Mustang

How do you catch a horse for you to ride when it is in its pasture? After calling it, how do you place the equipments like the lead rope and the halter before even riding the horse?

pumpkinflirt

Pumpkin comes when he's called cause he knows there is a treat waiting at the gate. We turn out our horses without halters, so we have to put them back on with a leadrope to bring into the barn to groom and tack. Once a horse is trained to have ground manners its not incredibly hard to do.

GiddyUp

Like Pumpkin said start by using a treat like grain. When the horse starts eating out of a bucket, flip the lead rope around the horses neck. You then have a chance to control the horse and get a halter on. Over time you should be able to cut down on the treat. I have also had a smart horse that was wise to the game. She wouldn't come over and I had to chase her around the pasture a few time. I believe she was laughing at me.

lovethemall

I wonder how many times owners have been laughed at, could you imagine the horse just snickering? "You cant catch me, try if you must but you wont get me". That would be great, esp. if someone else was there, and had a camera at the time, and was able to catch a horse just grinning away!!

WagonsHo

I believe horses mess with our minds. You try to catch them and they play hard to get. You will a nice bucket of water and they tip over the bucket. Horses like playing games and I am sure they play tricks on us.

Mustang

Yeah, I have seen some horses neigh when the owner failed to catch the horse. Maybe the horses too have a sense of humor.

Is it always feeding that makes the horse go to you? I see horse owners use a whistler and the horse come to them. I guess the horses are well trained if they can do that.

alexis

Come on now, wouldn't you do the same? I think it would be quite entertaining from the horses point of view having a silly human run around trying to catch me.

GiddyUp

Talking about messing with the mind, I have seen my horses mess with me. I clean their turnout and haul out the poop. When I have finished, sure enough one or both will poop. They wait until I have cleaned the entire turnout and then poop again. If they could talk it would be, "hey! you missed some poop here! *laugh*".

hummingbird42256

We don't have a problem catching either one of our horses.Like the others said ,teach them that there is something they like waiting for them if they come when called and you should have no problem. Ours often stand and neigh at the gate for US to come...lol

Remark

This is a great thread. I totally agree, the horses love to make fun of us.

Having a horse that always comes when you call is worth all the green tea in California.

First think safety...if you have a lot of horses in the same field and you arrive with "treats"...it won't take long for the Queen Mare to figure it out and she'll keep all the others at bay until she gets her treat...or worse yet, all the horses will show up and want the treat. That can get dangerous pretty quick. So, don't take the treat into the field with you when there are more than two horses involved. Even two can be dangerous.

I used affection instead of the treat. If you've ever watched horses in the herd, you will notice them "biting" each other's withers. This is a sign of affection reserved for best friends. I got in the habit of facing my horses and reaching around and "pinching" their withers, or scratching their necks whenever they came when called. Since horses love attention, they always came when called...and since it's common horse behavior not to interrupt someone else's affection time, the other horses never crowded me. You need to do this a few times without expecting anything in return. No halters, no saddle, no nothing...just attention. Once your horse associates your call with attention, she'll come.

In the meantime...one of the best ways to catch a horse that's playing the run away game is...first never walk up from behind ( in horsey body language someone coming up from behind means go forward)....act like you're not interested in her (hold you hands together and keep looking at your hands as if they are made of gold...she'll be curious what might be in them)....stop when you are maybe 20-30 feet away facing her front and then stoop down (horses will walk toward an object that gets smaller..don't rush it...if she ignores you..pick at the grass (she'll want to know what you found). When she does come over...offer her some grass and slip the lead line over her neck...then give her some affection, talk in a low voice and slip on the halter. This may take some time, but it sure beats running all over the field.

beauty

My grand-dad used to "play games" with his horses, and after he'd call them, if they were playing the "you cant catch me " game, he would turn his back, walk away, whistling, pretending to not care, and they would come up and nuzzle his shoulder after a few minutes. It was adorable and worked every time