Difficult foal to catch?

Question

i have a foal that is getting weened at the moment . she hasnt had alot of work done to her but is hulter broken and she is very very very dificult to cath. she is not in a round yard and i dont have one on the propity im on at the moment how should i try to catch her. if i try to let her come to me she sniffs me the aks like a silly buger around the medium squar pen. PLEASE HELP

Answer 1

last year my horse had a foal and before selling her she became very difficult to catch

i found two things that worked for me

one of them was making sure that when she was turned out i didnt scare her away by waving my arms or swinging a head collar as this made her very worried about coming to me when trying to catch again as she thought i would do it again

and

catching all other horses in the field and taking them away first, as she didnt like to be left along she would always be caught then

and finally if you still have the mare try not catching the foal with a head collar but just letting the foal follow the mother

hope this helps

x

Answer 2

First of all, be quiet, don't shout and rant at her if you can't catch her or she will become afraid of being caught.

When you do catch her, praise her and give her lots of fuss so that she associates being caught with a nice experience.

You say she is being weened at the moment, is she still turned out with her mother?  Sometimes catching mum and walking away will encourage the foal to follow you.

If she is turned out with other foals, catch them first.  No foal wants to be left all on their own so she should be easy to catch if all her friends have gone.

The main thing is to be patient, if she had been well handled when she was younger you wouldn't have this problem now, so it will take time to re-train her.

I will say, don't get into the habit of giving her food or treats every time you catch her.  This is how foals learn to bite!  She will start to expect the food and could become nippy if she doesn't get what she expects.

Good luck!

Answer 3

stick ur hand out and say u have food. Then she'd probably come to ya.