Yearlings - how bothered would you be?

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Lurke

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One of my yearlings hates to be caught. Once you have her, all is fine and she's actually a brave little thing happily stepping into trailers and so on, but getting caught she does a good impression of being terrified! I CAN catch her, but it's such a faff however you do it - softly-softly, bribery, using her buddy as bait, join-up etc. I'm unsure how to proceed:

1) Don't sweat it, just leave her alone as much as possible and come back to the whole being handled/caught/used etc when her education 'proper' begins. She's a baby, and will calm down/come round.

2) Intensively work on this issue (perhaps move her somewhere busier and away from her buddy who she's dependent on, so she can get used to a yard environment and being led about/fiddled with a lot - she's currently just turned out in a field away from home) because if I don't it'll get worse.

What would you do? Any success stories for me?
 
How do you catch her? For me I suppose it would depend what her motivation is - ie if food then use that. I would try catch her regularly but not routinely and not every day and when you do catch her don't always do anything - sometimes catch her, reward and then take off the headcollar. Otherwise just make you being in the field/around her a non-issue/ pleasant presence.
 
Very nervy foal came to our yard. as handled daily and after months of gentle persistent approaches will now letme stroke her pretty much all ove. Owner has taken equally patient and low key approach and little filly has allowed owner to catch her in field in last week or two. \so perhaps don't stress and allow yearling to become confident in her own time
 
I've tried various different things and they all work in the end, and once you have her she visibly calms right down and you can touch her etc. like a different animal. I have just been trying every few days, stroking her neck, face and withers and then releasing. Trouble is there's no overall progress, some days she's quite good and I think 'aha, cracked it' then next time she's back to square one....
 
We catch our youngsters every day at approximately the same time and always after the older ones have been in for their feed. We feed them, groom etc then put them back out. We were told the Appaloosa was difficult to catch but we have never had a problem. We do think that she isn't keen on a rattly headcollar, we use rope halters.
I think routine is key, although of course they do have to be caught at other times as well.
 
I don't have a problem with the babies as they are handled from birth and I don't over handle, so when they do have to be caught they enjoy the attention. My three year old though, who has always been a gem to catch, he has always come to me, I never had to go to him - has turned into a bit of a Kevin. He must walk way at least three times, do circles and then come to me. I just stand there and talk to him, no point getting annoyed and I think a part of it is that i kept rubbing fly repellant on his face when I caught him for a while, and he really doesn't like it.

Just stay calm, bribe if you have to, and then when caught give lots of love and attention so that they know you are the best owner in the world and they should have come sooner and had such attention.
 
I have two youngsters, one has always been fine with the headcollar but my little girl has always been shy of it. I was in the same position as you last year - I could do anything with her loose in the field, feet, grooming etc, and once caught she was an angel, but to catch her I had to first always catch her friend and tie him up, sometimes have to remove him, and then do the whole softly softly, approach and retreat, working up from touching with the collar on her shoulder to getting it on her head. I fixed it to a fair degree by a couple of weeks of every day just going and catching a few times, with no timescale whatsoever, but never doing anything else with her tied up. Then this year I worked on it a bit further using a clicker, starting with her just standing when the headcollar appeared, building up to touching her with it, then her targetting it herself, then eventually putting her nose in to an open noseband and doing it up. The reward each time was a retreat, but the clicker gave her the choice. Now she will come straight over when I pick her headcollar up, but on days when she isn't sure she just needs time to put it on when she is ready, so I just stand and wait and when she is ready to be "trapped" then she puts her nose in - but having the choice means she always does it eventually. If I try to put it on when she isn't ready then she will still back off, so I just don't try to any more. To my mind she knows that once it is on she is trapped, she wasn't keen on the initial halter training so it has always been negative for her, but whilst she is fine now with being tied etc she just needs to be able to say when she is ready for it, and this way it gives her that chance.
 
Does she let you approach her? With or without food? If she is ok with you being close and giving her a scratch on the withers it's a maybe more likely a problem with the head collar.
Make it a fun non threatening thing and rub it all over her stroke her neck and head with it working to gradually slip on the nose band, hold it there until she stops moving and take it off again. Keep doing it and she should get better. My yearling didn't like the head collar so I went back to the beginning with him like this and now after a month he Is perfect.

If she is nervous of being caught and touched, spend a lot of time in the field trying to feed and gain her trust by letting her make the first moves.

Here's a little pic of.me a couple days ago with the wildest colt in our field finally trusting me completely after a couple months of asking him to trust me in his own time. He wouldn't let you get within 6 foot of him :D

 
I left my yearling to it thinking he would 'come round' sadly it took me ages to realise that wasnt a good idea and he ran rings around me the whole of this time. When it came to being gelded, teeth done, farrier etc we had a proper fight so now i catch him every day - sometimes i bring him in too and work with him in his stable

He is still far from perfect but is so much better
 
I introduce our foals to hard feed at weaning. First out of a bucket and then from the hand. Then introduce grated carrot onto the hard feed. Once they look forward to a slice of carrot, all sorts of training is possible.

The shy ones will learn to take carrot from the ground by first dropping a handful of feed on the ground so they learn to look for it. Then, a slice of carrot on top. After a while they'll take the carrot from your hand if you leave it by the feed as they are eating. Then you can introduce scratching, etc. with one hand while the carrot it offered with the other. Let the yearling approach you and don't ever chase!

Here is a little trick that works. When your yearling has learnt to take carrot, either from the ground or your hand, take a few steps backwards and ask him to come to you. Repeat that a few times and he will get the idea that approaching you gets him a reward.

When they are used to this amount of handling, it is easy to scrunch up a rope head collar, rub the neck with it, then quietly drop it over the neck while holding onto the long piece that goes over the poll, then catch the collar with the other hand and put it over the nose and tie it up. Job done. Reward with more carrot and scratching -- THEN RELEASE.

I'd repeat that every day whenever I'm passing. The key is to always associate handling with something pleasant in the horse's mind and catching as something that happens occasionally and is followed with work even less! Walking up to a shy horse with a head collar over your arm is asking for trouble!
 
She certainly knows what feed is! I've just had her eating out of my hand earlier no problem, but if your hand strays near the headcollar (I've kept it on otherwise there'd be no hope!) she pulls faces, dances out of reach and will even present her rear. Once caught you can touch her anywhere (little bit touchy about her feet but that's it - she has had them rasped), lead and so on. You can't really do any of that loose though, she won't tolerate you near her at all, unless you have food, if she's loose...

Using food's OK but makes things tricky with her friend as they get jealous and start squabbling...
 
If you can get a hand on her, half your problems are over.

Offer the carrot with one hand with your other hand near it. Make her reach past your second hand to get the carrot. DO NOT MOVE either hand. Let her do the moving. Arrange your hands so she has to reach past one hand to get the reward.

Gradually close the gap over repeated sessions. So she is being asked to move a bit closer to your second hand each time. Start to make her brush past your second hand. Then attempt a scratch near the head collar as she gets the carrot. All this should be spread over a few days, reducing the distance each time. But SHE sets the pace rather than you trying to move your hand closer. I suspect it is the movement of your hand she fears as she thinks you will try to grab her head collar. (A prey animal's main concern is to ensure a quick retreat at the first sign of danger).

Using a similar technique, it is not difficult to get a halter-shy horse to move closer to the head collar each day, the carrot is just offered with the head collar hanging over the arm the carrot is in. By offering the carrot with the head collar nearer the hand each time, the horse will eventually reach THROUGH the head collar to get the carrot! I trained a head shy pony here to put the head collar on itself with this technique.

Just be patient and be content with very little progress at first. I promise you, it will work. Use patience and take it slowly. Let the horse do the moving, you keep quite still. Never snatch or grab. You need to convince her that she can trust you.
 
Yeah this is why I think I have more of a problem as the above is what I've done, but there's no overall forward progress, and what makes me suspicious is that once she thinks she'll get something i.e: food, she's suddenly brave. Is she genuinely fearful, or playing me here? I personally think a more 'intensive' period spent on a yard where she is in a bit more of a routine, has to be led around more, sees some activity etc. and isn't with the same friend all the time would sort her out, but a lot of people say "oh, she's a baby, let her be a baby until next year"....
 
I've never had any of my youngsters be hard to catch, they're usually first at the fence when I go anywhere near their fields. I catch all of my youngsters from weanling up to 3 years old pretty much every day. Stroke them, give them a scratch and chatter away to them and then let them go. Mine all love it so I don't really have any words of wisdom for you except perhaps go and get a foal grab-strap to attach to the bottom of her headcollar.
 
Spring Feather said:
I've never had any of my youngsters be hard to catch, they're usually first at the fence when I go anywhere near their fields. I catch all of my youngsters from weanling up to 3 years old pretty much every day. Stroke them, give them a scratch and chatter away to them and then let them go. Mine all love it so I don't really have any words of wisdom for you except perhaps go and get a foal grab-strap to attach to the bottom of her headcollar.
Click to expand...

But would the OP be asking for advice if the yearling had not already been (inadvertently) taught that being caught is not something it wants to happen? The words "grab strap" don't quite convey the approach I was suggesting, but I know exactly what you mean!

I have visions of the OP grabbing said "grab strap" and being dragged across the field by a strong and lively youngster who will remember the experience for the rest of it's life! Softly-softly is the way I'd go in this situation rather than grab and hope!:)
 
A grab strap does work a treat as once she knows she's got, she's fine. But I didn't feel safe leaving it on in the field long term, dodgy enough having the headcollar on, and didn't think it was a long term solution...
 
I'd go grab strap too and leave it on in field. Doesn't need to be very long at all and you don't necessarily "GRAB" the strap. Just makes it easier to catch and less threatening to the horse as your hand isn't "threatening" her face Let them keep walking away and not being caught makes a rod for your own back. Persist and do it daily- as someone else said, make a point of catching her, give her a treat and off she can go :)

- A difficult catcher is one of my biggest pet hates, good luck xx
 
Grab straps are great for any youngsters who are fussy about their heads or around their muzzles. Get a leather one and so long as it's attached to a leather headcollar something will give if youngster gets caught up. My youngsters wear leather headcollars from the moment they are born. My baby foal headcollars don't have grab straps but some of the other youngsters here have foal slips with attached grab straps and they are pretty handy to have in the early days of catching any youngster up.
 
How bothered would I be?
Very. It would annoy the heck out of me to be honest and I wouldn't waste my time faffing about in a field.

What I would do?

Work on it, intensely. It is only going to get worse the bigger, stronger and more independent she gets.

I would treat said yearling like a completely unhandled horse and move her and friend to a small paddock/ arena/ round pen ( in my case) , anywhere where there was no huge space to run. Also somewhere where grazing was limited and they would have to rely on me for food. It doesn't take long for any horse to appreciate where food comes from and start coming to you, especially if it is following a friend.

Halter: I would leave a halter (with short rope/strap) on, there are plenty of field safe ones available, and if you can't get/don't want to buy one, then the simple solution, rather than buckle up, is to use a shoe lace or leather thong - that will separate in an emergency.
 
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