar or leadrope round her bum she fully kicks out inchs away from your face, even just swishing a leadrope towards her she does it :/
 
i do give them treats when they've be caught but my new mare has caught onto that and wont be caught without them so iv waited till shes at the yard to give them to her. gota be fairly quick of the mark if your gone give them a telling off or youl get a prety hoof shape inbedded in you somewhere :D may i suggest wearing a hat if your gona give it a go! :S
 
cassiejames600 said:
Now see if i decided to swing the headcollar or leadrope round her bum she fully kicks out inchs away from your face, even just swishing a leadrope towards her she does it :/
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That's because she knows you don't mean it. She is reacting to the threat, like she would if another horse threatened her. If you actually smack her with the rope she is more likely to jump forwards.
This horse needs to respect you. Once you have caught her, insist that she does exactly what you tell her to do. Move her around until she reacts instantly to your commands, she is taking the p* atm.
 
There's some dangerous advice on this thread. If you are close enough to smack a horse on the bum with the headcollar, you are close enough to get kicked in the head. It's OK for people who (think they) know their horses to say they did this and it worked, but they haven't seen you and your little mare together.
What is wrong with just working on changing her expectations of being caught? As mentioned above, go in the field and treat her, then leave. Go in and scratch her then leave. Put a rope on her then leave. Etc etc... It works 100% of the time with 100% of the horses that I've dealt with, which includes quite a few difficult to catch.
 
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