Headshy = difficult to catch - any ideas?

[Steve.R]

Pablo is a 16hh Irish Draught X who is a lovely gentle horse, but he is headshy and so difficult to catch. He wears a headcollar in the field and will come up to you quite happily but will not let you touch his face/headcollar or neck. We have a very good join-up with him and he will go anywhere with us but not to the point of touching his head to catch him. When we do get him he is fine, still headshy but you can put a headcollar/bridle etc on. Unfortunately as we can't catch him really regularly it is hard to acclimatise him to having his head touched and we have no stable/pen to keep him in so he gets used to more handling. He is getting gradually better over time but is there anything else we can do?

Thanks
Esther

[KarinUS]

Will he let you put a lead rope over his lower neck?
At least you'd have a bit of a hold of him then and he can't just turn and run away?

[Steve.R]

Unfortunately he is nervous and won't let you alongside him when he is loose - he likes you directly in front of his face if you are talking to him and nowhere else. I think all these nerves are the result of ill treatment in the past (he is 6 and came over from Ireland a couple of years ago) as he is particularly frightened of sticks/brooms and hates you to stand beside him as if to mount, I think he expects you to vault on and is scared. Once he has got used to anything he is fine - he seems to worry about what you might do rather than what you actually do, if that makes sense - he is frightened in case you are going to hurt him, when you don't he relaxes.

However when we do manage to catch him that is how we have been doing it (with the rope over the lower neck) but he'll only let you do that if he is enclosed somewhere so we have to lure him into a temporary pen (thinking up new ways each time as he isn't stupid and soon learns!)

We had a bit of a breakthrough this weekend as he let us catch him loose in the field, we have been working on him letting us touch his nose and Stephen had a light dog lead up the sleeve of his jacket which he clipped onto the ring on his headcollar without actually touching him while distracting him with treats with the other hand! This was brilliant, but he may not repeat it (hopefully he will) - with him things that work once don't always work the next time!

We try to make sure that getting caught always is a rewarding experience - he gets a feed and goes out for a walk (just on the lead rein like a dog as this relaxes him) with his friend Rupert (my riding pony). He does seem to copy Rupert so we are hoping this will help build up his confidence as Rupert is fine to ride and handle. All the ponies he is turned out with fight over who is going to get caught so at least they may eventually be a good influence!

Thanks for the suggestion
Esther :)

[Miriam]

Well there is nothing more that I can suggest other than have you tried giving him a treat and slipping him onto the lead rope and then setting him free. I know it sounds rediculous but it is suggested for this type of thing. It gets him into the idea that he is not going to be caught and rode or walked out all the time which I am not suggesting he does not like, but if this has become routine he will associate it also.

Good luck Steve as I tried everything with a horse I had on loan. She was 13 when I got her so nothing seemed to help. We even tried a piece of string attached to the head collar so that we could get a hold of the string. There was even one day when there wer seven of us inthe field trying to catch her. We spent two hours to no avail :( and then there was a day when my friend tried to round her up and that did not work either :mad: There is nothing as frustrating as a horse that will not catch. I could only catch her if she was put into a smaller area with only one horse or by herself :rolleyes:. Many a day I have spent cursing her. I miss her but not all the non riding days in the sun :D

[Steve.R]

In a way I'm glad no-one has managed to suggest anything else yet as it means we haven't overlooked any obvious options! We are trying to do quite a lot of work with him at the moment by using Rupert as a Guinea Pig - whatever we want to do to Pablo we try on Rupert first while Pablo is watching. This worked with his rug - we rugged up Rupert and brought him up to Pablo to sniff and look at the rug (luckily they both had new, identical rugs at the same time so they looked and smelt the same!). When we then put Pablo's on (which we had expected to be a trauma) he was an absolute angel and if anything stood even better than Rupert (who finds it impossible to stand still and is always fidgeting).

Will keep you posted if he catches okay this weekend

What I forgot to say in the first post is that he goes through phases of being difficult and phases of being a dream to catch, it just depends if the world is looking scary that month!

Esther

[Steve.R]

oh, and thanks for the ideas.

We tried putting a short piece of string onto his headcollar but he removed it somehow (he's good at things like that!). We do catch him sometimes, feed him/give him a treat and let him go. The silly thing is that once he has been caught and gone out/had his dinner he wants to be caught again and will let you put the rope/headcollar on and off as much as you want until this wears off after 10 minutes and he goes back to being nervous.........

Esther

[FreedomStar]

Well, tie the string to the ring and tuck it back so that it's lying under his jowel, but tucked in so he can't take it off. and when you come to catch him, just pull the string out, and ta **! At my school we have a bit of braided rope attached to each horses halter and tucked up so they don't have to have this string dangling in front of their nose, and it's easier to catch the horse if the horse lives out in the paddocks.
also go here: http://www.lindatellingtonjones.com it's a useful site about the tellington method, which is better known as T-Team. Go to T-Team for Horses, and read that, and near the end of the page there's a link that says T-Team Stories and Testimonials. Go to that page and scroll all the way down. There's a story about a horse who has problems with his ears(I know, it's not the same as headshy, but just about!)

[Shiny McShine]

Anytime you bring him in or handle him, while you rug him is an opportunity for him to become more accepting of you around him.

The first thing I always teach my horses once they are in a headcollar is to stand still at all times...and when handling their heads I always stand at their side near the girth and have them flex their neck around to me.

If they move I just hold them there and go with them till they stop. It is rather complex to explain the benefits without people having seen it but it teaches the horse to relax and become more supple and while his neck is bent he cannot quickly throw his head in the air or run away...you just stick with it until they stand still.

I teach them to lower the head to be haltered or bridled by putting pressure on the poll...or if you're into it you could try clicker training. The aim is to have them relaxed and accepting while you are handling them. It only takes 5 minutes every day, or every other day. When they will stand with the head down you can handle their ears, mouth (prepare for the bit in their mouth) and so on.

[Esther.D]

thanks for all the replies - I have good news: we managed to catch Pablo again yesterday using the dog lead up the sleeve trick and it only took a couple of minutes. What we have found is that if I catch one of his friends and take them out of the field he watches me, and when Stephen comes up to catch him he is fine....I don't know whether this works because he has seen the other being caught or because he is distracted by them and doesn't really pay attention to what Stephen is doing, but the main thing is - it is working! This has happened before and generally once you have caught and handled him a few times he starts to be okay to catch again and then he is fine

[jkcavanaugh]

I agree with everything I've read. However, sometimes just being with him without any intention of catching him will help. You know just hanging-out together.

Treats are good. Let him know you have treats and have him follow you. Try to touch his head or stand beside him. If he doesn't let you, show him the treats, but walk away without giving him any. He will follow and then try touching or standing to his side again. He's very smart. He will learn that you're not going to hurt him. Of course when he responds he should be praised and given his treat. Not too many treats though.

[Esther.D]

Pablo is still coming on well at being caught, thanks for everyone's advice - it seems to have been the rope he was frightened of, now he can't see that he is a lot better.

[Kerry's Partner]

It was really good to read all of this. BUT, eventually he needs to see the rope and not be upset by it - I know you already know that btw. I suppose one of the subsequent stages is to deal with this.

Have you ever seen Mike Peace's video - it might just help to get you to the next stage.

All the very best.

Sandra

[Esther.D]

We have Michael Peace's book but not the video, we will have to get hold of that.

I know we have much further to go with Pablo but it is just such a relief to catch him fairly easily after almost a year of refusing to be caught. Now we can catch him we can work on the other issues.

[Kerry's Partner]

I'm sure you've already worked this out - but you need to translate what Mike says to your own situation.

OHHHHHHHHHHH I wish you so much good luck.

Sandra

[Esther.D]

He got caught immediately on saturday just by catching hold of his headcollar - we were so pleased:D :D The vet came to do his and Rupert's vaccinations and Pablo was SO good. He was led the mile to the farm for the vet (we never have a problem with leading once he is caught) then let the vet vaccinate him without even moving and even let the vet look at his teeth. He was so good that the vet (who didn't know his background) said he was a "lovely, well handled horse":D :D :D (We have been working hard every weekend at catching him and handling him, picking up his hooves etc).

Rupert is frightened of needles:D so of course he made a fuss....not that Rupert making a fuss is unusual:rolleyes: We are working on him too...he is just a drama queen;) we had already had a monumental sulk about leaving the field before breakfast:rolleyes: