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The nearly impossible to catch horse

Horse Care
#1

I just spend another 30 minutes of my life trying to catch my horse.

This is an every single time deal. I’ve had this horse since he was 7, purchased him off the track didn’t see red flags when this horse was 7 with no race record, nice bloodlines though

Hes always been a whack a doo.

He’s always been a punk to catch, even when he was stalled.

Not to go into a ton of detail but we moved, horse moved to 24/7 pasture. Was still a punk to catch. Had a great winter/spring of riding. Spring/summer 2017 both my horses got strangles. Actually thought I was going to loose them both. Final to recovered. Starting riding hard to catch horse again.

Horse flipped up and over on me (in front of SO) sometime after that we moved all 3 of my horses onto SOs property sometime in fall 2018. I was pregnant end of 2018 and most of 2019. So I obviously didn’t ride this horse.

Anyways at a loss of what to do with him. I know exactly what SO thinks I should do with him.

Horse just had his teeth done and an overall exam 2 months ago. I don’t have any X-rays but he’s always been sound. Could use a chiro, or exploratory xrays?

Flash forward to today; after I spent 30 or so minutes walking after him to catch him, I left a breakaway halter on him. I feel super duper guilty about that. Not sure what else to do.

When I was boarding him and was out there every single day it was always a gamble if we’d be able to catch him or not. Even the BO worked with him daily.

I have the option of putting him in a 14x14 paddock run, otherwise the are turned out on 20 acres.

Suggestions? Words of encouragement? Ideas? Books to read? He was sweet and cuddly after I got the halter on today. Just depressing dealing with it 🤷🏼”â™€ï¸ Yes this post is a mess and all over the place *grammar, sentence structure etc isn’t my strong point

#2

I teach all of mine to face up and come when I call. When a new horse comes in I actually hate it until I have the time to teach it to come, which really only takes 10 minutes in a yard. It is just finding that 10 minutes when you have several horses to work.

Other than that I don’t think I would be getting on a horse that has flipped up and over. It is not worth your life.

4 Likes
#3

He sounds like a great project for a young person with lots of time and patience. He is going to need that, from what I am reading. I know, trust me…I chased a pony through his field for an hour trying to catch him for the vet when I first got him. I did that more once until I learned that grain in a bucket is your best option sometimes. It took a while, about a month, but I got it to work. He will sometimes be like “aw hell naw” when I go out, but his situation at the trainer isn’t good right now, so I will have to work on it more once I get him moved. Some horses need more of a routine than others. Horses that aren’t routinely handled can get stupid. I have learned that each horse has it’s own personality when it comes to this. When I worked at a dressage barn, there were horses that only certain people could get in from the turnout. Some days I was asked to go get a particular horse because it wouldn’t let the normal barn staff take them in…go figure. If you can get some help more regularly with the horse it might make a big difference for both of you.

#4

Do you use treats? I think this is a fear issue. My Paso was like that when I first rescued him. I used Monty Roberts Join Up method with him, every single day for about 2 months… I kept him in the round pen for that reason. Now he may retreat when approached, but if i stop and talk to him, he will come right up to me. You can’t walk straight at him, you must wait for him to come to you. He will even gallop up to me, slow to a trot, and stop in front of me… Just have to respect him and understand that if you act predatory, you will scare him. It’s okay to move the feet and get him huffing when you start working on this.

I would try to do this at least 3 days a week. Does food work? What about clicker training?

#5

The other two are great to catch.

I restarted the flipper myself, had him going over fences, trail road him a ton, hauled to a few schooling jumper shows. Just a shame because he’s a pretty horse, good mover, showed some nice form over fences. He was always a bit balky.

I haven’t sat on the horse in over a year now. I think he would need restarted from the ground up. We have a local (well known) trainer/friend who specializes in problem horses. Even at that he said and I agree with it’s usually not worth it. I would hate to tarnish a friendship with the trainer or fry the horses brain even more.

I might just have a groundwork only horse :confused:

1 Like
#6

The barn owner use to use treats to catch him. Even with that he was still a pill. Always got the treat afterwards. I try treats/grain and it still takes at least 20 minutes. Usually I have to follow him around a bit, get his feet moving and after a while he stops and I’m able to walk up to him. Ive never mistreated him or put him through anything terrible. I feel bad for the poor guy. Will look into the join up method more.

#7

I would say the only way to catch a horse uninterested in grain or treads is to teach him the word woah. If you say woah and he understands and listens. He will let you catch him. Even though mine DO know woah, I still always go out to the pasture with a small bucket with some grain in it. It almost never fails…and if for some reason they are tough still, I will feed all the other horses in the pasture and purposely ignore him. Don’t chase a horse that doesn’t want to be caught, it’s their game and you’re playing right into it.

#8

He knows the trot and canter command pretty well :wink: frustrating even with grain and treats. He also knows “Vinny stop it” will look at me and continue on.

interested in clicker training. Will look into that more. I sadly don’t have a proper round pen set up.

#9

Don’t get behind him, period. That Is how you drive him forward. You have to approach him at the other end heading for the shoulder and don’t put any pressure on him.

We had a Haflinger gelding that belonged to an older man who died. The horse was always a pain to catch, and at some point he had some plaques in his ears and hated having the halter put on. One day a bunch of us were sitting around before supper, and it was my turn to catch him and bring him in to his stall. They gave me 20 minutes and then they would rescue me. About 5 minutes later I headed for the barn with the horse. I walked up to him, put the halter on with no issues. There were some shocked looks as we walked past the group. I guess there was something about my approach that worked.

My own gelding comes when I call almost every time, unless they have a new round bale. The neat thing is when I call his name his bald face pops up and I know where he is. He does have this wise-ass trick. He waits until I get within a couple of feet, too far for the halter. He gives me a little look, then walks over to the gate and waits. He thought it up by himself.

1 Like
#10

I don’t like the join up method. To start with they drive the horse away from them and they use the horse getting tired. I don’t think any system that uses tiring a horse is a training system.

I have modified John Chatterton’s Face up training. Do not start in the middle of the yard. Start at the side. That way when the horse goes around the yard before they know it they have looked at you even if they didn’t want to and you drop the rope to reward.

The smartest horse I ever trained, I swung the rope and he went 2 strides and up. 16.2hh so very tall on his hind legs above me, but at the top of that rear he looked at me. I stopped the rope and took a step back, he came down from the rear facing me and I praised. He came to me and that was it. 2 seconds of training amd he picked up the concept and came every time I called and followed me anywhere.

That is how good you have to be with your timing. If you get the timing wrong you will teach them to never come near you again.

Next teach them to stand still so as they are not always turning to you when grooming and tacking.

#11

Others have made great suggestions but I’ll add: There’s no way in heck you’re going to put any training to be caught on a horse that’s out with 2 buddies in 20 acres.

Personally, I’d get some round pen panels, or put up some tape fencing and get that horse down to 1 acre or less. He lives in a breakaway halter with a short catch rope. And you may find that once he’s living in a smaller area by himself (but still within close proximity/ visual range/ smelling range of other horses), he’ll be more apt to come to you.

Horses are herd animals. They’re instinct is telling them to stay with the herd, not come to you. So start with individual t/o and a significantly smaller t/o are so he can’t build up too much of a head of steam running from you. And handle him daily, if not twice daily.

Wholeheartedly agree that horses who aren’t handled often become more problematic.

8 Likes
#12

He may know the commands but he obviously doesn’t listen to them. 😉 that’s my point. They gotta listen or they aren’t safe and definitely not pleasant to be around.

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#13

I first train my horses to come to me while they are in the stall. For instance, I just bought a 5- month- old colt had very little handling done. He turned his butt to me, I rubbed his butt and worked up to the rest of his body and rubbing all over and soothing him with a very soft voice telling him how good he was. When I got to his head, I rubbed him until I could tell he was fixing to pull away, so I pulled away first. I waited a few seconds and then I walked back to him, his butt faced me again. I repeated the same steps. When he didn’t turn his butt to me, I rubbed his head and neck and then feed him his hay and grain. While he was eating, I rubbed and brushed him all over. I wanted him to see that I wasn’t going to hurt him. Also, I wanted him to relate me with getting feed, brushed on and everything pleasant. I did this for about 2 days. On the third day, he met me at the stall door. He let me rub him all over, I put his halter on him. While he ate, I rubbed him all over and brushed him. After he was finished eating, I led him out to the field that he would be put in and let him around the field and lunged him a little to get exercise. I then took him back to his stall, rubbed him all over again before I took off his halter. I rubbed him all over again before I walked away from him. When I felt that we had paired up, and felt like I could catch him then I placed him in a smaller pasture. Before I let him loose, I petted him all over again. I walked away and let him run and play for a while. It is winter so the padlock I have him in doesn’t have any grass or hay. After a couple of hours, I went back to him. He saw me coming and met me at the gate. I rubbed him all over talking to him very calmly and telling him what a good boy he is. I went to catch him and he walked away. I calmly waited until he stood still, I walked from the side and talked to him about what a good boy he is. He stood there with his butt toward me, I started rubbing his butt and worked my way up again. I could feel that he was going to move away so I moved away first. I waited and started the process again until I could rub all the way up to his neck and head. Then when he was relaxed, I put his halter on and led him back to the barn where I gave him more hay and a nice rub down. Now, after a week of this same process, he meets me at the gate, he doesn’t turn his butt to me. I still pet him all over before I put his halter on. I always let him eat and rub him down while I am letting him eat. I do whatever I have planned to work with him on that day. Put him in the pasture without any food. He is in a field with another horse which also meets me at the gate, I rub on both of them and whichever one I get out to feed, will let me halter with ease. I have a larger pasture with several horses, the horses are usually in a backlot. I can whistle and they come running. I never feed them the grain and alpha hay in the pasture. They have round bales of grass hay but the alpha hay and grain they get when they go to their stalls. The point is my horses see me as something pleasant that they enjoy being around. When I ride the older horses it is hours at a time. They still come to me without any trouble. I always show them their halter. This will take you a while to retrain a horse to this but it will work if you have the time and patience to put in on it. It will save you the 30 minutes running after him.

#14

I learned a different method to train a hard to catch horse. If they ran away when I approached them, I would chase them and make them run more. Pretty soon they got tired of this activity and realized it wasn’t worth it. You need to do this in a small pasture. All my horses now come to apples and chew them as I’m haltering. But several needed to learn the uselessness of dodging the halter.

Not gonna say who I learned this from…

3 Likes
#15

My pony was hard to catch. My trick was to just go in the field and give him a candy. Let him face me, get the candy, and walk away before he did. Then I added a lead rope around the neck, then a halter, then finally a halter/lead rope and leading him out of the pasture. I used to do this 10 times a day at all times…sometimes to work…sometimes just for a candy and a scratch.

He is still hard to catch for others at times…but he meets me in the pasturee and basically halters himself. Make sure you approach his shoulder, not his hip, not his head. Its neutral ground and your not driving him away. Don’t stare at him or make direct eye contact, make sure you have relaxed, regular breathing body posture. Pretend you have all the time in the world.

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#16

I have a small paddock set up that’s away from the other two that I can put him in. He was in it earlier this year when he stuck his leg through the fence.

Even when I was riding this horse 6x a week and he was stalled he was always squirrelly to catch.

@prudence My husband suggested the 4 wheeler. Horse doesn’t really run from me in a panic, even when approaching him from the side.

No one is going to want a hard to catch, English only horse who’s flipped once, terrified of cows and the list goes on!

Right now he is in a breakaway halter. I’m sure I can find a short lead. I feel like I’m halter breaking babies.

I do have the option to but him in the little pen. He’s also alpha of the herd and picks on my other horse (if that gives any insight)

Thankfully the other two come to the gate when they see my car and are unbothered by the hard to catch horses antics.

#17

When you do catch him, give him an treat, maybe a quick brush, and then let him go. Be willing to do this for at least a week. Then in the future, if he becomes more catch able, still continue to do this once or twice a week, Until that day dawn prepare to walk.

The object being, that being caught and getting a treat doesn’t mean w-o-r-k.

I still laugh remembering the owner who, if wearing breeches, couldn’t catch their horse. Jeans were OK. :lol::lol:

6 Likes
#18

I agree with this. I also like the “advance and retreat” method where you move towards the horse’s shoulder until he looks worried or about to move off, and you try to beat him to it by quickly turning away and backing off. If your timing is good you will find that each approach lets you get closer and closer. The horse seems to learn that he can control your advances and he loses the need to move away from you. It’s like he thinks “any second now I’ll move off, but I’ll just wait and see if she does first”. If you have never done this, you will be amazed at how well it works. When you get close enough to catch him, you just pat his shoulder and turn away again before he can move. Do this a few times and build up to patting his face and backing off, then haltering etc.

I also am happy to use treats to teach a horse to be caught. My treat of choice is licorice. Every horse I have owned just can’t resist licorice. Put the halter on, feed a licorice, take the halter off and walk away. Hold off on riding until the horse is reliable to catch. When you start riding, still sometimes just catch the horse and do something he enjoys - treats, feeding, grooming etc. without riding him. If every time you catch a horse you just ride him, this will make some horses harder to catch.

#19

I have to say, I am having trouble picturing what a hard-to-catch horse looks like in a stall. There’s only so many places he can go. And so far, I haven’t really seen it outlined as to what “hard to catch” looks like for this horse.

For a horse to be that difficult to get caught, for that long, and to have it carry into tight quarters…makes me think that either OP is doing something to drive this horse, the horse is very much not broke or there is something that happens when the horse is caught or after he is caught that really makes him not want to be caught again. Something doesn’t add up, here.

“He was always a bit balky” + a history of flipping + very difficult to catch, to me, means there is something going on with this horse. The fact that he came off the track means he likely got quite a bit of daily handling, too, although the type of handling could also be a source of his dislike of being caught. But for it to persist for this long makes me think there’s something else going on.

1 Like
#20

Maybe @Palm Beach can add some training tips since they have posted elsewhere that this is a simple problem to fix.

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