Difficult to catch

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Rosmerta

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Hello
I have a lovely, sweet gentle-natured Arab x mare - who is sometimes a nightmare to catch!
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Most of the time, she's easy, either coming up to me or allowing me to come up and catch her - easy

But on the odd occasional (yesterday being one of them) she just would be caught - just walked/trotted round me, doing beautiful collected trots!
And it would be the day that the blacksmith was due! He even had a go at trying to catch her!

Went up this am, same story, would come close but not enough to let me get her. Thankfully another person up the farm caught her for me.

But any hints, suggestions would be gratefully received!
 
She doesnt need any more feed....

I'd just wait. Sit on the floor and wait until she calms the hell down and wants to know what you're doing. She probably thinks its all a big game and its great fun when others come to play too!

Tis frustrating though! My OHs big boy does this once in a blue moon. You just have to wait for him to get bored playing!! Also if you're stressed cos you NEED her in, then it compacts in on itself. xxx
 
Flamehead.... can you explain how a carrot is a 'feed'?

It's just a carrot. To encourage her to approach. You don't have to give a carrot every time then, because she'll expect it and start approaching anyway. People have been catching horses with carrots/bunches of grass since time eternal and what if you haven't got time to sit and play games?
 
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A BUCKET of chaff?! Carrot obv not. Although be warned about using food, I've got a nice chunk missing from my hand where the big boy bolted towards me when I was bribing him to come to me - manners appear to disappear when it comes to food!! =]

If your horse is food orientated, then I'd recommend maybe putting some balancer in a bucket, only 3 or 4 sound like LOADS when shaken and can tempt them to you! xxx
 
flamehead said:
A BUCKET of chaff?!
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Sorry Rosmerta, I hope you understand I didn't mean a FULL bucket of chaff, it was merely a suggestion to put a little bit of something in a bucket.

And flamehead - stop attacking me.
 
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Do you always ride when you bring her in? if she associates getting caught with hard work then that could be where your problem lies, a carrot always works for me and bringing in to get a nice groom, fed etc not always worked. :)
 
When i worked at a riding school here was aways one who wouldnt catch, so i would just sit down or lie down in the field and generally out of sheer nosiness the horse would come over, i'd give it a treat and hey presto i caught it. i know how frustrating it is though. Make sure to sometimes just catch her, walk her up to the gate give her a treat and then let her go so that she doesnt assosiate being caught with work or whatever. best of luck x
 
Thanks for those
Actually I do:
1. always give her a carrot or treat for being caught (she's always very gentle, never snatching the food)
2. don't always work her, for often than not its to give a small feed, put fly stuff on, generally look after her, then turn her out.
3. I've done the sitting in the field thing - and the other 2 horses that share her field come up to me!

We did try a bucket of food - but the other horses were more interested than mine!
Its VERY frustrating! :rolleyes:
 
Rosmerta said:
Thanks for those
Actually I do:
1. always give her a carrot or treat for being caught (she's always very gentle, never snatching the food)
2. don't always work her, for often than not its to give a small feed, put fly stuff on, generally look after her, then turn her out.
3. I've done the sitting in the field thing - and the other 2 horses that share her field come up to me!

We did try a bucket of food - but the other horses were more interested than mine!
Its VERY frustrating! :rolleyes:
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Yes, she sounds extra shy - I hope you find something which will work for you both, my experience kinda stops at a carrot :rolleyes:

Do you lunge her much? I only ask because 'join-up' really helped with a shy guy at the farm. Now follows me around around like a dog.
 
Mine is difficult to catch

A) I never take her headcollar off - if I am not around, a leather one stays on in the stable too, as farrier etc can't catch her in the stable.

B) Food is useless with mine

C) I 'walk' her down, usally aiming to get her in a corner, where we end up having a bit of a rugby style dodging session

D) then I hope she gives in and I can catch her.

If A-D fail, I have some electric fencing, that I start using to construct a pen around her, gradually making it smaller and smaller until she gives in.

As shes been like this for 10 years, shes unlikely to change now!
 
Why dont you forget working against her nature, and start working with it?

When she refuses to allow you to ctach her, take the lead rope, holding it at the buckle end gently swish it towards her, (if this doesnt work, raise yours arms and do the YMCA actions - that works every time - singing is optional!) and drive her to the outskirts of the field - here you are mimicking the herd leader driving a naughty horse away from body of the herd. (Tip- keep your attention on her - look directly at her, forget the other horses. Your body language will tell them, they are not the target of your attention and so will not react to your strange behaviour!)

Keep her on the outskirts, then turn your back and stand near the other horses - ignoring her, dont even try to look at her. she will gradualy try to come back into the herd. Keep driving her way untill her head lowers and she keeps her ears towards you. Then let her come back to the herd, at this point she may or may not come up to you, if not drive her way again.

Eventualy she will come up to you, then you walk away - if she follows, praise her cos now you are the leader and she will follow you.

You will find she will respect you more, and your relationship will blossom, you may only need to do this two or three times till she gets the message - BTW when you have got her, give her a treat and let her go. Go away for half hour and repeat (if required, she may have got message straight away)

You will find you never have to enter her field again - she will immediatly come when called. If she ever slips up - just give her a quick reminder.
 
lizstuguinness said:
Eventualy she will come up to you, then you walk away - if she follows, praise her cos now you are the leader and she will follow you.
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I've tried a version of this over a few days - and she just doesn't do the 'come up to you' bit - she snatches a few blades of grass, or stands and dozes!
This all seems to be getting worse - I could do with some one telling me what to do from the side lines!

And the annoying thing today, after I spend 2 hours 'with' her today - she let someone else pet her this evening! I am asking that same person to catch her tomorrow for me, if she can.

But how should I treat her once she has been caught?
 
Never tell her off once you've caught her. Be nice to her even if she's been terrible and given you the run around for hours! :rolleyes:

Get a leather or fieldsafe headcollar to turn her out in. I agree with the sit down in the field advice, it's always worked for me. I have also done sessions of just putting on headcollar, leading around field, give polo, let horse loose again. Another trick is to make a huge fuss of another horse, if she's the jealous type she'll come over! :D
 
Thanks for all you advise
Will give things a go and let you know how it gets on
I think there is an issue with her being the dominant mare in the field and not wishing to give into me..
but other than this vice - she's a joy to own, sweet and gentle in and around the stable and fun and forward to ride!
 
My welshie is exactly the same - i havent been able to catch her for weeks now :( i cant leave her head collar on as it rubs her face :( shes fine in the winter its just with the grass in the summer! little buggER!
 
My Connie does this occasionally.

Usually he's an absolute star and is easily caught or comes up and waits for me to bring him in.

Occasionally he just takes one look and me and says 'sod off!'. Sometimes when he's not been out for as long as he thinks he should have been and sometimes for no apparent reason.

No point in chasing him - it's a waste of time and frustrating for both of us. I usually just ignore him and give the other ponies in the field a handful of grass or something and then he gets cross cos he's being ignored and comes over to see what's going on!!
 
This is obviously not a good idea when the ground is hard, and you need to be careful not to upset the other horses in the field.

My horse is very dominant. He used to be difficult to catch in summer when the horses at our yard live out in a HUGE field as a herd. Whenever I went to catch him he would surround himself with other horses, and get them all milling around him. He would even chase the others towards me, so there were always others between me and him.

He was getting dangerous and aggressive - though he never went as far as threatening me he started lashing out with his feet at others who tried to catch him - hence the slightly drastic measures!

I would separate him from the others and keep him trotting and cantering around the field (not mad galloping but moving) continually until he dropped his head and 'asked' to come to me. Like with your horse, sending him away from the herd wasn't enough. He would graze at the other side of the field, confident that his herd would come to him! So I would keep him trotting, swinging the end of a leadrope in a circle, looking straight at him etc - not being aggressive or trying to hit him but being very assertive. He was not allowed to stop to graze, or to return to the other horses.

This was tiring and time consuming - the first time took about 40 minutes of me jogging around the field! But after that he didn't put up more than a token couple of minutes resistance, and after three or so days of this he was fine to catch for the rest of the summer.

I did have to do it once more at the start of summer turn out the next year, but he has been more or less fine ever since.
 
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