[Courtney1291]

Ok, lately i've been working with zeus on lounging, and desensitizing (sp) him. well, he knows its comming, and now whenever he sees me he runs off. he used to be better about getting him, but now, if you dont come at him with food, or give yourself a good half hour, you cant get him. he just runs, and runs until the point of sweating like crazy. my question is, is after i catch him, do i work him? or not? also, how do you teach whoah?

really random i know
courtney

[JBandRio]

Sounds like his "work" has been all work and no play. "Work" needs to be fun and interesting and juuuust challenging enough. Lose that, and you lose their interest, as you have found out.

It sounds like it's time to just catch him, spend a few minutes doing something enjoyable, whether it's just grooming him, giving him a couple of treats, hand grazing him, or just a very very short leisurely stroll somewhere he doesn't usually get to go, and put him back out. Do this for a few days, or as long as it takes to see a change in his attitude.

Then, when you do go back to "work", remember to praise often, start and end with EASY things, introduce new things slowly, and quit before he's too mentally or physically tired to be having fun anymore.

[Kitari]

If I catch my horse and I decide to work her, I work her but afterwards I "make it worth her while" grooming her, giving her those gosh darn treats she loves. She gets those after the work and usually not before and she is quite content with it, especialy since she has something to look forward to.

[cheval_charme]

Sometimes when a horse runs away when being caught it can be a respect issue or they know that they will be working and they might be hurting. Is he sore at all?

JB had really good advice with doing something fun and keep it short and see if the behavior changes. If it doesn't maybe there is something physical that makes him not want to do the longing.

[SecretAgent]

I've never tried it, but I'm told it works sometimes--get yourself a book, or something, anything--just do something in the field, read, or draw, whatever--and do it by yourself. the idea is to pique your horse's curiousity, so how comes over to see what's up.

like I said, I've never done it, but a friend told me about how she used to do it to catch her horse

[FlyHigh]

My horse will run sometimes because he doesn't want to leave his friends. haha he is a doof though because he will "hide" behind Lily (his girlfriend hahaha). I use the term hide loosely since he is 16.2 and Lily is 15.2. But lily loves attention and will come right to you so he follows her, then you just have to pet lily for a little before he decides he wants some love. Whenever he is an issue i love the other horses for a little, i think he gets jealous.

[LuckyGurl]

I agree with JB. The other thing i do with my horses when being "worked" on a regular basis, is everyonce in awhile i will bring them in, give them a super long grooming and just give them a treat in there stall and put them back out. It just changes things up for them.

[skysthelimit]

My horses aren't worked every single time they are caught. And they are not caught every single time they are approached either. A lot of times my students want to say goodbye to the horses before they leave, so they go into the dry lot, or pasture, or wherever, and pet them or give them a treat and then leave. To my horses, humans rock! lol. If we are doing a barn lesson, we'll groom the horses or massage them or play anatomy games on them. This makes the lessons a little less monotonous for my horses. Sometimes they will walk away from me when I'm trying to catch them, but after a few steps, they always give up. It's just a horsie thing, i guess. Good luck!~Brit

[ches]

How old is he? If he's under 3, then it might be worthwhile to give him the winter off to just be a horse and to grow up. Make a fresh start in the spring and in the mean time catch him every now and then and do something nice for him.

What is he eating? If he's getting too much grain, he could have a lot of energy and he could be playing with you; wanting to run around to burn off all the excess calories. Horses barely have to break a trot to evade being caught, so it could be his version of a game, even if he's not eating too many oats. Why not try to play this game in an arena and see if he's up for it? If he knows he gets to play cat-and-mouse after being caught, he might come straight to you.

[Courtney1291]

He'll be 3 in july, and he is very curious, and loves the whole..ooh what are you doing sitting there type thing. I'll try to catch him just to have fun, i forgot about the whole fun thing with horses lol. He doesnt seem to be hurting, hes just his hornery littlle self. thanks for the advice, i think i'll give him the winter off, we've get plenty of time in the spring i guess thanks for all the advice!

edit.
also i think he may be running out of fear still. before i got him, there were a couple of people that wanted him, but couldnt catch him, so they just sort of chased him. and the owner would get out and chase him whenever she decided she wanted to "give him some exercise" he still may be getting over that, i never thought about it before until now.