I purchased a 14 year old mare on an internet auction. It was a dispersal sale of a reputable breeder. Unfortunately they didn’t disclose most of the horses had never been handled or haltered. This mare is very sweet and inquisitive but frightened of being touched. I’ve been trying clicker training for the past few months but am not making much progress. I can get a halter over her nose, but that’s about it. I’m about ready to run her into a chute and just put the halter on her. I think once she is wearing a break away halter I will be able to progress. Any thoughts or suggestions?.
Make contact with a good colt starter trainer.
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Yes. Get a pro.:yes:
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If this is even a real situation, I think you must know the options. You obviously need to get a pro involved. But I have to wonder; who buys a horse sight unseen over the internet? How does that even work? Do they drop it off at your barn?
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I purchased her from photos and videos. SportHorseAuctions holds these sales regularly. She has some very old desirable bloodlines and I purchased her for a broodmare only. I’m not planning on riding her.
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OK well the fact that you don’t want to ride her makes it a lot better for you then.
So what has she been doing for the last 14 years? Are you sure she is 14? And was she ever bred before?
I don’t have any suggestions but think you might be right about her being easier once haltered. I got an older mini mare from a herd dispersal sale (she had been used as a brood mare but not sure how many times). But I believe she was rarely handled. She is very sweet and once you catch her is pretty easy handle so long as you don’t want to bathe her or give her an injection. If either of those two things - she needs pre-sedation which we have to manage with sort of a quick walk by IM. I have had her about 7 years and she is not much better. If I can halter her, I can usually handle her easily, barring a bath or shots.
I would definitely consider a chute and a smaller enclosure for now.
Yes, I’m sure of her age as I have her registration papers. She was used as a broodmare (pasture bred). They sold most of their offspring as weanlings. The situation was the owners got older, their children moved away and I think things just got away from them as far as time to work with all the horses. She will follow me around the pasture, so I think once we get a halter on her we can make progress. But I’m sure there will always be issues.
I say mine isn’t much better but I guess that’s not really true. We can usually halter her because she has learned to trust us for the most part. But it requires a little bit of a stealthy approach and sometimes just getting a lead line over her neck. Once you have her with the lead rope, she allows herself to be haltered. But if she is suspicious or you try to do it too quickly, sometimes it’s a no go. I don’t want to keep her haltered but I also don’t have to handle her often. She is 30 now, so she does nothing but hang out. You might need to, especially at first.
So… get a halter on her. That’s step 1. And begin getting her able to be handled, and led, and learn that the human is a trustworthy friend. This is basic horsemanship, and training. If you can’t figure out how to do that, then you need to hire someone to do it for you. If you can figure out how to get Step 1 done, go do it.
Yes, horses like this can usually be haltered in a chute, if you have one. But be careful, you can still get hurt working with a horse in a chute. As you have found, it is unlikely that you will get a halter on a feral horse without some sort of plan in place. Putting some tranquilizer in some feed for her, and giving her an hour or so to let it take effect can be helpful. Depending on exactly how feral she is, you may be able to get it done in a stall, if you want to try that. Use a lariat, and get her roped (use gloves). Then apply pressure on the rope when she moves away from you, and release the pressure when she turns towards you, faces you. She can’t go far in a stall, and you can wait her out. soothing her until she weighs her options. When you can put a hand on her, then you loosen the noose a bit, and pull a loop of the rope up over the bridge of her nose. This is a “halter”, and she is a “got horse” at this point. You’ve got her. And can now put a “catchment halter” on her, over the lariat halter. Then remove the lariat. Then give her some rewards, presuming you get that far. The catchment halter is one that is breakaway. You leave it on her. You may want to put a “horse catcher” strap on it, a short piece of rope, so that you can take hold of it without getting your hand too close to her face, then snap a lead rope on in place of the horse catcher. THEN put a “real” halter on over top of the catchment halter, one that isn’t going to break if pressure is put on it. This is your “training” halter, one that you can use to handle the horse, and teach her to lead, and be groomed, and basic management. All the while gaining her confidence in humans. Good luck, and stay safe.
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I have certainly known horses that figured out they could duck out of being caught and very cagey about not letting this happen. But once the halter is on they reveal themselves as completely broke.
My own childhood pony learned to stay ten steps away from me in her pasture retirement.
Just last month my coach needed to bring in an OTTB that had become impossible to catch on her pasture let down period. She fed the horse mild tranqs in a treat then haltered and loaded her and put her in a stall at the barn. Once back in civilzation the horse clearly remembers all the ground skills
Just to say that being cagey about getting haltered is not a sign the horse is truly feral, especially for a smart mare 
With the additional details I’d say it’s unlikely she’s really feral and that tranqing her, putting on a breakaway halter and keeping her in a smaller prn for a while may do the job.
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I have two here who had not been handled since they were babies- and they were 12 when they arrived. Oh, and stallions…
The one was really pretty easy, but the other is very sensitive, and reactive. And, his experiences with humans were apparently not good- he has serious scars across the front of his hocks that look like barbed wired injuries.
I started by just putting them into stalls- they hadn’t been in them before, I found out later, and just feeding them, cleaning the stalls, and working around them. And, feeding them carrots. Lots of carrots. They rapidly decided I was a good thing, not a bad one.
The more sensitive horse was hard to halter at first- and he isn’t the slightest bit headshy- he just was concerned.
Simply put- the more attention you give her, the more she’ll come along. If you turn her out, and ignore her most of the time, you’re going to have a mostly feral horse. The more time you spend letting her know who you are, and that you are the bringer of good things, the better off you’ll be.
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Thanks everyone for the advice. I think the mild tranquilizer idea is good. She is in a small pasture around my barn most of the time and I try to give her lots of attention. She does come and stand in the feed room door to watch me prepare feed, and always nickers when she sees me coming. So I think there is hope once we get the halter on.
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When I acquired the semi-feral Perpetual Project Pony, it helped to house her in a small area with the Really Quite Friendly Pony.
Ignoring the PPP while feeding RQFP tasty grain and loud, crunchy carrots piqued the interest of the PPP, who eventually decided to check things out.
Of course, the PPP was only semi-feral, and very greedy. That helped, as did treating her as if she would behave like a normal horse and not reacting when she skittered around, just put her back where I wanted her and carry on doing what I’m doing.
It took a bit of time, and a lot of patience, but it was possible to install the Catch, Tie, Groom, Tack, and Ride (if you don’t want to go anywhere fast) programming for the PPP, so I think your expectations are very attainable.
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I also got a unhandled 10 year old a few years ago, when I got the halter on I let him live in a round pen for about a week with a long catch rope. Just like with baby’s stepping on it taught him how to deal with that pressure without stressing and it made catching several times a day much easier. The other bonus was he was unconcerned when I used the rope around his ankle to teach him to lift his feet for cleaning and trims.
I would also suggest using a neck collar in addition to the halter until you know she’s fine to catch, that way if she gets the halter off you still have a simple way to catch her.
It’s nice of you to take in an older mare with these issues. I understand your thinking about her age and how she might be too set in her ways to train, but please consider getting a professional trainer involved to give her a good, basic foundation. You will need to catch her and her foals. Her foals will learn to be wary of people from her. They will either learn people are trustworthy and good, or how to avoid them. She may be very hard to handle with a young foal by her side, if she is this difficult now. Her value as a broodmare is significantly decreased by not being saddle trained. Good buyers are picky. These are the buyers you want for your future babies, right? They want to see how the parents move and what they have accomplished. I understand that you won’t be able to campaign her, but a few schooling shows or breed shows would be good for her and make her babies more marketable. She is half of all her foals, regardless of who the sire is.
