Catching Dilema

[ponypal]

Is your horse easy to catch?Not mine!How can I catch her without giving her treats?

[Yann]

Mine was a disaster to catch when I bought her, as was the horse I shared beforehand. The best thing I ever did was buy Kelly Mark's booklet 'Catching Horses Made Easy', the content of which is also in her excellent book Perfect Manners.

It's all about making the horse respect you and making being caught a pleasant option. Body language and the way you approach are very important as is your routine. If you only ever fetch in to ride then they will associate being caught with work.

I shouldn't worry too much for now if you need treats and trickery to get your horse, at least you can! But you will be able to improve things quite easily with a little work.

There are a few threads on catching on here which might make useful reading, a search on 'catching' should bring them up:)