Nightmare to catch - help/advice please.

[RainbowDash]

Hi,

I've owned my first pony since January. He's at full livery and I haven't needed to catch him until last week. What a nightmare. The guys at the yard bring my boy in last in the morning but last week I had to catch him with a full paddock.

He doesn't respond to his name - hence previous thread about changing his name - he trotted off - if I filmed it it would be one of those 'You've been Framed' episodes - I managed to catch him after rattling a piece of plastic (pretending it was food ).

He's in a field with several other ponies who like a tit-bit so I'm wary of carrying carrots and starting a stampede - is there anything else I can do to encourage him to come to me, and be caught? Or shall I arm myself with carrots and risk several excited little carrot-fans??

 

[claribella]

I would try a 'join up'. The odd times my girl has been awkward to catch, the only thing she has responded to is this. All I do is approach at an angle and as soon as she shows any sign of running off then I send her away so she then thinks it was me who chased her off. I send her off by just swinging a bit of rope and making a clicking noise. At this point make sure you follow and stay parallel to the horse at all times and if the horse shows any sign of giving in (licking and chewing, droppping the head, blinking eyes, blowing) then stop straight away and turn away so your back is to the horse. The horse may approach you at this point but if not then repeat the whole process. Some horses respond to this better than others and some people don't like using this method but in my experience it does work. I would say keep going with it and show no signs of giving up or the horse will have you sussed and know this.