Field safe anti rear headcollar?

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fredflop

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And before anyone comes out with anything nasty don't bother.

Pony is a bit of a pest to catch, and has to wear a headcollar on in the field. Has also learnt that if she yanks and rears away from you when you get hold of her, that you end up having to let go.

I'm not interested in people giving me regimes on how to catch my horse, or any other unhelpful suggestions, I am specially trying to find a head collar that can help me with this particular problem.

She is trained with a pressure haltor.
 
Um, try not to be defensive when asking for advice! Leather headcollar, attach a lunge line straight away and she can bog off but not get away.
 
a leather head collar a bit of rope and a handful of treats with a line in your pocket but wear gloves I am not normally a fan of treats but this sounds like a job for clicker training. I have an unhandled welshie and find that that the best way to catch her is to spend time doing nothing and she comes over for a scratch and cuddle in the process of a cuddle you can put your arms round her neck. Eventually the cuddle is the less restrictive method and you can slip a rope round her neck and fit her head collar. Does of course depend on how big the pony is
 
If she understands a pressure halter, why not use that for leading? I always use a traditional rope halter and have never had one get away from me in almost 50 yrs - youngstock, idiots, bolshy, they have all respected a halter.
 
Any kind of pressure halter is going to be either ineffective (for the anti pull-back (which I think is what OP means by rear?)) or down right dangerous if left on.

Seriously - an easily snapped off head-collar can cause enough damage before the horse frees itself. A pressure device, with rope attached could easily be lethal. On the plus side that would save OP from any difficulties catching!
 
GirlFriday said:
Any kind of pressure halter is going to be either ineffective (for the anti pull-back (which I think is what OP means by rear?)) or down right dangerous if left on.

Seriously - an easily snapped off head-collar can cause enough damage before the horse frees itself. A pressure device, with rope attached could easily be lethal. On the plus side that would save OP from any difficulties catching!
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I was not suggesting that the pressure halter is left on! How ridiculous! Apart from anything else, any self-respecting pony would be able to take a traditional halter off within 2 minutes.


OP, Is there any reason why a halter can't be put on to lead the horse from the field?
 
Is not the leading that's the problem, it's the catching. As soon as you get hold of the head collar, the horse has learnt that by rearing up you have to let go. I'd rather my horse unlearn than the behaviour. My situation at the minute means I don't have days on end to spend at the yard trying to deal with an uncatchable horse at the minute, so I was wondering if there is anything that may help me out in the short term?
 
What a rude post. They don't exist - how can something which is field safe also prevent a rear, use your brain. Since you don't want "helpful advice" there's not really anywhere to go with this.
 
fredflop said:
Is not the leading that's the problem, it's the catching. As soon as you get hold of the head collar, the horse has learnt that by rearing up you have to let go. I'd rather my horse unlearn than the behaviour. My situation at the minute means I don't have days on end to spend at the yard trying to deal with an uncatchable horse at the minute, so I was wondering if there is anything that may help me out in the short term?
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Then use a traditional halter, it is much softer than a headcollar and the pressure is distributed differently. We have a horse who was sold to us a 'difficult to catch'. We have never had a problem, even though she is left out without a headcollar. The headcollar is silent as it is put on and the doesn't pull directly down on the poll, as the rope is at the side.
 
fredflop said:
Is not the leading that's the problem, it's the catching. As soon as you get hold of the head collar, the horse has learnt that by rearing up you have to let go. I'd rather my horse unlearn than the behaviour. My situation at the minute means I don't have days on end to spend at the yard trying to deal with an uncatchable horse at the minute, so I was wondering if there is anything that may help me out in the short term?
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unless you can commit 'however long it takes' to catching this pony the situation may well escalate. i wouldn't attempt to catch him unless you have time to commit to sorting it.
 
Sparemare said:
unless you can commit 'however long it takes' to catching this pony the situation may well escalate. i wouldn't attempt to catch him unless you have time to commit to sorting it.
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I agree with this. Sounds like your horse could do with learning some ground manners through groundwork. There are no overnight fixes to ingrained learned behaviours.

I've had one that was impossible to catch and would threaten to kick so I herded her in to a small corral where I could safely lean over the fence and clip a rope on. I then spent a lot of time working with her on the ground. She is fine now but we still have to do the odd groundwork session to remind her how much easier life is when she works with me.
 
In fairness to OP there are probably matters around this which we don't know. I had a mare for a short time who was a rescue. She had to be turned out as she was go berserk in a stable but was pretty feral and would not be caught. We did end up turning her out in a field safe head collar but caught her using the trick southern comfort has above - moving her calmly into an enclosed space. You have to her very quietly - not chase her about with a whip!

But catching issues like this have to be sorted and sorted quickly. Simply making it impossible or too difficult to rear will lead to her expressing her dissatisfaction in another way - most likely by actually attacking you. If she can't get away backwards she may well try to get away by going through you and you will get hurt.

No headcollar - with or without rope - will be safe to turn out and and still enable you to catch if she pulls back. The whole point of a field safe headcollar is that it breaks when the horse pulls back! I know you don;t want any suggestions on how to move forward otherwise OP so please just be careful that the behaviour doesn't become more unsafe. Always wear a hat, gloves and suitable boots to catch!
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I was not suggesting that the pressure halter is left on! How ridiculous! Apart from anything else, any self-respecting pony would be able to take a traditional halter off within 2 minutes.
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I wasn't replying to you Pearlsasinger but to the OP, who was specifically looking for something to leave on in the field. I hadn't refreshed the page so actually hadn't seen your post before writing mine - hence the confusion!
 
Could you not catch it with a long rope rather than a short one? In that way if it reared you wouldnt have to let go, just wait till it came down again and walk on.
 
You could leave a long heavy rope on it in the field - they're not very easy to find in the UK so you might have to improvise with some heavy rope from a yacht chandler and get them to put a clip on it or something to tie it to the headcollar. Or some of the western suppliers sell Weaver ropes which are the right weight. The idea of a heavy rope is that they don't tangle round the legs as a cotton or nylon would. If the horse stands on it they get a bit of a jerk and soon learn either not to stand on it or to get off it without panicking. A decent field safe headcollar should withstand the jerk. A trainer I know does this with weanlings - they are easy to catch in their stables and soon learn not to be afraid of being caught. When you go to catch her, wear gloves, get hold of the rope quietly and expect her to behave - if she goes up, don't let go!
 
You need to go back to the beginning with catching training. How many times has the pony been yanked on to stop him rearing? At the moment a headcollar probably means poll pressure/pain and hence the reaction to avoid it.

Start by catching with a rope around the neck. Treat and release. Each time you catch stand by the pony a little longer before treat and release. You can lead by the rope around the neck as well before you even start to bring the head collar back into the equation.

But it takes time and patience.
 
stormox said:
Could you not catch it with a long rope rather than a short one? In that way if it reared you wouldnt have to let go, just wait till it came down again and walk on.
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yeah we get rescues in and some can be a bit feral at times. This is the method we use. Backprotector, hat and long lunge rope. If they rear we just keep walking backwards with them or drive them round in a circle if they try to speed off. The idea is that they realise eventually that the rearing is having no effect, and as soon as they stop and stand they are rewarded and pressure is released. But before catching we would spend a week just walking up and feeding and walking away, gradually just getting them used to us and motion around them and their face. There is no quick fix for horses like this, but a week of no pressure contact makes it a lot easier when it comes to catching them.

=
 
fredflop said:
Is not the leading that's the problem, it's the catching. As soon as you get hold of the head collar, the horse has learnt that by rearing up you have to let go. I'd rather my horse unlearn than the behaviour. My situation at the minute means I don't have days on end to spend at the yard trying to deal with an uncatchable horse at the minute, so I was wondering if there is anything that may help me out in the short term?
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Leave it in until you do have the time to spend or put it in a small space where rearing does not get it anywhere or take some food in a bowl and clip on a lunge line while it is eating.
 
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