There is a mare that I am putting "miles" on for my boss. She is green, and just needs the time under saddle. This mare is great for everything but being caught. She lives in a 300 acre pasture and the green grass is growing again. They (the herd of 5) aren't coming in for hay like they used to, making it difficult to even find them most of the time; but when I do find them, she doesn't let me within 10ft of her wether she sees a halter or not. I have tried grain, treats, just love and praise, everything! I have even tried giving the other horses attention, treats, and grain, but she wants nothing to do with me! This mare and I have a good bond otherwise, saying that she knows me, my voice and when she is in the barn (stall), she only calls for me. She gets worried without me when we are away from the herd and won't calm down till she sees me again. She trusts me and no one else. I have, lately, been just catching her, bringing her in, giving her grain, treats, lovin' and hand grazing her to show her I'm not the "bad guy" that always makes we work... But that obviously doesn't help either! Also, please don't tell me that she just needs to be in a smaller pasture until she is able to be caught. I agree with that 100% and if she were my horse, she's be in a fricken stall till she let me catch her, but the owner wants her to be "free" so I can't change that. Please help me!
No rude comment and thanks a ton (: Y'all are the best!
Dalton2013-05-16T07:51:43Z
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Robin's answer is closest to the one I would give you. I've got a couple of things to add, though. She's right in that the best way to catch her is to ignore her. You can ask anyone. You can have a horse that has no interest in being caught, but go to work on a fence and ignore them and they're pulling tools out of your back pocket.
That's the first approach I'd try in a large pasture like that. It's also going to be super helpful to you to have something like a 4-wheeler. If they decide to run off across that huge pasture, they'll run for a few minutes and then have an hour to rest while you catch up.
Basically, I'd take the 4-wheeler into the pasture and take a set of brushes with me. I'd ride out and start brushing the other horses. Don't worry about her. Even though you're not acknowledging her, you're training her. It really helps if she's in the middle of the herd. You brush one horse for a while and then go to a horse where she's between you. Just walk right through her. If she goes to run off, then it goes from her idea to you're driving her out of your way to get to the other horse. Horses are extremely lazy and are concerned with herd pecking order so once she knows you're not a threat (she may already), her instincts will start telling he she's loosing face and she'll try to stand still so that you move your feet to go around her. That's a win in both your books, for now.
If she stands, walk up to her and brush her shoulder, withers and back. Then walk away and brush another horse. If she doesn't, just shoo her out of your way and do another horse.
If she's being contrary and not scared, then it's a different solution. In that case, you'll have to train on her. What you need to do is find a starting point. At what distance can you get to her and not have her move away from you? Is it 10' or is it 100 yards? It depends on her. Just find your starting point. You're goal now is to reduce it. You don't walk straight at her, though. I'd spend some time just approaching the point she's comfortable at and then turning around and walking away. I may circle around her at that distance and come at her from different directions.
Once she's okay with this, you'll want to start getting closer. To do this, you don't walk directly at her like a predator. You should work back and forth like you're looking for your car keys you dropped. I do about a 45' pass and then turn in. Every time you turn you'll be a little closer. Don't look directly at her. Keep an eye on her out of the corner of your eye. If she starts to shift or move off, immediately turn and walk away from her. You're basically building her tolerance to your proximity. You find her comfort zone and slowly challenge it till she gives. You then work on making that spot her new comfort zone and chanllenge it again. Eventually, you'll be right up near her. Still not looking at her, reach your had out below her nose, palm down, and wait. She will mostly likely be curious and sniff your hand. As soon as she does, walk away from her. Nothing gets a horse following anything better than getting them curious and then having that object go away from them.
Repeat a few times and she might follow you around. If she doesn't sniff and she doesn't follow you, but you've gotten to this point. Go up to her shoulder and rub it a couple of times and walk off. Don't sneak and don't pat. Just go up and rub her shoulder like you would any horses.
The key is to back off before she moves away and to not ask for too much. If you go out the first day and get to where you can touch her shoulder of get her to sniff your hand, don't do it 10 more times. Quite for the day. That's good enough. Also, do it everyday you can. Do it multiple times in a day if you don't have many days to do it. Short bursts and repetition are the idea.
Once you can lay hands on her in the pasture, then spend 9 out of 10 times you go out just brushing her at first. Then go out, slip a halter on, brush her, give her a treat, and take the halter off and leave.
Once you can reliably catch her, I'd put some more handle on her. I'd work on flexing and yielding the hindquarters. I'd do it till I didn't even need the rope and halter to support me. Then when you go in the pasture and she starts to move off, you can give the yield your hindquarters and face up cue. Good luck and try some of this.
A horse can still be "free" in a pasture that is 5 acres. Have you talked to the owner about this problem? Not being rude to you at all more to the owner but why doesn't the owner get out in a 300 acre paddock and try to catch a you g horse on green grass? Maybe if the owner had some kind of bond with the horse then the owner would be able to catch her. Bit of a stupid situation, fancy having a young horse in a paddock full of green grass!!
I really have no idea how to go about that, the only thing I would do is talk to the owner and try to put the horses in a smaller paddock or section off a part of the paddock.
You have to wait for the right time to approach her, look to see if anything is making her not want to come to you/be caught like an ill fitting saddle.
So your putting miles on her .. and expecting her to come while shes a green horse ? I would talk to your boss about the catching problems, and say at the moment i will only work on catching this mare because riding comes after catching.
Getting a horse good to be caught is more important than riding. Allow time some day to sit around in the paddock and get her comfortable with you being in her paddock, than get closer and each day you come bring food and do NOT be angry, your angry or annoyed attitude and tension might deter her alone.
Also when you put a horse back dont hit it or anoy it, when u catch horse give it a positive experience and when you put back a horse give it also another positive experience.
you will need Time,patience, and a relaxed body and stable mind. All horses are different some are smarter than others so this horse might require any thing different and even modified training to be caught.
When entering the paddock do not tense up your body or get annoyed, dont rush up to the horse and dont even think about catching get her to feel relaxed with you in the paddock and near her before getting into her space and attempting to catch her.
Well, if I were in your shoes, I would tell your boss that you are not able to work with this mare anymore. If she can't be caught, then you can't put miles on her. A green horse needs consistent, frequent work. You cannot accomplish that in your current situation. If your boss gets upset, then tell him what you've tried and ask him what else you could do.
I had a mare that did the same thing. I put her up in a large paddock (50x100') for a month and taught her to come when called. I also did like you are already and sometimes just fed her or groomed her, then put her back out. After 2 months of ground work and "fun work" mixed in with riding, she was easy to catch. She will STILL, 10 yrs later, occasionally test me by trotting away from me when I come out with a halter, but I just have to cut her off and yell at her to "WHOA BRIDGETTE," and she'll stop and wait for me to halter her. Mare's can be a real PITA, but they are fun and worth the effort.
I have a lot of horses I catch like this. Every single horse is different. There are the runners o stoppers, which you just have to chase away from the herd and keep them away until they stop
There are the buddy buddies, which take a friend with them even though you are trying to catch just one, with the buddies, just try and get the one you don't want and give them a treat, hopefully then the one you are catching will want to come.
Then there are the butt turners, I find these the easiest and the hardest, you can get pretty close to them, but they turn their butt to you and 'try' and kick you, they don't actually try and kick, they are just trying to scare you away. This little pony at my barn does this all the time, I just grab his tail, even though they can kick me, I trust him not to.
And then there are the ones who you just need to ignore, act like you walking around the herd, pet all the horses, say their name, and then if you can, try and pet the one you want, saying their name in a baby voice. If that doesn't work, just sit down, in the middle of all the horses, act boring.
You don't want to walk up to them fastly like you are going to get them, go slowly, zig zag slightly, do anything, circle.