catching

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tina579

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Hi, does anyone have any tips for catching a horse who doesnt want to be caught? he is out in a head collar. Normally he is fine and likes coming in but with the grass and weather he has decided he prefers it outside.
Thankyou.
 
Ideally you need a fairly small field to do this otherwise you will be doing a lot of walking!

Have some edible bribery with you. Walk up to the horse and if possible get his interest in the food. If he walks away keep following him. If he shows interest in the food let him sniff it and then turn your back and walk away from him. If he follows you see if he will let you catch him, then give food. If he won't, go back to following him round the field again.

The basic idea is to p**s the horse off by following him around so he can't stop and graze! It then becomes preferable to be caught rather than walk endlessly around the field. Keep him on the move until he gives in, and keep trying the 'reverse psychology' with the food and get him to follow you.

When you do get close, don't make the really easy mistake of making a grab for the headcollar! Better to chuck a bucket of feed on the floor and slip a rope around the neck if you can.

This usually works well but does require time and patience and preferably a small field. In a larger field you could always try it with a friend or 2 to try and keep horse in a corner to reduce the area you have to cover - this worked for us the other night with a reprobate mare!

Hopefully after a couple of times ponio will decide it is easier to give up and be caught rather than be irritatingly followed around first!
 
Thankyou. I shall give that a try tonight, although, since its raining and he's a big wuss, he may well decide it is better to come in, fingers crossed!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Ideally you need a fairly small field to do this otherwise you will be doing a lot of walking!

Have some edible bribery with you. Walk up to the horse and if possible get his interest in the food. If he walks away keep following him. If he shows interest in the food let him sniff it and then turn your back and walk away from him. If he follows you see if he will let you catch him, then give food. If he won't, go back to following him round the field again.

The basic idea is to p**s the horse off by following him around so he can't stop and graze! It then becomes preferable to be caught rather than walk endlessly around the field. Keep him on the move until he gives in, and keep trying the 'reverse psychology' with the food and get him to follow you.

When you do get close, don't make the really easy mistake of making a grab for the headcollar! Better to chuck a bucket of feed on the floor and slip a rope around the neck if you can.

This usually works well but does require time and patience and preferably a small field. In a larger field you could always try it with a friend or 2 to try and keep horse in a corner to reduce the area you have to cover - this worked for us the other night with a reprobate mare!

Hopefully after a couple of times ponio will decide it is easier to give up and be caught rather than be irritatingly followed around first!

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much the way I do it! Henry doesn't even bother walking off now!

Just make sure you don't make a grab for him. Just take your time, and dont go in there thinking 'oh i have a lesson in twenty minutes! hurry up!' just going in there as if you have hours and hours to do it! good luck
smile.gif
 
That approach has worked brilliantly for every horse I have had apart from the current one. He got so pissed off with me keeping him walking that he just jumped the gate into the bigger field!

It used to take me 2 hrs to catch him if it wasn't 'tea' time, and if I rode him at tea time, I wouldn't be able to catch him then either for days! Teach me to buy an unhandled 18 month old colt! However the last 2 or 3 years (touch wood) he has been better.

Some other 'tactics' that have helped me over the years include:

1) Catch every other horse in the field and remove it. If possible groom\feed make a fuss of other horse in sight of the one you can't catch. Jealousy worked well with mine as he likes to be the centre of attention.

2) Food - Unless he is having a really subbon day, the promise of food has always helped with the current horse. We went through a stage of him insisting on having a mouthful before I was allowed to touch him (he liked to check the bucket was not empty, he's not stupid).

3) If in doubt leave em out (preferably when the weather is bad!). We left my previous neddy, a full TB out for one night, in Feb, in the snow when he wouldn't come in. Strangely enough we never had any trouble after that!
 
Thankyou so much. It hasnt ever taken me longer than 20 min to catch him but I dont want him to get any worse! I will try these ideas next time.
Thankyou
 
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