How to catch a horse?

Question

i have a 7 year old SSH gelding.

He's no problem to catch in a field alone, or with other horses (even ones that run away before you get to the gate). Could even catch him when some idiot run over our fence with a 4-wheeler and tore it down.

He was practically sticking his head in the halter.

My husband turned him out with his dads cows (2 Cows, 2 calfs and 1 bull) b/c our fence was down.

was suppost to only be for a hour or 2 until we got our fence back up.

we've been trying to catch him for 6 weeks.

he'll let you get close enough for your fingertips to touch him, but then takes off.

he wont come eat grain, apples, carrots, suggar cubes........horse treats.

we cant just go out there and sit or stand for hours b/c the cows and bull start charging us.

ever time we have chased him into the barn (its 3 sided), he always takes the bull in with him.

have tryed the approch and retreat method, when we retreat he just starts grazing again.

Answer 1

This will sound really silly but it has not failed me yet.. as long as the stock arnt too close to hurt you get down on all 4's by your pony and look at the floor your pony will be so interested in what you are doing that he cant resits coming over! then you can quicky but gently get the halter or lead rope over him to keep him steady while you get up to put it on properly :) easy

hope that helped!

Answer 2

It's your fault he's running away. If it's taken six weeks to get your horse caught, well, you should've tried your hardest on the first time. Horses aren't stupid, and learn habits very very easily.

I'd say get professional help, if it has taken six weeks.

Answer 3

I know this might be silly but maybe you could rope him. Ride up on another horse ,you on one horse and your husband on the other an try to get the rope around him then bring him in and you might want to put him in a stall to let him cool down. Or jut put another horse in there one thats his friend that is easy to catch and get that one and see if that horse could lur him to you.

good luck

Answer 4

Either of you good with a rope?  You rope him, or take a lead rope since he lets you get pretty close and swing it over his neck and lead him that way.

Another way is the crawl method, when you get close, get down on your hands and knees and crawl, he'll be curious as to what the heck you are doing down there.

If you want to try the stand and wait out there, take a bull whip, lunge whip, or bb gun and if those cows come near shoot at their butts or just around them.  It really doesn't hurt them, they have tough skin.

Another method is when you try to herd him into the barn, have someone else out there  and practice cutting!  haha, if you can borrow another horse, use him to keep the cows and bull away.

I seriously suggest roping though.

Answer 5

I had this problem with my horse as well. I would get really close to her and start to put the halter on as fast as I can and she would turn around as fast as she can and gallop away.

Try giving all the cows and other livestock in that pasture attention, but not the horse. Give everyone else treats, but not the horse. Do this a couple times. Eventually your horse will start to get jelous and come over to you to get some attention. When he comes over pet him, scratch his neck but don't catch him yet. The next day go into the pasture again and I'm sure he will come up to you for another round of LOVE! Soon he will trust you enough to put a halter on. Good luck!!

Answer 6

just correr him and holed led ropes with some other people and when he gets tied Tye him up!

good luck

Answer 7

My horse did that when I first got him. They way I got him to come was to take is lead rope and start throwing it around and making him run. Then he finally got tired and came to me or I just walked over and grabbed him. You have to be quick. Just put the lead line around his neck then take the halter slowly to his head and put it on. You might need two people to do this. Make sure you have something to keep him happy while you are walking him. Because you wouldn't want to have to catch him when he is outside of the  pasture.

Answer 8

Try using your leap rope (use a long one as apposed to a shorter one if possible) and when he comes up to you (you mentioned him getting just within fingertip range), swing the rope over his neck. Have at least one other person there to restrain him, get the halter over his head, or at least buckled around his neck. The horse might fight, but it's a matter of not pulling back too much(because that'd be tug-o-war), and not letting go of the rope.

That would be the very abrupt and unpleasant way to go about it, but it might work, depending on your horse. He might fight a little, then figure out he's screwed and give in, though this isn't to say the fight won't suck.

You can also try join-up techniques. Chase him. When he comes up to you, chase him away. Don't run after him, but don't let him come up to you. Look him in the eye, and keep your body sqaure and sharp. Move at his flanks and send him away with the lead or what-have-you. He'll leave, and finally settle again. When he does this, chase him again. He'll eventually get tired of being chased and try to come into you to ask what's going on. You should notice his attention [ears] on you, and perhaps some dropping of the head, or lip-l*****g, etc. When he starts asking to come in to you, still send him away, but not as harshly. Finally, you can drop your shoulders, and relax your stance. Turn your shoulders so they're aprx 45 degrees to his, and look faintly over your shoulder at the ground. This is an invite for him. You've backed off, and you're saying it's ok, come in. If he doesn't approach, turn back on him and send him away again. If he does approach, reward him with a treat, or petting, etc. And then casually slip the lead around his neck and the halter over his face. If he breaks from you at all during any of this, send him out again. It might take a while, but it should pay off in the end.

Answer 9

You could try bringing all the livestock in the field in and then turning them away one by one until just the horse is left.

Answer 10

Wow, that's odd.  Think he was kept with cows before?

One plan is to take the cows out so he's alone.  

If that's not possible, how about a trap?  Set up panels or fencing acrosspart of the barn entrance.  When he goes in alone, put another piece across.  If you can get him in without the cows, or the cows in without him, that's easiest.  Otherwise, shut them all in and tempt him to you with a treat over the fence, halter, lead rope, get the h out!  Once he gets a little hungry, you should be able to get him.

Next option:  get some inexpensive electric fencing and start downsizing the field.  It'll hold the cows and probably the horse.  Once it's small enough to handle, they'll get a little hungry and you may be able to tempt him to you with a treat.

The beef cows across the street from my daughter's house are pretty wild.  They herd them with those 4 wheeler atv's.  If you take one of those in there, do the cows still charge?  Maybe if you did that you could keep the cows away long enough to catch the horse.

Sorry I don't have any better ideas for you.  By winter, if the field grass weakens a bit, he may be more catchable.

Edit:  Just read your addition.  Other than waiting for winter, all I can suggest is sedatives.  Either in feed spread for all 4, or call the humane society and have them come out with a dart gun.

In fact, the humane society has people who specialize in capturing the uncapturable.  Give them a call and see what they recommend!

Answer 11

you need to get a couple of stock panels to close off the open side of the barn, tie one end of the stock panel to the barn with a rope or a couple wraps of some bale string so it makes a gate,run him into the barn and let the bull come in then using a sorting stick have someone work the gate and sort out the bull leaving the horse in the barn,we do it all the time when we sort livestock for the rodeo.

edit:do you have corriente cattle?if they bend up standard stock panels use priefert bull gates,i use them for the nasty fighting bulls when i sort them out.if all else fails ask around for some rodeo bullfighters to come over to help,they never back away from a good challenge