home without putting up a BIG fuss!?
he hangs out with my 2 mares in pasture. I want to walk him to home paddock for more training. I understand this is hard for him to leave the pasture-mates. He joins up with me well but I’m nervous he will put up a fit leaving them Talked to my neighbor and he suggests putting a chain on his nose. I don’t want to hurt him. One idea is to bring carrots or feed bucket to entice him. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! - Judy
You need to do some training sessions with your gelding before you march him away from his girlfriends.
Practice getting him out the gate, keeping the mares at a respectful distance from the two of you at all times (20’ is my rule around gates). Once out of the gate, practice keeping his attention ON YOU while leading, halting, backing…then put him back in. Think “baby steps”. A rope halter may be a good alternative to a chain if you don’t know how to set one up.
Don’t set the two of you up for a mess by tying to move him without making sure he is respectful of your space in his normal situation.
Food is a VERY bad idea. It will attract the other horses, distract the one attached to you, and completely avoids the point of actually training the horse to have good ground manners.
More information would be helpful in order to give you more ideas. How far do you have to move him? What is the fence/gait/barn layout?
Totally agree with everything about the above post.
You might want to consider a babysitter to make it easier. I would say have someone lead one of his pasture mates, but given it’s a threesome, that would likely cause more problems leaving one behind. So do you have another, very quiet, well behaved horse, who could come meet up with you guys and walk home together?
I want to walk him to home paddock for more training. I understand this is hard for him to leave the pasture-mates. He joins up with me well but I’m nervous he will put up a fit leaving them
Not trying to be harsh, but perhaps the problem is with you being nervous for no reason? It doesn’t sound like you’ve tried to take him away yet, but are already worried that he’ll freak out? Just relax.
