catching an uncatchable horse...

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wench

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to put it shortly....

horse out in huge field, and doesnt like to be caught. Turned out with about ten others, but not practical to catch them all (stables a fair distance from field). No chance of fencing a small bit of it off, and I am generally on my own. Horse isnt always caught for riding. Generally a greedy horse, but when doesnt want to be caught wont come near you if you have food. Has been known to run around the field for three hours to avoid being caught.

Any ideas?
 
How close can you get? A new trick I've discovered with my pony is to appraoch the back end (safe I know
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) and pick up a back leg then hold it with one hand while reaching for the front leg with the other hand, drop back leg and pick front leg up and put rope round neck while holding front leg.

Another thing I used to do when she was very bad was make a loop in the lunge whip and drape it over her head coz once she was caught she didn't move or try to get away.
 
depends sometimes you cant get anywhere near sometimes you can get a bit closer. generally runs off as soon as you try and touch him
 
Love it!!!!
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I can see my horse's face if I go out and pick his feet up. How on earth did you figger that one out????
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With regards to the post can you make him think you have something he wants. i.e. can you go up to the nearest horse to him and make a big fuss of him, then to 'pain in the backside' might come to you. Has worked for me in the past.
If not shoot him
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same as jpq but another thing i try is walking backwards or crouched down. Just makes it confusing for him.
 
Corralling with electric rope with our pony - nightmare to catch and can't catch with food - very suspicious. Taking all the other horses out also helps and he stands by the gate. With our older horse chase him around the field and he gets that fed up he stands to be caught - although not good in a large field as you get more excercise than him.
 
When I had problems catching my mare I would send her away (partly cos she is evil and tried to kill me
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) And whenever she stopped to eat grass she got told to trot on again, she soon got bored of trotting round and when she stood and let me approach I put the leadrope around her neck and she got lots of fuss and carrots. She will now be fine to catch 99.9% of the time but I just make sure to give her a carrot.
 
We were told once to sit on the floor (we had a naughty pony who was a [****] to be caught), you'd have a bucket of feed or a nice rustly 'interesting' bag of something. They eventually wonder what on earth you're doing and come to investigate - the trick though is managing to get the rope round the neck! Problem you have there though is if you get mobbed by all horses but you're own, especially if there's 10 of them!

Are you able to leave a headcollar on him, we used to leave one with a short rope hanging from it to catch one particular pony.
 
Ha... love the carrot idea!!

One tactic I have used is walking towards the horse sort of sideways, i.e. non confrontational body language, keep walking if the horse stays still, but as soon as it moves, turn away and stand still - when the horse stands again, move closer again, and repeat, you should garadually get closer and closer and when you are really close, instead of going to grab the horse, slightly turn away and play with a lead rope or sweet wrapper or something - curiosity normally gets the better of them - and then put the rope / headcollar on and give a treat when they approach you. I know a horse that could only be caught if you walked nearly up to him, then let him walk the last couple of steps to you - if you walked staright up to put the headcollar on, he would P off!!

Perhaps practice a few times in a smaller space when you have lots of time, wait for him to approach, put headcollar on, treat, take headcollar off again and walk off and start again - so he gets to know that if he comes to you he gets a treat.

Or the opposite approach - (as mentioed above) depending how fit you are - try chasing him if he moves away when you approach - I horse I used to ride would just keep a couple of paces away all the time if you tried to sneak up slowly, but would stop and let you catch her after a few yards if you sprinted after her when she turned to walk off!! (Most horses will run away even faster though!!! I think only worked with her cos she was so lazy!!)

I know how frustrating it can be, so good luck!!!

My current horse is the opposite - he just will not leave me alone in the field, which can also be rather annoying if I am trying to fix a fence or poo pick cos he "helps" with everything!!!

Blimey... I've written half a book.... better stop waffling now...
 
My horse started being a bit funny to catch last year, so try to leave headcollar on as often as possible, if the food bucket doesnt work and if still being a pain, I take the barrow in to the field she is in and pretend i am poo picking and I hide her rope in my pocket, then she follows me around and when she is close enough i just catch her, if that doesnt work, then i coral her with electric fencing., or fetch her field mate in and she always follows, then when i have her I let the field mate go again, Most of the time I have to con her into being caught, but sometimes she is just fine and comes over to me, really depends what mood she is in. Good Luck
 
Send them away hard. It might take three hours the first time but it probably won't take that long the next night and it will gradually get better. You need to make it more work to run away than to be caught. Don't just let them amble off at a trot and then eat more grass, make them really canter, gallop if necessary to show them that you mean business
 
If mine is ever feeling like he wants to play around I just scoot him away. I've done some natural horsemanship stuff in the past, so use a long lead rope and just give that a bit of a twirl in the style of a lunge whip to get him moving. It usually takes less than one circuit of the field before he heads for the gate and then he's like a lamb.

They're all different though, so just go through your options, you'll find one that works eventually. Before I figured him out he spent MANY nights out in the cold!!

Good luck
 
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