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JellyBeanSkittle

JellyBeanSkittle

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If you discovered someone had chased your horse around a field, for an hour, because it would not be caught.. what would be your response?

...

This is 'hypothetical' obviously...
 
If one of mine refused to be caught reasonably, yes, I would keep them moving round the field. Not chasing per say, but a flick of the rope towards them, or using my body language so that they can't stop and graze or interact with the other horses. After 5 or so minutes, if they haven't already deigned to be caught I'll back off, give them a chance to come to me, and in the past they have decided 'fine, I'll do as you say now :mad:'. If the don't decide to be caught, I'll drive on for another 5 minutes.

Thankfully, every horse we have at the moment is good to catch, although it could be good exercise for both of us!

What else would you do if you couldn't catch a horse? Leave it? give it food?
 
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Chased as in flapping arms and shouting or chased as in attempting to catch them?

That's gotta be a superfit person to run around a field for an hour after a horse, even football players only manage 45 mins lol. Sounds like a tall story to me. I would get bored after 5 mins!
 
It works if you do it sensibly.

They run away, you tell them to keep moving. It doesn't take long for them to get fed up and they come to you.

Did the same with my mare this evening. She ripped the headcollar (nice finger burn) out of my hand as I was putting it on, and went on a paddy.
After the galloping up and down with her tail in the air she decided that it was time to stop and play the "I'll let you get near then ****** off again" game.

Sorry sweetheart, that's not happening. Instead we had a good "lunging" session at trot and walk with no headcollar and no lunge rope.

Horses sometimes can be really stupid. I have no idea why she settles down and trots and walks in a circle round you when you have no control whatsoever, it's very odd.:confused:
 
As no- one else does my horses but me I would not be amused, but if it was me then yes I would, and do. Read todays thread on uncatchable pony.

If I paid somone to bring her in then, again, whatever it takes, although I would prefer them to contact me in that situation to discuss contingency plans.
 
This happened to me once...
Had just got back from my honeymoon and a new person from the yard rang and asked me how I normally caught my pony, I was a bit puzzled but answered that i normally just walked up to him and put his headcollar on, then she said well i've been trying to catch him for nearly an hour and can't get him, she apparently needed to get mine in so she could catch hers.
I went down found one very sweaty pony, demonstrated that he was infact very catchable, but he is also nervous of people he doesn't know plus he didn't like her for some reason as well. apparently her and her daughter had been trying to corner him which just made him even more nervous. Told them they were not to go near my pony again... not that they could get near him anyway.

They had bought a wild pony, just turned it out with my pony and his field mate and then couldn't catch it, then when then they finally caught it they would just do the same thing the next day.... the only time it came near was to inspect if you had food... if you didn't it would try and kick food out of you.
She then asked that seen as she couldn't catch my pony so hers would follow it in, would I get mine in by 4pm every day so she could catch hers before going to work her night shift. Errr no, aside from the fact I also have to work why should my pony have to come in early. Eventually she did what was suggested in the first place and fenced off a bit for hers to go in on his own till he was more catchable.
 
Sometimes.......my husband gets the horses in and sometimes.......they play him up. He has not been averse to arming himself with a lunge whip and 'exercising' them (usually only the one) round the field until they submit, might take half an hour.....well, he needs the exercise too and I reckon they know that!
 
How could anyone expect the horse to come in if its being chased with a whip? Surely that would make the horse want to keep a safe distance?

Normally if I horse won't be caught as above, keep them moving and they soon get bored at not being able to eat or interact and soon come in.
 
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On the very rare occaision my pony decided she didn't want to be caught, I would employ the "chase round the field" tactic.

Can only think it provided my neighbours with a lot of entertainment!
 
nope wouldnt bother me. Ive chased mines when hes being a sod. When I went to try him we had to chase him for over an hour before he would be caught (hes gotten better over the years ;) ) some days I can catch and bring him in with his rug, somedays Im a good 40mins before he stops galloping about and comes in.

If he needed to be caught then he needed to be caught, as long as the person didnt smash him with the whip when they caught him then the whip is immaterial IMO. Its like carrying one riding and never using it.
 
If I wasn't there to witness it then I would bow to their actions on this occasion - if you trust them to bring in the pony there can't be too much wrong with them. If you don't like their way of doing things then you have a choice to change who you entrust your horse to
 
JellyBeanSkittle said:
Sophie - chased as in with a whip..
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I had a little xxxx that would not be caught sometimes, so I would go and get a lunge whip and whenever he stopped crack the whip, sometimes my friend and I had a whip each whoever was closest when he tried to slow would crack their whip... Never did him any harm at all.
 
To do any harm they would need to be very very fit or it would need to be a very small field.
Chasing with a whip or otherwise would not catch any of the one's I have who are tricky to catch, and one of my youngsters would think it was a great game as she is always trying to entice us to play with her:eek:

I would probably think they were being pretty stupid and ask them why they were in my field but I am not on a livery yard. Other than that I probably would not have other people allowed in my field at all.
 
risky business said:
How could anyone expect the horse to come in if its being chased with a whip? Surely that would make the horse want to keep a safe distance?

Normally if I horse won't be caught as above, keep them moving and they soon get bored at not being able to eat or interact and soon come in.
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Easily, you go in, try to catch them they run... You go get whip and say if you want to run run, then you say oh you want to stop... Well I didn't tell you you could... So run... Eventually most horses cotton onto the fact that running in the first place = more work and they stop running in the first place, but horses arent stupid, they can tell when youve dropped the whip and want to catch them, its their choice between being caught then or running and having you pick the whip back up. The technique doesn't work for all of them but does for a number of them and it makes a ticked off owner feel better without doing any harm to the horse... Added bonus = horse gets a good workout:p
 
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Yes - been there done that with a horse that decided he wasn't going to be caught - every time he slowed down he got a hurry up with the lunge whip until I decided it was time to be caught - he never played up again.

I also had other people go out to catch him - no good having a horse that only one person can catch - they just have to get over the 'I don't know you' phase.
 
Depends on the horse, I know the horses at my yard very well-
One will not be caught first time, you have to chase him round until he suddenly stops dead and lets you get him, the other one will gallop for 3 hours straight if you chase him before being caught - he usually will be caught, but if he's not in the mood it takes a food bucket. My other darling pony you can't keep away from you so she's no trouble :D
 
If we take out the emotive phrase 'chase around with a whip' and replace it with 'move horse on if it attempts to graze' then it is a well tried and tested method for catching a horse that won't be caught.

At this time of year my mare will very occasionally attempt to make herself difficult to catch. The ONLY method that works is to move her on each time she attempts to graze, this is done through sounds, arms and tossing a lead rope. 15 minutes of this and she gives up.

So no, I wouldn't be cross at this. If a pony is difficult to catch then not allowing it to graze is a sensible approach and will usually encourage them to be caught.
 
The preventing them grazing by keeping them moving method definatly works but you have to separate from the others and keep them from the herd and that's difficult on your own .
I would not use a whip in a group of horses , and never unless I owned them all.
The horse she should have been keeping on the move was her own so yes I would be miffed .
 
Took my three hours getting old mare in once by chasing her round the field. She wasn't sweaty I was. Everytime she wanted to eat I made her move until she figured out its not going to happen.

It now only takes me changing my body posture and she stops moving.
 
My old horse used to be a nightmare to catch. Sometimes I'd be walking him down for over 2 hours before he'd consent to be caught... which is all well and good if you have nice flat fields. Pintos field was on the side of a hill, and he'd be with a herd of 30 other horses! I'd definitely get more of a work out than him!
 
I'd probably laugh as I would have images in my head of my horse trotting off just-out-of-reach and giving that funny sideways look he does, and the human getting sweatier and sweatier and more and more annoyed.
 
depends who's doing the catching. if it's someone who knows what they are doing I'd have no problem, as that IS a tactic that works.
 
Well having done something like this last night.... Sasha got WALKED with me making her walk for an hour last night, she would ot let me catch her. I gave up.

This morning I went back to field and after 15 min of me walking her, not letting her graze, she gave in and I rewarded with scratch and apple and left her be...

But if you mean a stranger chasing your horse round a field then I would need to speak to that person ASAP.

I stress I made her walk, not graze, till she huffed at me and gave in... At no time did I chase her... I do hope OP is not aiming this thread at my post about sasha being hard to catch...
 
I would attempt the "chasing" method but ..... my horse is turned out on what feels like the side of a cliff :eek: I think I would collapse with exhaustion running up and down a mountain side long before she tired and gave up haha! :)
 
I've done the moving on if running away thing before, and sometimes it has taken me an hour, or more. I don't think a whip is any worse than a lunge rope, or a headcollar and lead rope. Whatever you're using you're using it to put pressure on the horse when the horse shows undesirable behaviour. Providing the person doing the "chasing" was doing it sensibly, pressure on when the horse moves off and pressure off when it stops to give it a chance to hook up, then I don't see the fact that they had a whip as any problem.
 
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