Pony catching problems

[WishfulThinker]

I did what I thought was a good thing, now in retrospect it wasn't too smart...........I took the headcollar off the new youngster.

We cant catch him!! We took my horse out the field, that didnt work - my lad just took his stable door off and came trotting back to the field.

We tried carrots, polos. Ignoring him (works with the big lad - but hes a bit of a dafty).

I don't want to resort to having to coral him with a lunge line etc. But we need to get a headcollar back on him and get him groomed and his feet need done in a week or so.

halp!!

 

[Shay]

Will he come for a feed bucket?

What happens if you feed your lad in the field? Will he come over to find out what the feed is?

When my lad was being rotten to catch one of the other liveries showed me a brilliant trick which worked for us - she sat of the ground in front of him and ate a carrot. And another one until his greed overcame his relaization that he didn't want to be caught. Her theory was that sitting down in front of them is so unusual that the figure you're not there to catch them but you're just having a snack so they come closer. Make sure you get the headcollar on before he gets the carrot though!

If you can't bribe him you'll have to coral him I'm afraid. It will take a long while to do it without scaring him - which will cause no end of problems in the future.

Bad luck! Hindsight is always 20:20!