• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Catching a horse

Help Support Ranchers.net:

C

C-E

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 22, 2007
Messages
129
Reaction score
0
Location
kansas
I'm looking for advice. I have an eight year old mustang gelding, pretty good horse just needs some fine tuning.
The problem is catching him, he is kept here at the house on ten acres with 10 other horses a mix of mares geldings and a stud. I can walk up to him at any time unless I have a halter, lead rope, etc. When he sees me with these in my hands he runs. Not far as he is just on ten acres. Usually to catch him I have to bait him into a pen with corn, and sometimes that's just a pain in the @$$. All of the horses are fed corn together in a feed bunk every evening. This last week I have been haltering him before feeding. When he lets me catch him with little effort he gets a little treat before being fed with the others at the bunk. Other nights I feed the others and run him away from the feed bunk until he will let me halter him. When I say run him away I mean that if he comes to me and lets be put the halter on I will let him eat, but if he just tries to sneak past I move him away.
This seems to be working, at least a little, I can tell a small difference in just a week. Just looking for info, opinions and advise.
 
Most of our horses can be caught with a cube of cake. The only problem is that sometimes the ones you don't want stand in between you and the one you do want. I like to carry the halter and lead rope in my left hand, and also the cube of cake in that hand. As the horse reaches for the cake, I put my right arm around his neck. If he won't hold still, he doesn't get the cake. While he is eating, the lead rope is moved under his neck from the left hand to the right hand. After you get the lead rope around his neck, you have something to make the horse realize he is caught until you can get the halter on his head. Usually this trick works, but there are exceptions to every rule. Good luck.
 
Put some baler twine in your back pocket and use that instead of a halter, or some of those rope halters wad up pretty small. Go out and catch him every day for a while, pet 'em, give 'em a treat and turn him loose. It won't take very long he'll look forward to being caught, then start riding him some days you catch him and other days continue turning him loose, after a while you won't have to do this anymore just catch him when you want.
 
Start in the corral in a pen, have your halter in your hand, if he turns and runs then make him run around the pen until he stops and faces you. Use the end of your lead rope to keep him running until you see he will face you. Then turn your back and start to walk off, see if he follows you a step or two. If he does, then turn around and walk up to him. Repeat until he figures out it is easier to just stand and do what you want. Then in the pasture if he won't let you up to him, don't let him in the bunch until he faces you, take a few steps and see if he follows and then turn and walk up to him.
 
That sounds good to me, ranch hand.

One other thing you can do, when you turn to walk up to the horse,
you can take a few steps toward him, but if he acts like he is going to
take off again, BACK UP a few steps. Continue this until he starts
walking toward you.

I don't think you can do it wrong, just go by trial and error. Learn to
'feel' what he is going to do. Before a horse does something, he PREPARES to do it. Try to be a step ahead of him.

GOOD LUCK!!

(Make the wrong things difficult and the right things easy) :wink:
 
Thank you all for your info. Once in the round pen, stall run, etc. I can walk right up to him. However if he is in the pasture he seems to forget all this.
I have been using the same basic concept, letting him know that if he comes to me he can stand, but if he moves away he has to keep moving. But this gets hard on a fat guy keeping a horse moving on ten acres. I've found it's a lot easier when someone is with me as they can help keep him moving.
After almost two weeks he is showing improvement, however slow it seems to come.
I can always bait him in with corn have been doing that for years but I've always liked my horses to come to me and stand for haltering. He is the only one that runs like this.
But like I said he is showing some improvement, It doesn't take near as long to catch him now. Just have to remember to be patient.
 
Never,never lie to him,have that treat in hand for him. Being a Mustang,
he will remember . I think being hard to catch is part of being a Mustang,
but can be gotten around by being kind and thinking before you react.
Good luck with the pony..
 
Skip the treats!!!! Someday, you might get bucked off and need to catch the pony for a ride home and have no treats. Let them trust you unconditional and not just for treats. Besides, treats then leads to the wanting to bite you looking for a treat.
 
ranch hand said:
Skip the treats!!!! Someday, you might get bucked off and need to catch the pony for a ride home and have no treats. Let them trust you unconditional and not just for treats. Besides, treats then leads to the wanting to bite you looking for a treat.
Click to expand...

An ounce of treat is worth a pound of "unconditional love." My horses love me for my treats much more than they love me for being me. :)
 
Well Soapweed, put kids in the story instead of horses. Do your kids love you more for your treats than unconditional love? I still want a horse that doesn't need the treats. I give treats when they least expect it. Kind of like saying I love you. If you say it all the time it gets to be just another saying, BUT if you say it when they least expect and you really mean it I think it means more.
 
ranch hand said:
Well Soapweed, put kids in the story instead of horses. Do your kids love you more for your treats than unconditional love? I still want a horse that doesn't need the treats. I give treats when they least expect it. Kind of like saying I love you. If you say it all the time it gets to be just another saying, BUT if you say it when they least expect and you really mean it I think it means more.
Click to expand...

You have a well-merited point, and I "treat" my kids much like you do your kids. :wink: As for catching a horse, if the horse knows they get a piece of cow cake when I catch them, they don't mind getting caught. And like you, I pet them sometimes even when I don't have any cake.

I am 55 years old, and went the first forty of those years thinking it wasn't very "cowboy" to use cake or grain to catch a horse. The past fifteen years I've carried a few pieces of cake in my coat pocket to catch a horse. I can tell you straight that life is much easier doing it this way, and there is a whole lot less dust in the corral when we are getting our mounts for the day captured.
 
Soapweed said:
ranch hand said:
Well Soapweed, put kids in the story instead of horses. Do your kids love you more for your treats than unconditional love? I still want a horse that doesn't need the treats. I give treats when they least expect it. Kind of like saying I love you. If you say it all the time it gets to be just another saying, BUT if you say it when they least expect and you really mean it I think it means more.
Click to expand...

You have a well-merited point, and I "treat" my kids much like you do your kids. :wink: As for catching a horse, if the horse knows they get a piece of cow cake when I catch them, they don't mind getting caught. And like you, I pet them sometimes even when I don't have any cake.

I am 55 years old, and went the first forty of those years thinking it wasn't very "cowboy" to use cake or grain to catch a horse. The past fifteen years I've carried a few pieces of cake in my coat pocket to catch a horse. I can tell you straight that life is much easier doing it this way, and there is a whole lot less dust in the corral when we are getting our mounts for the day captured.
Click to expand...



I agree and we handle many of the cattle--lead cows-- this same way.

On 'wash day" I've washed over the years probably TONS of cubes/cake that have been left over/forgotten in the pockets of jeans!!! :lol: :lol:
 
Kind of like not cowboy to use a bank to get on sometimes. I guess the cowboy rules do change with age. My dad uses a bank or what ever close to make the getting on process a bit easier. Years ago you would never caught him doing that. I guess what ever works for who ever is what to do. Just like kids, one set of parenting doesn't work for all kids, they all react different and therefore they keep you on your toes. :lol:

Soapweed said:
ranch hand said:
Well Soapweed, put kids in the story instead of horses. Do your kids love you more for your treats than unconditional love? I still want a horse that doesn't need the treats. I give treats when they least expect it. Kind of like saying I love you. If you say it all the time it gets to be just another saying, BUT if you say it when they least expect and you really mean it I think it means more.
Click to expand...

You have a well-merited point, and I "treat" my kids much like you do your kids. :wink: As for catching a horse, if the horse knows they get a piece of cow cake when I catch them, they don't mind getting caught. And like you, I pet them sometimes even when I don't have any cake.

I am 55 years old, and went the first forty of those years thinking it wasn't very "cowboy" to use cake or grain to catch a horse. The past fifteen years I've carried a few pieces of cake in my coat pocket to catch a horse. I can tell you straight that life is much easier doing it this way, and there is a whole lot less dust in the corral when we are getting our mounts for the day captured.
Click to expand...
 
He sounds like a smart horse. He's probably associated the halter with work. Sometimes after you put the halter on, just pet him a bit, and then take it off and let him go.

Keep him guessing.
 
A whip broke horse is easy to catch. This meathod is easily abused, but corner a horse with a buggy whip, and just smack him on the butt until he learns to face you when you walk up to him. Again not everyone can apply this successfully, but it makes horses easy to catch. An old meathod.
 
Shortgrass said:
A whip broke horse is easy to catch. This meathod is easily abused, but corner a horse with a buggy whip, and just smack him on the butt until he learns to face you when you walk up to him. Again not everyone can apply this successfully, but it makes horses easy to catch. An old meathod.
Click to expand...

I saw an old man do this...He was a great horseman and could barely get around. But his horses were easy for him to handle. He always positioned himself to have an advantage.....The "Smack" you describe is really some pretty light tapping when I saw him do it and it was rare that he ever had to,

PPRM
 
About treats and biteing-I've always given treats,never been biten for one-Never let one try to pick my pocket for anything,the treat was always given by hand.
 
The mule, Willy, has been hard to catch ever since he came to live on our ranch back in June. He doesn't like to eat cake, but he does like grain. When I try to catch him, he smells a rat, and vacates to the other side of the corral. I always end up getting him into a small corral to finally be able to catch him. Since he doesn't like cake, I took a handful of grain with me on Saturday when I went to catch him. He liked that, and allowed me to slip the halter rope over his neck. Yesterday, I was going to ride the mule, so took a handful of grain with me. He let me catch him out in the big corral with the other sixteen head of horses. I rode him quite a few miles before the day was over, and thought he'd sure act gunshy of me today. This morning after the horses were run into the corral, I opened the barn door to go catch Yellowstone. Willy the mule came right through the open door hoping for a handout. I gave him a handful of grain, put the halter on, led him back out and turned him loose again. Now he is my buddy.
 

Latest posts

Top