Hi all! I’m not sure if this is the right forum for this topic but I’m in desperate need of help haltering, or should I say, re-haltering my foal. She just turned 3 months and was haltering so well. In fact, we were just starting to train her to lead line. One morning we woke up and she had cut her leg pretty good and we had to treat the wound. Unfortunately, this meant that we had to halter and tie her while we tended to the wound. She was a champ throughout all of it, but since then, has not let me put the halter on her. That was one of my biggest fears having to halter her for the treatment of her leg but her health was more important to me at the time. For three weeks now, I have tried the pressure/release (or attack/retreat) method but have not succeeded. At first, I thought she may have been traumatized about the first aid experience. But, honestly, she is just being a… butt head. (God I love her so much though) LOL. She lets me get it around her neck and over her nose, but as soon as I go to tie it, she pulls out of it. I really don’t want to force it on her because I don’t want to lose her trust, but at the same time, her being able to get out of it makes me feel like I’m losing her respect. GAH! Any one have advice for me? Do I just force it on her? And, if so, what happens the next day and the day after that? Will I have to force it on her every single day? Please help and thanks in advance!!!
When we used to work with our foals, we also taught them to respond to the lightest tug with a rope anywhere.
We could put one around their neck and then ask and the foal would respond to whatever came next, a halter or just to follow us or move over, etc. thru our little tugs on it indicating what our request was.
We never had a horse we started that pulled back, they all had learned first to give, before any other, so putting a halter was not something they learned to try to avoid.
Could you put a rope around her neck?
Remember never to fight her over anything, ask lightly until they understand to give and so for now have an easy way to catch her until you go on to put the halter on?
Foals get the oddest ideas of what to do next, what to try to avoid, it takes patience and not repeating what is not working and, as you are doing, trying to figure a different way to do what you are not getting done.
You must have done plenty well to be able to treat her injury without her fighting you, so you may already have a good basis to start working from, this just being a fresh youngster thing now.
With horses, you have to keep inventing what to do next, be very flexible, because they rarely many respond to the same, each one an individual.
Bluey,
She does allow me to put a rope and even the halter around her neck. I don’t even have to catch her, she simply comes up to me. But as soon as I go to knot the halter, she is like, NOPE! She pulls out of it, steps back, looks at me, then comes back up to me! You think this is just a phase? So, if I’m understanding correctly, you used a rope first then haltered? Maybe I will try that. Thank you so much for your input. I really appreciate it.
Since you have the halter already around her neck, can you hold her like that and ask her to move around for you without the halter on her head, try to get it on later, or get a second halter, if you have a rope one, a flat one, leather or nylon?
If she is moving her head away, teach her to give you her head, starting with lowering it to you about elbow height, when she is good at that then ask her to move her head towards you, then a bit at the time start getting the halter on, just the nose and take it off, etc.
The trick is to do whatever she is agreeable to and quit before she does, which each time should let you do more and more.
Hard to tell without being there.
Also, very young ones may be agreeable one day, not much another, so you work with the horse you have that day, some days more, some less, some on other than what is difficult if they are being difficult.
Don’t remember ever having one that would pull that and then come right back, they generally, if they didn’t want something, would rather stay away.
Sounds more like a game she is playing, based maybe on some insecurity, who knows why.
When we go halter any horse, we always put the lead rope over the neck first, then halter.
We then have the lead rope to hold the horse there, if for some reason doesn’t want the halter to go over the nose or around the poll, etc.
For that the horses need to know to respect and respond to the rope around the neck.
Hi! I have a rope and nylon buckle halter. So it sounds like I need to start working with her giving me her head and responding to the rope. Responding to the rope should (key word: SHOULD, lol) be a little more simple since I had already started working on that with her. But, who knows. I feel like she thinks she is playing a game too!! But, I don’t want her to think that she can keep winning. I’m trying not to get frustrated, but it is rather frustrating! Especially since I saw the progress we were making before her injury. I will try what you recommended though. Thank you!
It sounds like a little more force might be called for-- I’m not saying be abusive or violent, but if it’s been going on for three weeks you have a problem. I’m assuming she’s stepping back/ away as you go to do the halter up? What happens if you go with her? Hold the ends of the halter together with your hands and just follow her around the stall until she stops and stands and you can do the halter up and make a big fuss over how good she was. I’ve never found that they are particularly traumatized by this. By three months ours can all be caught and led with the mare. My preference would be not to use a rope or non breakaway halter on a foal even if you don’t leave it on though, and I definitely wouldn’t truly tie a foal that young.
Is she interested in sugar cubes yet? We used to do a buddy system, with one person holding a grain bucket to distract them, and the other person fussing around with the halter. By the time they were done eating they’d usually gotten over it already, haha. We usually did that with the weanlings, though, so they were much more into the whole snacktime experience than a 3 month old.
I will say - I think fussing too much about “civilizing” the little ones before they’re 5-6mo can be more frustrating than it’s worth. They just develop so fast at that age, that some things that feel totally impossible at 2 or 3 months are suddenly no big deal at all a month later. (We had one memorable baby who went through a complete and total personality change as a 5 month old, I swear; the first time she let me halter her I had to check that I had the right horse.) Yours might remember that she doesn’t like getting haltered, but I think you might find that she figures out the retraining lessons much faster and much calmer as a weanling than she can right now.
If she’s difficult to halter and you feel like you might need to have it on her sometimes, I would consider just leaving a leather halter on overnight? I normally hate leaving halters on like that, but we did do it with a couple of the really little babies as needed, and never had much of a problem. I would think that having it on for a bit would desensitize her a little, and might help her get over the association of halter = vet = ugh.
I guess I should specify what I meant when I said we had to halter and tie her to treat her wound. What happened was we haltered her, attached the lead rope then looped the lead around a post and pinned her on a wall so she couldn't move. We had to cut a flap of skin off so we had to make sure she was completely stationary.
In response to Highflyer, if I move with her, she just moves faster. Ultimately, until I can't keep going without killing myself, so I let go. But, then she will turn and face me and then walk back to me. She does great with all other training (picking up feet, spray, fly mask, brushing...etc) It is just the haltering since her injury. But, like I said, I don't think it is because of her injury, I think she is just being a stinker....You could try teaching her to stick her head in it.
I never thought a horse would volunteerarily do that but mine does.
I would get a larger size because you aren’t going to turn her out in it. You just want her to accept wearing it.
You may also want to consider clicker training.
You can do some things to start out with to prime her that don’t involve the halter until she responds and understands the clicker.
then introduce the halter.
I understand how some trainers don’t want to use food as a reward esp with a young horse because you don’t want to encourage nipping and biting but I personally think food works better than praise. That’s just me. You can teach a horse not to be pushy when it comes to treats.
Instead of trying to push the halter over her ears see if you can get her to lower her head down to it.
foals can be frustrating because you do have to be careful with them but you do need to be firm and consistent.
also can you try putting the halter on in a stall? If she backs off she can’t go very far.
I dont recommend chasing her around the stall; if she backs off don’t chase her just wait for her to come back to you.
don’t spend too much time on it. Foals have the attention span of a gnat.
if you really aren’t sure of yourself you could try having someone experienced with foals put the halter on while you distract her. She will probably get into a huff and then forget about it.
hope this helps. Good luck.
PS I found it much easier to puthe a halter on my foal than to try and put a walking harness on my kittenhs.
OP, can you get her into a small enough space, like a stall, so she doesn’t have anyplace to “escape” to?
I agree, more firmness (not force! Big difference) is needed here. I would start by teaching to give her head and neck with just the lead rope around her neck, with pressure specifically at the poll.
To clarify though, you say when you go to “knot the halter” she slips out of it…slips out how? Is it over her nose at this point? Just around her neck? She can’t “slip out” if you don’t let go. You may need to get her in a small enough space to where you can “follow” her when she decides to try and leave and just wait for her to give. But the key there is you just follow her at whatever pressure she places on the halter in order to leave you…you don’t add anything to the situation at all. When she does give, I’d release the halter entirely, rub her and walk away. Come back and try again a little while later.
It’s going to take increments. You can fry foals brains so quickly by asking for anything too much in a short span of time.
Work in a stall to limit/eliminate the possible escape routes. Push the foal into the corner of the stall, facing out, your body blocking the escape route forward. If you are having problems with making a knot to secure the halter, use a different kind of halter, a buckle instead of a knotted do-up. With a really tough one, you might have to put a small lariat around the neck first, and pull a loop up through that and slip that loop over the nose first, then put the halter on OVER that, then remove the first “halter” once the real halter is in place. Then reward the foal, with a tickle, a grooming session, and your appreciation.
Is this “forcing” the halter on? Perhaps it is, in a way. But if you are waiting for your foal to comply with haltering when she has found a way to avoid it, you may be waiting a long time.
Having just helped my coach with a yearling who had a personality change 
yes, this is a good idea! Coach draped a piece of binder twine over his neck while he was eating treats, then lopped it into a makeshift halter over his nose. She then had control over him while she put the breakaway halter on. Once that was on and it seemed to him like no big deal, you could lead him easily. He’s going to wear the breakaway snugged up fairly close for a few days until he’s got the hand of things. Once it went on, his expression seemed to be “was that all you were wanting? Oh, that was nothing!”
This was a domesticated horse, not feral, who had just started avoiding being haltered recently. He wasn’t freaking out or putting up any resistance beyond avoidance. It was more like the OP situation where he learned he could avoid it.
Once they realize the halter is no big deal, then you can start getting them to accept it coming on and off.
My mare will put her head into both the halter and the bridle, because it is the condition of leaving her stall, or of returning to her stall for lunch after turnout. She would rather put her face into the bridle and take the bit on her own, You just hang the bridle off your hand in front of her, and she puts her head in. If someone tries to put the bridle on “pony club” fashion (ie, correctly) by moving it towards her head she is offended and puts her head up ducks away, She was a bit hard to bridle when I started with her, and somewhere along the way we reached an agreement that she could put it on herself
Does she back rapidly out of the halter if you have a butt rope on her?
Sounds like you need to change the question so she can’t outsmart you 
Halter her in a smaller space, use a butt rope, have a second person…something, anything. But the more you try and fail to halter her, the more she’s learning how to evade the halter. It’s gone on for such a long time–expect a tantrum when you take away her “out”!
Lamb halter.
We begin halter/lead training at about 5-6 days. Baby is haltered using a soft, flat rope lamb halter. No buckles or fasteners of any form, lead is part of halter. One arm around neck, which grasps crown of halter, other hand guides noseband. One smooth movement and a gentle tug on rope, baby is haltered. One second is required to catch and halter.
Foal is then lead alongside mom to and from turnout. Gradually we add to the complexity of the journey. Example, if there is a puddle, we walk through it, if there is machinery, we circle it. From word go, baby is gently, and patiently guided to behave in expected manner. We halt before gates and doorways, baby must turn to me and stand quietly before release etc. (No, it does not always go well, but we remain consistent, there is an expectation) Halters are removed for turnout because horse seem to like to kill themselves.
After a few weeks of this routine, foal knows the drill. I love my lamb halters, very easy to use, soft and very gentle pressure as rope is braided to be quite flat. The transition to real halter takes place at about 5-6 months, but baby knows the drill by then.
