[Sterling]

Hi

I just brought home the other day the most gorgeous 6 yr old palomino paint gelding (sorry I dont know how to post pics). He was delivered to me so was already haltered and led fine. I turned him loose in his paddock
and havent been able to catch him since. I did manage to scratch his barrel and bum one time but he doesnt want me near his face.

He in his first home about a year and a half ago was smacked in the face
a lot (according to the girl I bought him from) and tied with a rope halter with knots in it etc. He is a very healthy horse and stands 14.3 and is 1200 lbs so he didnt lack for food but was physically abused.

You can tell he wants to be friends but is just too nervous to get closer than a couple of feet away. If I move towards him he moves away. If I stand with my back to him he comes up and stands behind me but when I turn he moves away.

The girl I got him from says once he trusts you he is okay ... my question is .. how do I catch him or go about earning his trust with out putting too much pressure on him and scaring him away from me ? I dont want him to think I am chasing him.

Any suggestions would help.
Thanks

[Miz Khiz]

I had a horse that refused to let me catch him as well and I believe he had been abused.

I found with him it was the actual motion of putting on the halter... he didn't like my arms being raised over his head, or the lead rope being thrown around his neck.

The fact that he is letting you UP to him is good. I didn't want to bribe him with grain or anything but did resort to that a couple times.

For me it took about a month to be able to just walk up to him and put his halter on. Six months later he comes when I call...

Sorry I couldn't be of more help but I guess I'm just saying keep working at it and gain his trust...

[mistysangel0]

I have a gelding that was just like yours. He is 7yrs old and had been badly abused.. The only place I could touch him for a very long time was at the base of his neck anywhere else he would take off.

I don't know how bad your gelding is and I don't know the extent of his abuse, but I know what worked for Shiloh and he was very bad at first and very scared, I hope this helps

Is there a possibility that when you go out into the pasture with him you could bring like treats or grain with you??
It could work and with him it may because he is coming up to you just not letting you touch him, but it also may not work like with Shiloh he wanted nothing to do with me whether I had food or not.
A good way to gain trust is just hang out with him let him investigate you, the more time he spends with you that you don't hurt him or hit him the more he will start to trust you. I don't know how scared of people he is but if he is scared do not press yourself on him let him come to you, if you press yourself on him and he is very scared it could make matters worse.
How big is the pasture he is in?? At this point smaller would be better because there is less room and he would be more apt. to spend time near you.
The small pasture is only temporary Shiloh I want to say was in the small one for about a month then he went out to the 5 and 8 acre pastures, and by small I don't mean a cubicle lol I just mean not 5 acres like maybe 3/4 acre to 1 1/2 acres maybe idk what kind of facilities you have though

This is what I did with Shiloh and like I said he was badly abused, and had no training at all, it's been almost 5 months since then and I'm not saying he's perfect but he acts like a normal horse now, I call him he runs to me, I can pet him brush him and love all over him and he loves it lol.

I hope you and your guy can be the same way very soon!!
Good luck oh and god job for taking on a project like that!!! That's awesome, I'm sure you're going to have a very nice horse very soon

[StormyFlica]

Hi
I bought a mini Flica, she was 2.5 years old had a halter indented on her, A Mean man for a owner who brought her to me, he drug her in the trailer with a cord around her neck. I had just went to look at her but said no way could I leave her there oh & he tried to ride her to... She hated poeple, he back the trail up to the gate and out she jump, Just sad.. she would not come to me didnt want me near her, it took 2 weeks to even be able to touch her ( I have pic's in my profile ).

What worked for us was, I stopped trying to get her to let me near her & touch her ( mean while the halter need to come off she could not eve chew ) I had the farrier out he cought her in the barn did what he needed to do & we fed her treats while he did her feet, once he was done we got the halter off, Then I needed to gain her trust, so I would be in the barn cleaning up there area and I would not pay her no mind, She wanted to be near me you could tell she would watch me, there field at that time was 1/4 of an acre, I would clean the field she would follow me but didnt get to close, I just did what I was doing and paid her no mind, this went on for a week The barn was spotless, the field was spotlees, some one gave me the idea to sit in a chair so thats what I did, each day she would trust more, it took 2 weeks and she let me touch her, I was watching her ich herself on the fence on her but so thats what I scratched 1st and every day she got better & I could touch her more & More. I will say she does not like a halter she now has jaw bone damage and the only time I have a halter on her if when the farrier comes.

Thing that will help you are,
a small area
spend as much time as you can with him with out trying to touch him
stay with your side tord him, If you are doing something & he walks stright tords you turn your side to him, This is how friendly horses show they are no threat, They dont look stinght into the others eyes or stand face to face. They stand side to side.

I cant help with the halter,, but trust is 1st

I can now touch Flica every were, but she is still face shy but can be haltered by my farrier in a nice way.
sorry so long
dont give up you will get his trust

[Fallon]

Take a book and a chair and a few snacks for yourself and the horse.

Sit in the chair and put his 'bribes' at your feet. Pick up your book and just start reading aloud.

Let him come to you. Don't move, don't attempt to touch him, just sit there and read. Let him find his treats and leave again.

Do it every day, several times a day if you can. Before too long, he'll start coming to you when you enter and will stay with you after he's eaten his treats.

That's when you try to touch him. Usually, it goes pretty fast at that point. By then they've decided you're not a threat and are comfy with you and you just start small and go from there. By small I mean, a pat on the nose, scratch under the chin, or a rub on the neck sort of thing. Just one, then walk away, The next day, try two etc.

[rwinksters]

I agree with a lot of the other posters. You need to spend a lot of time just sitting out there. I also second the reading out loud idea. I worked with a mini who was scared of everybody so I used to take my schoolwork into her run, sit down and talk through everything. She eventually calmed down and started to become curious about me. Soon after that in addition to my books, I'd bring in a brush or two and work on petting her and whatnot. Things went really quickly from there... Within a few weeks after that, I was able to take her anywhere with me, catch her anywhere and do anything with her. We really had a good solid base on our relationship. I never once gave her treats though. She had a tendency of biting when scared and I did not want to reinforce that. In fact, I rarely give treats to horses that are scared or in training. I want them to look forward to seeing me, not what comes with me.

[Nikki.M.]

YouTube - Wild Mustang Demo

That is how you do it. You apply a little pressure, and when he turns his head to you, back off. He will eventually learn to come up to you.

[kofmele]

I have a rescue as well, she was never beaten, just neglected, she was in a pasture with 5 mares that had "hidden spots" and when the other mares were coaxed in for shots and farrier she didn't come with them. She was a boarded horse so the few times she was noticed they assumed the owner was taking care of these things. She had had absolutely no human contact for 5 years so reverted back to predator/prey mentality. I did very similar to what was suggested earlier. I didn't use a chair though was afraid it was too crazy of a contraption for her situation. I sat in the grass and read or sang aloud. Eventually it only took crouching down to get her to come to me. A horse lowering their head changes endorphines in their system and relaxes them so encouraging her to come down to me helped. I would sit near a pile of hay or bring treats set them nearby and ignore her. Horses are like cats, extremely curious and even better than cats, have group mentality. they want your company! She eventually would calmly eat a flake of hay near me and shortly after that nuzzle me in curiosity. If she touched me I touched whatever was close enough to reach. She had mouth ulcers from lack of dental care so very timid of her face, which with your situation will probably be the case, so I would avoid movement around the face at first. It really didn't take that long to have her allow me touch her regularly. I would go back to the beginning whenever I introduced something new. After she let me touch her I brought brushes in and laid them out, until she was done checking them out picking them up and touching them to her wherever I could reach, then again with the halter, saddle, bridle etc. By the end she didn't really need me to take those extra steps to introduce the new things, but I think it help her more than it seemed by it being more of me asking her if these things were okay and not expecting them to be.

Good Luck, and send pics!!

[katyrides]

For me, I have a horse that still can be hard to catch. When we got him he would jump fences into other pastures to get away from us, and it took me a good 3 hours for about a few weeks when I went out to catch him.
Now, after a few months, I found treats work wonders. They're healthy for him, too! I will ignore him at first, play with other horses, do my own thing..but I always carry the halter around when I am out there so he doesn't know what's going to happen. I also switch what we're doing everyday so he's not bored and doesn't think: ooh boy, today we're going to do this..I better run!
H's great now, he has his days but for the most part, he's become very easy to catch.

[Lissette]

Originally Posted by Nikki.M.

YouTube - Wild Mustang Demo

That is how you do it. You apply a little pressure, and when he turns his head to you, back off. He will eventually learn to come up to you.

That's nothing short of incredible...
But dangerous for someone without wild horse experience (a professional) to do..