Best way to teach a hard-to-catch horse to not run from you?

[Britt]

Quick question, because I know I’m going to get a ton of great advice and tips and tricks.

I was curious as to how you would go about convincing a hard-to-catch horse that it is ok to be caught? Like, say, the horse can be caught, but only after several minutes of moving off/away from you and it is obvious that the horse doesn’t really want to be caught, but allows it. How would you go about teaching said horse to enjoy being caught?

I had thought of using treats, but I am hesitant to because in my experience using treats creates bad habits and I hate ‘treat-training’ horses.

[lauriep]

For this, treat train. I hate treats EXCEPT for training. You have to give him some incentive to want to come to you. Nothing the matter with a carrot or some grain as a reward.

But, he must also have a consequence if he chooses not to be caught. Be prepared to leave him out without his dinner. Give him one chance, don’t chase, then leave til morning/evening. Try again. One shot. If not, he stays out. The INSTANT he comes to you, reward him with a treat and have his meal waiting in his stall. If he can learn there is ALWAYS a something in his feed bucket when he gets there, you might be able to do away with the other treat. But if not, no big deal. Small price to pay to easily catch your horse.

[GoForAGallop]

Treats are a great idea.

But THIS:

[QUOTE=lauriep;7958130]
But, he must also have a consequence if he chooses not to be caught. Be prepared to leave him out without his dinner. Give him one chance, don’t chase, then leave til morning/evening. Try again. One shot. If not, he stays out. [/QUOTE]

is a terrible idea. You’re just further training your horse to know that if he walks away from you, he gets to stay out and be unbothered, which is what he’s looking for.

They are not smart enough to realize, three hours later when it’s dinner time, that the reason they don’t get to come in is because they walked away from you once two hours earlier.

Go with the slowly-walking-down approach, treat him when you catch him, and sometimes catch him for a second, treat him, and then let him go. That way he learns that every time you catch him, it isn’t to make him work. (Even if that is the case, most of the time.)

[pluvinel]

If mine won’t be caught, we have been known to bring out the Gator and “round pen” him in the pasture until he decides it is easier to be caught. Other breeders I know have kept water from the horse…as in I come out with water and give horse the opportunity to be caught and have a drink…if it won’t be caught, horse goes thirsty. Eventually horse realizes humans provide good things.

[dungrulla]

When he walks away from you, CHASE HIM. With a lead rope or a lunge whip. Just enough to make him trot. Teach him that NOT letting you catch him is unpleasant. Do it for as long as it takes (which probably won’t be long).

When he finally comes to you, give him a treat and put his halter on. Make running away from you hard work and he won’t do it anymore. Reverse psychology 101

[clint]

I would never withhold water from a horse. It would be just my luck to have to pay for the medical consequences.

[pluvinel]

[QUOTE=clint;7958213]
I would never withhold water from a horse. It would be just my luck to have to pay for the medical consequences.[/QUOTE]
Ah…but you are NOT withholding water from the horse. That is not what I said.

You are continuously providing the horse the “opportunity” to come in for a drink. Horse has to decide for itself…it needs to make up its own mind that it is ready to interact with the human. The horse is offered the opportunity to drink multiple times a day until the HORSE decides it will allow itself to be caught.

Horses can go without water…they do so in the wild as the migrate in their grazing lands. A TB breeder I know had a weanling that would NOT be caught. After 2 days, horsey decided it wanted to drink.

Never had a problem afterwards

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=pluvinel;7958241]
Ah…but you are NOT withholding water from the horse. That is not what I said.

You are continuously providing the horse the “opportunity” to come in for a drink. Horse has to decide for itself…it needs to make up its own mind that it is ready to interact with the human. The horse is offered the opportunity to drink multiple times a day until the HORSE decides it will allow itself to be caught.

Horses can go without water…they do so in the wild as the migrate in their grazing lands. A TB breeder I know had a weanling that would NOT be caught. After 2 days, horsey decided it wanted to drink.

Never had a problem afterwards[/QUOTE]

Two days without water could also cause a horse to colic and die. Horses are not humans and cannot conceptualize that the reason they didn’t get water was because they didn’t come inside.

[CHT]

I found with training horses, that sometimes the ones that were stubbornly hard to catch had a medical issue: usually dental, that made wearing the halter uncomfortable.

For most horses though, just making sure my initial and final interactions with them were positive (treats, scratches, grazing) is enough to create a horse that is easy to catch soon enough.

[adelmo95]

How hard to catch is it? I also recommend treat training and with a really hard to catch horse a week or so with a break away halter and possibly short (1ft long rope). Bring out an extra halter every time you go to catch the horse as well as the treat, casually grab the rope before they can walk away put the extra halter you brought over the one they were wearing and reward them with a treat for standing still to be caught even though they really didn’t have a choice.

[pluvinel]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;7958255]
Two days without water could also cause a horse to colic and die. Horses are not humans and cannot conceptualize that the reason they didn’t get water was because they didn’t come inside.[/QUOTE]

OP asked a question, I answered with what I’ve seen work…based on what I’ve read horses can tolerate some time without water with no ill effects. I’ve also seen well-intentioned people create dangerous annimals when they’re trying to be “nice.”

No need to diss…OP can read the responses and follow what she wants.

[clint]

[QUOTE=pluvinel;7958241]
Ah…but you are NOT withholding water from the horse. That is not what I said.

You are continuously providing the horse the “opportunity” to come in for a drink. Horse has to decide for itself…it needs to make up its own mind that it is ready to interact with the human. The horse is offered the opportunity to drink multiple times a day until the HORSE decides it will allow itself to be caught.

Horses can go without water…they do so in the wild as the migrate in their grazing lands. A TB breeder I know had a weanling that would NOT be caught. After 2 days, horsey decided it wanted to drink.

Never had a problem afterwards[/QUOTE]

I get exactly what you said. And if withholding water works for you and your friends, go for it. However, using wild horses as an example doesn’t exactly sway me, as I was told by a vet a few years ago that the average life span of a wild horse is two years. I would use treats as a reward, as mentioned by others, but I wouldn’t withhold water waiting for a horse to figure out that is his reward, especially if it took two days.

[KateKat]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;7958204]
When he walks away from you, CHASE HIM. With a lead rope or a lunge whip. Just enough to make him trot. Teach him that NOT letting you catch him is unpleasant. Do it for as long as it takes (which probably won’t be long).

When he finally comes to you, give him a treat and put his halter on. Make running away from you hard work and he won’t do it anymore. Reverse psychology 101 ;)[/QUOTE]

This. The horse I used to ride never wanted to be caught. The grooms all used grain/treats to catch him, however it never really solved the problem because the horse saw it as a “game”. So I went out there with his lead rope, and when he ran away from me, I made him keep going. And going. When he looked like he wanted to stop, I made him go a little more (just so it wasn’t quitting on his terms). Horse never ended up “coming” to me, but it did get to the point where I just had to walk out there and he would run back to his stall ;). Grooms were amazed that this worked :lol:

ETA: the treat method didn’t necessarily work well on this horse because he has never been super treat/food driven. Unlike my mare, who is EXTREMELY treat driven and would probably twist herself into a pretzel for a cookie! So I would also look for what motivates this horse and use that.

[zipperfoot]

This topic has been discussed a lot here, including this current thread: http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?457308-My-horse-hates-me

You might try searching for other discussions about it–lots of advice and ideas.

Good luck!

[heronponie]

You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Literally, in this case. Suck it up and use treats.

Driving them away from you CAN work, but if your timing is off it can also backfire and create a much bigger problem than you started with.

[Guilherme]

Bring the horse up, put them in a small paddock and work with them every day, two or three times a day, for 30 days. During this time groom, treat, longe, ride, walk, just hang out if you want to. Acclimate the horse to your presence but always be the Great Alpha. The horse will want to be with you once they get the idea.

G.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Guilherme;7958336]
Bring the horse up, put them in a small paddock and work with them every day, two or three times a day, for 30 days. During this time groom, treat, longe, ride, walk, just hang out if you want to. Acclimate the horse to your presence but always be the Great Alpha. The horse will want to be with you once they get the idea.

G.[/QUOTE]

Add to that, feed it only hay in there, catch, halter and bring up for a bit of grain, groom while it is eating, put back out when thru eating.

After a couple weeks, that horse will be consistently and impatiently waiting for you at the gate, to go eat it’s grain.

(Guilherme, I am not stalking you, you just give me ideas.
That is why I tend to post after you present your ideas.)

[Britt]

I knew I’d get lots of advice.

to whoever asked, she isn’t super hard to catch. She walks away from you in the paddock (and she is currently in a small paddock. She won’t be going out in the big pasture until she can be caught easily or semi-easily… the big pasture is 50 acres, the small paddock is about half an acre to one acre). She walks away from you, but if you can manage to touch her, she normally stands still to be caught. She is a little hard to halter at times, but is getting better. I do intend to work with her daily, as well. She’s a young horse, only 2 y/o.

[BigBlackDog]

I’m personally not the biggest fan of using treats. Sometimes horses can get a little too friendly when someone goes to catch another horse and they get ambushed by a horse who thinks he’s going to get treats from anyone walking into the pasture with a halter.

I’ve always been told to chase them, not like a maniac, just enough to annoy them and they finally give up and stand there. One of the amusing that happens when you have to chase one, they try to hide behind the other horses who get peeved, move away from the horse and basically sell him out like “Get away from me, it’s you she wants! Hey human he’s over here!” Always makes me laugh.

[SuzieQNutter]

My horses are taught to face up. As someone above said your timing must be down to the millisecond.

Train correctly and the horse trots to you when called. Train incorrectly and the horse will never come to you again.

After that the horse needs to be taught to stand still so as the horse does not turn every time you go behind it when tacking and grooming.

I prefer the training of facing up to the joining up taught by Monty Roberts. I don’t like the way the horse is chased away in join up.

Feeding treats can teach a horse to bite.

Witholding water I would never ever suggest. Certainly not during the heat today in Australia. Yes, less than a day without a drink can cause colic.