Once again, my general notes, this time on catching. More often than not I will use clicker training as a long term solution for a horse that is difficult to catch.
Catching problems
When
working with a horse that is difficult to catch you really do need to have the
time to follow it through. Each time you give up trying to catch a horse that
doesn’t want to be caught you teach him that his behaviour works and if you try
for a long time and then give up you can build up his stamina too. Getting
cross never helps – quiet persistence is usually the answer.
It’s
really important to approach you horse as if you have all the time in the world
with soft body language and your eyes not directed straight at his. It’s better
to go in a casual and wiggly, relaxed line rather than at a fast walk in a
direct line. Having said that, it’s not a good idea to creep about like a
stalking predator either; if you act like a predator the horse will act like
prey (and leave!). If the horse walks away from you then you need to stay with
him and try to aim for where you think the horse is going; mirroring the
actions of the horse. If the horse stops then you need to stop too and reward no
matter how far away you are. This is his first offer to be caught. Drop your
body language, turn your body your eyes away – you might even walk away. You
need to reward the horse for even the merest suggestion that he might be
caught. If the horse walks away or starts to graze then you walk towards him
again and continue in the same way. Most horses will offer to be caught after a
short while but you must be prepared for the long haul.
It’s
only in rare circumstances that I would push the horse to go faster or even do
a Join-Up – most of the time just sticking with them works. If the horse
gallops off to the other end of the field I’ll walk down there too. If there
are other horses that are interfering by influencing your horse then you might
want to ask if they can be taken out but otherwise I would just ignore them –
quite often they will co-operate with you because they can see that you are
focused on one particular animal.
For a
really determined horse (particularly one in a big field), you need to be able
to get the horse into a smaller secure section and then work in the same way.
It might be worth using a smaller paddock for a while until the horse is being
caught consistently.
I
will do what works with a horse and if a little handful of food gets your horse
to be more inclined to be caught then I would use it – you can always preface
it with a click as in clicker training so that he never expects food without
hearing a click first.
Horses that hate having a
headcollar on
If I
have a pony that is worried about having a head collar on then I might put one
head collar on over another and then put it on and take it off over and over
and over again until the pony feels relaxed about it. It’s also worth
considering whether clicker training would help to create a pleasant
association with the headcollar.
