[Midnight Felicity]

So im posting this thread to help out my friend. She has a 9 y/o paint cross that she cant cant. Its her first horse and although the used to be able to catch her when she first arrived to her property she really cant now. It has come down to going into the pasture and sneak attacking her with some bailing twine because if she sees the halter she will run, but even her just going out to the pasture makes this horse run now.
Its almost like a huge game to her but since my friend never works with her horse it never gets resolved. My friend eventually gives up because she cant catch her and the horse wins. This has happened multiple times.
So i have tried to help her and with some success a couple of times but the last time i went out we couldnt get her and now tomorrow she gets her feet done and blah blah blah.
So im asking your guys expert advise.

I have tried getting her into a smaller area dn lunging her until she gives up but the weird thing is she doesnt get tired and give up. We worked her for a good hour or more a month ago in the arena (free lunging) and she still would not come to us. I was trying a joining up technique but to no avail.

Please help.

Thanks!

[mftowner06]

I think there was a question presented to CA that was similiar to this and his suggestion would be if you catch your horse then make her feet move and it sounds like you're doing that so his other sugggest would be I think and I would do this if she were my horse. Put her in a round penn and the owner takes her water and she has a certain amount of time to drink after that amount of time take the water away, the owner takes her her grain and she eats while the owner is holding the bucket and do this everyday ...soon the mare is going to figure out that coming to you isn't such a bad thing after all... and she will begin to look for you instead of running away from you! Does that make sense?

[Midnight Felicity]

Yeah that makes sense. The only thing is her arena is snad so she cants really leave her in there for an extended period of time. Like she cant be fed hay in there because of the risk of sand colic.
We did lock her in the arena for the night w/o feed but with water hoping the next morning she would come right to us but she didnt. My friend instead just let the darn horse out....and she didnt learn a thing!

[lawquin]

If you can get the horse into the arena leave her there for at least a day with only water and a little feed by the entrance. If your friend has any pannels block of a small section that she is in so you can corner her, even plywood or something that will make a wall will work.

If you have a bucket feed her in that so she doesn't get sand colic but sit in the middle of her pen with the food on one side and water on the other side of you. Shake a grain bucket and if she does come to you slip the halter on her and leave the lead rope attached to it before letting her run again. You might have to use 1 or 2 lead ropes depending on how long they are.

Let

[kmdstar]

Originally Posted by Midnight Felicity

Yeah that makes sense. The only thing is her arena is snad so she cants really leave her in there for an extended period of time. Like she cant be fed hay in there because of the risk of sand colic.
We did lock her in the arena for the night w/o feed but with water hoping the next morning she would come right to us but she didnt. My friend instead just let the darn horse out....and she didnt learn a thing!

My mares are kept in the outdoor arena at my barn, which is sand, they are fed hay on the ground. We've considered putting them on a sandclear supplement but now with winter coming I don't think it'll be an issue, next summer we probably should though.

They've been eating hay off the ground all summer. You could get a sandclear supplement if that's really a huge concern.

I REALLY don't think taking water away from a horse for the WHOLE night is a good idea. I get the general idea of what you tried to accomplish, but unless you stayed up all night and went in there a few times with a bucket of water, I don't think it's a good idea.

[lawquin]

(Sorry pressed wrong button I didn't get to finish the whole description

Let her run in the pasture with the lead ropes hanging. Everytime she steps on it her head head will go down which gives you a chance to go up and get her. Pretty soon she will get mad and want thr lead rope off because it keeps pulling on her poll; and *hopefully* come to you. I've had to do this with some horses and it took about 4 days for them to learn.

[mftowner06]

Originally Posted by lawquin

(Sorry pressed wrong button I didn't get to finish the whole description

Let her run in the pasture with the lead ropes hanging. Everytime she steps on it her head head will go down which gives you a chance to go up and get her. Pretty soon she will get mad and want thr lead rope off because it keeps pulling on her poll; and *hopefully* come to you. I've had to do this with some horses and it took about 4 days for them to learn.

Never a good idea to leave a lead rope/halter on a horse in a pasture, they could step on it flip over hurt themselves, panic because they think something is chasing them and run into a barbwire fence, never leave your halter/lead rope on your horse unsupervised!!!

[joce]

Originally Posted by lawquin

(Sorry pressed wrong button I didn't get to finish the whole description

Let her run in the pasture with the lead ropes hanging. Everytime she steps on it her head head will go down which gives you a chance to go up and get her. Pretty soon she will get mad and want thr lead rope off because it keeps pulling on her poll; and *hopefully* come to you. I've had to do this with some horses and it took about 4 days for them to learn.

That doesn't sound very safe for the horse. And I see you are doing this with your new filly? She could break her neck instead of deciding she doesn't want the halter on. And a horse doesn't have the brains to realize coming to you would get the halter off. It requires more work than that.


How big is the pasture?

With both of mine I went through this. No amount of catching them in the round pen or arena helped and if they were not hungry they wouldn't come for food. So I would take out a halter,lead,and a lunge whip. If they ran I kept them running and as hard as I could(hard if its a huge pasture). Eventually they will let you catch them. Only make them run if they start. For the first couple times you catch them just take them in and brush or just pet and release.They learn its better to be caught than worked in the pasture. It really made a huge difference for me and its been a long time since mine have run from me in the pasture.

[kmdstar]

Originally Posted by lawquin

(Sorry pressed wrong button I didn't get to finish the whole description

Let her run in the pasture with the lead ropes hanging. Everytime she steps on it her head head will go down which gives you a chance to go up and get her. Pretty soon she will get mad and want thr lead rope off because it keeps pulling on her poll; and *hopefully* come to you. I've had to do this with some horses and it took about 4 days for them to learn.

That isn't safe at all.

How would the horse even KNOW (let's remember they do NOT think like we do) that if they came to the person trying to catch them they would remove the rope that kept pulling their head down? My guess is, they wouldn't....that's probably why it took so hard for YOUR horses to learn

Originally Posted by mftowner06

Never a good idea to leave a lead rope/halter on a horse in a pasture, they could step on it flip over hurt themselves, panic because they think something is chasing them and run into a barbwire fence, never leave your halter/lead rope on your horse unsupervised!!!

Definately agree.

[lawquin]

May not work for you and you can say my training methods will kill my horse or that it will flip them over but it doesn't. You believe whatever you want. Your saying horses are stupid and they don't have the brains to come to a person? Your wrong.