I have had my 9 year old thoroughbred for 5 years. I never had so much difficulty catching him in the turnout until last summer. He is turned out with about 10 other geldings in a very large turnout. Last summer, he started playing “catch me if you can.” He sees me and immediately walks away even though I don’t want toward him. He gallops from one end of the turn out to the other and as mentioned, it is a huge turn out so I can’t even begin to get near him. He loves being with the herd and I know he associates me with work. The problem is that I know it is bad to just catch him and work him, but my schedule only allowed me to get to the barn 2 times a week and I live 30 minutes from the barn. I am a teacher and now that I have time to go out to the turn out and just say hello and show him that I am there to bond and not just bring him in and ride him, I can’t even get near him. Yesterday I went out there for the sole purpose of saying hello and giving him a rub and then leaving him to get the message to associate me with pleasantness and not just work. I would like to mention that he is a very sweet horse and is always very good when I tack him and ride him, but I have to go to the barn in the evening after the horses are brought in or I have to ask the barn girl to keep him in when I want to go ride him during the day. I have tried so many different approaches and nothing works.
Last week I sat on a chair and read a book out in the turn out. I was just sitting there and he galloped past me twice looking at me as though he was saying “You can’t catch me.” And I was sitting on a lawn chair. Sorry for the long message; but want to provide enough info to hopefully get a new perspective on all of this.
Do you have an option to put him in a different turn-out? (smaller paddock, smaller group of horses, perhaps without his buddies) Or is solo turn-out a possibility?
I think you are going to need some facility help in order to change his behavior, especially since he has been doing this for quite some time (year). Your current place may or may not accommodate that.
Do you take him treats? Do you let him chill before you ride him? Do you ever just pamper him and not ride?
I stuff mine full of treats and rubs so that they see me and think “sugary goodness.” When I get to the barn I stuff them full of more treats and scratches. I am a quick tacker and even so, by the time I get to the ring, they have forgotten I am only associated with work. They mostly think I am associated with cookies and love. When I whistle, they gallop over.
Go out when you can and just love on him. After you turn him out, go back to the barn, clean your tack then go back out and stuff him full of cookies and love again. Repeat. It works.
Horse training takes time and every time you touch a horse you are training it. I know you don’t get out often but there are no shortcuts. One day will not fix it. Several months will fix it. My last baby was super shy; she cantered up to me when I whistled in three months and I work with her every day. Sure, I could catch her sooner but I wouldn’t say the problem was fixed for three months.
With your horse, you should probably walk him down. keep him moving until he is ready to come to you. That works VERY well and is what I use with a horse that actually doesn’t want to be caught. Do that every single time until he comes to you immediately. Have your Fitbit on and a lot of time to spare because you will get your exercise for the day. Don’t let him stop moving until you can catch him. When he lets you catch him, halter him and stuff him full of treats. Repeat. You can’t do it once and think it will be fixed. Horses don’t work like that. The next day it will not take quite so long. Or maybe it will take a little longer but eventually it won’t take so long and the horse will finally just stand there waiting for you, with enough repetitions.
When I moved Cloudy and Callie to one barn with grass pastures instead of dry lots as they had had in their first 3 barns, Callie would not come in when I would get to the barn. She would let me walk behind her holding onto her tail, but I could not get to her head for 2 weeks. I wanted a “tail halter,” but there was no such thing. She would come in for meals, but I wanted her to let me catch her to ride and groom. After 2 weeks she was OK as I bribed her with treats.
I did know one nice little Arab gelding who for his whole lifetime would not let his owner catch him in a 40 acre field unless it was time to come in for dinner. So if she wanted to ride him she had to call and have him turned out onto a dry lot in order to catch him.
I’d use treats if I were you OP. It is frustrating, even for 2 weeks, to not be able to catch a horse. Fortunately Callie got over it in 2 weeks of grass. And more fortunately, Cloudy has always been too lazy to run more than 2 or 3 minutes from me wherever we have boarded.
This might not help now, but might prevent a relapse later. Years ago I read something that talked about horse memory - they have very strong associative memory, but it isn’t good at extrapolating very far. Basically if the horse always gets A, B, C, D, E, etc he will associate B with A very strongly, C with A less strongly, and by the time you get to E there is no association with A.
In practical terms if you catch the horse (A) and give him a carrot (B) then take him into the barn © and put him in his stall with a handful of feed (D) while you get your grooming kit and tack out, then by the time you get to grooming (E) which means tacking up (F) which means riding work (G) you have him so far from A that the good things (B and D) are what he thinks when you go to catch him (A).
That’s for once you get past the catching issue, but is effectively what you are trying to do - separate catching from riding.
If you are off now, can you go out at turn in time and bring him in yourself? It might be a way to start changing his attitude.
This makes me think of my wonderful Morgan. I boarded him at a barn where he was in a huge turnout with lots of other geldings. He learned that other boarders would give treats to their horses and he got to recognize which person went with which horse. One boarder told me my horse would bump her horse on the butt until he’d walk to the gate, where they’d both get carrots.
He did make ME walk to the far end of the pasture, however. He’d see me, turn and walk calmly alllll the way out, turn and stand and wait for me to walk to him. 
My mare and my old gelding would run from me. They would be uncatchable for hours and it didn’t matter if I played the patient game or brought food or whatever. The only time I could catch them was when it was feed time.
I would pamper them with teats while I had them and eventually they understood that the crinkling wrapper equaled treats and they would come towards me and not turn tail and bolt. Those horses.
I sold my gelding but my mare has always been tough to catch. At least now the two of them don’t play off each other. The other horses will come for treats and she finally admits defeat.
With permission from the owners of the other horses, could you be the Treat ATM at the gate? Maybe toss treats on the ground to any horse that comes to you at the gate, while you are on the outside. Nothing like “missing out” to draw in a PITA-to-catch horse.
Teaching a horse to be caught/haltered/brought in is no different from other handling tasks. Reward what you want, ignore what you don’t, find out what is the strongest reward for YOUR horse. It may be companionship with the other horses.
Sitting in a lawn chair reading, and your horse zooms by? Reward at the point the horse is coming towards you, make a big fuss, crinkle peppermint wrappers and toss a treat near you.
Well, this is an opposite approach, but I would keep moving until he is ready to be caught. I knew of someone who slowly herded her horse with a ATV until the horse would turn around and face her. The horse learned it was more work to evade.
I used to teach the babies at work how to be caught, basically from scratch. The most reliable way was to go out with a bucket of grain or carrots or something else that would keep them eating for at least a few minutes. I’d walk out to wherever they were hanging out, they’d run off, and then I’d just follow them around the pasture like that for a while, pretty much. (You have to be a little careful with your body language here – less “I’m chasing you” and more “I’m a buddy that’s just taking a casual stroll, which happens to be in your direction.”) After a while one of them would stop to figure out what was up. The trick was, that instead of continuing to walk towards them, I’d give them what they wanted, which was to stop and back up a few steps. This part is a) positive reinforcement for being curious & not running away and b) CONFUSING as heck for those babies, apparently. That was the point where they’d usually start pricking their ears and thinking about coming over to see what I was up to, if not a chasing game. If they started coming over, I’d keep walking backwards until they got the idea. Whoever got to me first would basically face-plant into the bucket, and then the others would come over to get some food as well. The second they were done I would take the food and walk away, no more bothering them about anything else. It usually took 3-4 tries of doing this, escalating a little each time to scratching around their ears or holding the bucket while someone else curried them, but most of them got the idea of coming over to say hi (and check for snacks) pretty quickly.
I knew a horse that would stand in the middle of a small pond in the pasture up to his belly while his owner stood at the edge mumbling four letter words.
So it could be worse.
Cookies. Lots of cookies. Sit in a lawn chair with a book and when he passes hold out a cookie.
LMAO, this is priceless!!
My as-yet-foolproof strategy for catching uncatchable ponies (UCP) is to go out into the field with a very large visual food object (i.e., flake of hay) and dole out snacks to every horse BUT the target UCP. When UCP comes over to see what he’s missing out on, “NOPE!” I turn and walk away from him and hand some more to his buddies instead. After a few minutes of this, UCP is usually begging to be caught.
(Obviously no feeding of other people’s ponies without their permission and stuff…)
You have a big herd so this might not work, but I used to catch my mare’s buddy, bring her in, and she’d follow. Now she’s actually good, in part because I feed her when I bring her in. Getting caught=food= easy to catch.
[QUOTE=PonyPenny;8713381]
Well, this is an opposite approach, but I would keep moving until he is ready to be caught. I knew of someone who slowly herded her horse with a ATV until the horse would turn around and face her. The horse learned it was more work to evade.[/QUOTE]
I take this approach with my guy if he decides he’s going to be difficult. It doesn’thappen very often but when it does, I take a lunge whip with me and herd him around. After a bit, he realizes it’s easier to give in. He typically gets a lot of treats when I go get him, before I ride, after I ride and when I turn him back out. He gets a lot of treats! He’s not food motivated so if he choses to be difficult to catch, treats or a bucket won’t work.
Honestly- I would just leave him in.
Don’t feed other people’s horses w/o permission, as others have said. I never want mine fed by other boarders in order to catch their horses. I don’t have a problem with another boarder bringing my horses to the gate in order to catch another horse, but I don’t want mine fed anything by others. I’ve seen boarders walk into a big herd of horses with a bag of carrots. Just asking to be kicked or bitten or trampled while horses jockey for position to get treats.
Every experience should be a good one, so make sure your horse gets a treat or gets hand grazed or something good when you bring him in. This also works for trailering.
Lots of COTH threads on this topic. Try searching…
I understand your frustration! Good luck!
[QUOTE=cnvh;8713666]
LMAO, this is priceless!!
My as-yet-foolproof strategy for catching uncatchable ponies (UCP) is to go out into the field with a very large visual food object (i.e., flake of hay) and dole out snacks to every horse BUT the target UCP. When UCP comes over to see what he’s missing out on, “NOPE!” I turn and walk away from him and hand some more to his buddies instead. After a few minutes of this, UCP is usually begging to be caught.
(Obviously no feeding of other people’s ponies without their permission and stuff…)[/QUOTE]
This is what I had to do with my mare that used to be hard to catch.
Ruth0552 - that is hilarious!!! We have two very large (3+ acres) ponds in our 90 acre pasture and luckily no one has figured this trick out yet! I’m afraid now that I’ve cursed myself just thinking about it!
Let him become addicted to aniseed or peppermint candies in wrappers…
go out, crinkle, feed, and walk a way. If he follows, crinkle and give another…
my friend’s dreadful horse became a lamb that way…by addicting him.
[QUOTE=Larbear;8713710]
I take this approach with my guy if he decides he’s going to be difficult. It doesn’thappen very often but when it does, I take a lunge whip with me and herd him around. After a bit, he realizes it’s easier to give in. He typically gets a lot of treats when I go get him, before I ride, after I ride and when I turn him back out. He gets a lot of treats! He’s not food motivated so if he choses to be difficult to catch, treats or a bucket won’t work.[/QUOTE]
Yup, me too. My guy is pretty easy to catch usually, but if he says “nope” he’s gonna have a bad time.
