Nervous 2 year old

[Welshielove]

Motivation needed! I bought a 2 year old welsh D filly just over 2 weeks ago from a dealer. Told she was relatively handled, will lead and box. He was honest about catching her and said he used a catch pen.

Day 1 she wouldn’t eat her dinner with me standing near me, then by day 13 follows me every step of the way round the field and would let me hold her head collar and fuss her neck when eating out of a bucket.

I really wanted to take it slowly with her and let it be her decision to come to me.

Yesterday her headcollar broke and came off Now she wont let me touch her and it’s like we are back to square one.

My question is, does anyone have any have any success at getting a head collar on without cornering them? It would be possible but i would still rather take the softly softly approach.

Am i asking for too much of her after a short amount of time and should i just carry on what i’m doing and hope to win her round?

I have done this before but with a gelding who thinks with his stomach. Mares are definitely a different kettle of fish

She really is sweet and haven’t even seen her ears go back once at me or her field companion.

 

[AWinter]

Yes you can teach her to put her nose in the headcollar herself with clicker training, if you DM me I can explain what this process looks like with a feral one. Have done lots it just takes time and patience. She’s probably had a fright and you don’t want to scare her further.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Do just as you ve been doing, quietly and gently and slowly and use tasty treat food in a bucket and aim for rope round neck first then soft easy headcollar over the nose. I’ve watched friends catch uncatchable youngsters for other people as they remain calm and unemotional whilst doing it.

 

[blitznbobs]

Sometimes throwing a bit of stress in is a good thing as long as it’s not painful… as in omg I’m terrified… actually I did the scary thing and nothing bad happened… this is the concept of desensitisation… so don’t worry too much about leaving life totally stress free. It’s not good for horses or humans for that matter

 

[Marigold4]

How did a youngster get to 2 years old without learning to trust someone catching her??? Is she still feral or has she been badly treated? I think you need to catch her, even if that means a catch pen, and get her in a stable, then work intensively on creating trust with whichever "taming" method works for her. "No fear, no force" is a good book for learning the basics, but there are lots of other methods to research. Leaving her in the field and going softly softly will take forever. You need to be able to catch this youngster and do things with her.

 

[Jenko109]

Another that thinks you need to get this pony in a stable.

You will get results in a matter of days, rather than the weeks/months it would take to get them in the field.

 

[Welshielove]

How did a youngster get to 2 years old without learning to trust someone catching her??? Is she still feral or has she been badly treated? I think you need to catch her, even if that means a catch pen, and get her in a stable, then work intensively on creating trust with whichever "taming" method works for her. "No fear, no force" is a good book for learning the basics, but there are lots of other methods to research. Leaving her in the field and going softly softly will take forever. You need to be able to catch this youngster and do things with her.

I dont think she has necessarily been mistreated. I think shes just been left in her breeders field for a couple of years with minimal handling, then sold on to a dealer whos only got her out to move fields and bath her, take her to the sales (she didnt sell). So she hasnt had many positive bonding experiences. I led her off the box, had a look at her and fussed her perfectly fine when she arrived.

 

[Ahrena]

I agree with the stable.
I bought a feral weanling and was foolish enough to think I could tame him in a field. Three months later with no progress I had to send him away. He was virtually unhandled and any handling he had had was pretty rough and ready so he was terrified.

Two years on and he’s a fab, cuddly boy.

 

[CJoe]

Motivation needed! I bought a 2 year old welsh D filly just over 2 weeks ago from a dealer. Told she was relatively handled, will lead and box. He was honest about catching her and said he used a catch pen.

Day 1 she wouldn’t eat her dinner with me standing near me, then by day 13 follows me every step of the way round the field and would let me hold her head collar and fuss her neck when eating out of a bucket.

I really wanted to take it slowly with her and let it be her decision to come to me.

Yesterday her headcollar broke and came off Now she wont let me touch her and it’s like we are back to square one.

My question is, does anyone have any have any success at getting a head collar on without cornering them? It would be possible but i would still rather take the softly softly approach.

Am i asking for too much of her after a short amount of time and should i just carry on what i’m doing and hope to win her round?

I have done this before but with a gelding who thinks with his stomach. Mares are definitely a different kettle of fish

She really is sweet and haven’t even seen her ears go back once at me or her field companion.

You are not alone and i have had mine a lot longer!! Every time he chills and is fine to headcollar daily for a feed.....once we change fields, he reverts to scared mode again, its so frustrating!!!

 

[CJoe]

How did a youngster get to 2 years old without learning to trust someone catching her??? Is she still feral or has she been badly treated? I think you need to catch her, even if that means a catch pen, and get her in a stable, then work intensively on creating trust with whichever "taming" method works for her. "No fear, no force" is a good book for learning the basics, but there are lots of other methods to research. Leaving her in the field and going softly softly will take forever. You need to be able to catch this youngster and do things with her.

You are not alone and i have had mine a lot longer!! Every time he chills and is fine to headcollar daily for a feed.....once we change fields, he reverts to scared mode again, its so frustrating!!!

actually, edit...not scared, just being a baby!

 

[stormox]

I think you need to keep her in a stable for a while, get a headcollar on her and get her used to being handled and feet picked out.

 

[maya2008]

You can absolutely tame them in a field - even a large one. It takes time, not just time as in weeks, but time on each day.

What we do:
- Clicker train to create a positive association with humans and the equipment we want to use. Walk down if needed for the original touch, then click and treat. Once you can approach them more easily, touch all over with your hand (head, neck, withers, top of body) then progress to rolled up lead rope and headcollar, gradually unrolling day by day until it’s loose and flappy and you can rub it all over them then up to the head and start putting nose in. You have two options then and it honestly depends on the horse. Mine are always adults and I need to back imminently, so I go for nose in, slip over the top of the ears as with a bridle. Big carrot piece through noseband, day by day they reach in further then slip on, reward, remove, repeat. Progress to doing with rope attached. I had one who wouldn’t play that game and we used a rope headcollar for her - part laid over her neck, nose in, done up. You will find at some point that the lure of the carrots isn’t enough and you have to walk them down again. That’s just part of life, never start this without enough time to walk them down if you have to. Get what you wanted, praise, walk away. They learn there’s no point pushing it because then they have to do a load of work (walking away from you), miss out on treats all that time and have to do whatever it was in the end anyway! Our trickiest one still gives up on arguing about anything the moment I take over - I walked her down for 2.5 hours in her initial training and it was definitely our turning point. She learned I won’t give up, but equally that I didn’t ever want to do anything bad!

Some then run once they realise the rope is attached, despite all the desensitising in the world. I let them go - then walk them down, click and reward once I have the lead rope in my hand - if they run off again before the headcollar is off, just walk down again and again until you can take it off. Repeat over days and what they learn is that if they stand still, it comes off quickly and that when you are trying to catch them, it’s to take it off and help them. Mine learn essentially to ground tie by doing this. If startled and the rope hits the floor/reins later in life if the rider comes off, they stop dead and look for me, for the help and the treat they have been conditioned to expect.

I then take mine for walks round the field, round neighbouring fields and anywhere new and enclosed. If they spook and run and I can’t hold them, I don’t try. Rope hits the ground, they stop, come back to me for the treat. Soon they stop before the end of the rope and eventually just spook in place. Then we can introduce a bridle and go for walks off the property.