Horse Talk

[PeepersMama]

Great shots!! She is really pretty!

X2!

I worked Smoke for the first time in who knows how long today. In was genuinely surprised at how well he was behaving! after we got all his craziness dealt with he was awesome! Worked with him a bunch on the Evil Scary Feedbag rolled it up and smacked him with it for 45 minutes or something like that

 

[abigalerose]

Great shots!! She is really pretty!

X2!

I worked Smoke for the first time in who knows how long today. In was genuinely surprised at how well he was behaving! after we got all his craziness dealt with he was awesome! Worked with him a bunch on the Evil Scary Feedbag rolled it up and smacked him with it for 45 minutes or something like that

She is prettier in person!
And that sounds like my day! I "worked" with Indie too, i just wanted to worm him but I couldn't catch him, so we went in circles for a long time, then I gave up and shuffled him into the round pen, lunged him till we were both sweaty, and FINALLY got the halter on him when we joined up, but only after I rubbed it all over his body for 30 minutes until he quite jumping and jerking his head back..
And then I wormed him lol.
There may or may not have been some yelling and cussing involved. I don't mean to but I sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me from having a total meltdown when a horse runs from me lol.
But by the end all was well and he was being a good boy, we even shared a nice bonding moment

 

[PeepersMama]

She is prettier in person!
And that sounds like my day! I "worked" with Indie too, i just wanted to worm him but I couldn't catch him, so we went in circles for a long time, then I gave up and shuffled him into the round pen, lunged him till we were both sweaty, and FINALLY got the halter on him when we joined up, but only after I rubbed it all over his body for 30 minutes until he quite jumping and jerking his head back..
And then I wormed him lol.
There may or may not have been some yelling and cussing involved. I don't mean to but I sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me from having a total meltdown when a horse runs from me lol.
But by the end all was well and he was being a good boy, we even shared a nice bonding moment

Haha! Sounds like Smoke when I first got him the little terd.... He ONLY obeys if he has a halter on.

Wanna hear my secret for catching him?

 

[Kusanar]

I have my horses trained to come in the barn. Every time they come in, they get some grain, even if just a handfull, that way whenever I open the gates and call them, they all come and put themselves in their stalls. makes it much easier, I don't catch mine out in the field very often.

 

[abigalerose]

Haha! Sounds like Smoke when I first got him the little terd.... He ONLY obeys if he has a halter on.

Wanna hear my secret for catching him?

He's the same way! And yes!! Unless it involves treats lol I don't do that

I have my horses trained to come in the barn. Every time they come in, they get some grain, even if just a handfull, that way whenever I open the gates and call them, they all come and put themselves in their stalls. makes it much easier, I don't catch mine out in the field very often.

I don't have stalls lol I do all my catching in the field, grain/treats = trampled. And I'd like to be able to catch them in a pinch if I don't have anything with me too instead of them always looking for a snack.
June and Jasmin are great though, I can just march right up to them and get them. Renos not too easy, and Indie is horrible, but after Saturday I probably won't have to worry about it anymore. The only other horse I've had that's as difficult to catch as Indie was the big buckskin mare Jade, and she wasn't spooky or untrained! She was just use to treats and a big cranky brat who didn't want to work lol

 

[Bunnylady]

I have my horses trained to come in the barn. Every time they come in, they get some grain, even if just a handfull, that way whenever I open the gates and call them, they all come and put themselves in their stalls. makes it much easier, I don't catch mine out in the field very often.

The old guy that owned the barn where I used to work had his horses trained like that, too, and I guess it can work for you if you are the only person at the barn. Unfortunately, he was trying to run a boarding establishment, and that means a lot of different people and their animals and a lot of different schedules. When someone wanted to get their horse out of the field, they had to wade through his horses crowding around the gate. Several of the horses knew how to open the gate, so if you didn't make sure to chain it shut behind you, you'd have horses in the barn aisle that you'd then have to work around and put back out. When he opened the gate, his horses came racing around a corner and into the barn; I always worried that one of the boarders' small children might be in the aisle when they came tearing in like that. One time, he let his horses in, and a boarder was tacking her horse up in the aisle. When he found himself suddenly surrounded by a bunch of milling, excited horses, her horse flipped over and broke the snap on his lead rope. A couple of the boarders' horses got really agitated when they had horses running around outside their stalls when they were eating; one of them bit the old fella when he was driving his horses past the stall (I'm still not sure whether that bite was meant for him or the horse just inches in front of him). He often remarked how patient I was, leading each animal in like I did; I know he thought it an inefficient use of my time when it could be done so much faster his way. But I looked on it as a brief, twice-a-day refresher on ground manners; some of those horses didn't get much handling beyond that. The payoff was that I could walk up and halter any horse there at any time, anywhere on the property; that habitual obedience came in really useful several times when something unexpected occurred.

 

[Kusanar]

Quote:
Mine may run TO the barn, but as soon as they get to the gates they walk, they also don't mill about, they go straight to their stall and stand inside until you close the door.
I used to board, but I fed everyone, the boarders didn't feed their own, so there was never an issue about horses trying to eat while loose horses walked down the isle, they all got locked in and THEN the food came out for everyone.

I CAN catch them, and they're actually easier to catch if they have escaped and I have to catch them in someone's yard. I may not be able to get a halter on them with them all crowding around me, but I can lead the entire herd back with my hand on one horses withers.

I consider it to be a lesson that the horse I want comes when I call, only the horses that I want to come in are allowed to come in (they get feed if they come in, not if they come when I DON'T want them). I also never walk across a field to get a horse, I call them and they come to me. Makes finding the herd and getting them back in if they break a fence much easier, they are VERY conditioned to come when I call and to follow me respectfully back to the barn once I find them (there are lots of hills that make it hard for my voice to carry very far, but if I spot them 2 hills away and yell for the one I can see, they all come thundering to me and follow me back, saves a lot of walking if they're half a mile away.

If someone has a horse tied in the isle (only about 4 feet wide) and I need to bring horses in, I warn them, the horse is pushed over against the wall, and mine come in quietly and pass the one that is tied up one at a time and file into their stalls. No one is panicked or inconvienienced.

To each their own though, I just don't want to have to drag all 6 horses on lead ropes when I can just tell them "come on boys" and walk the whole herd wherever I want them to be.

 

[abigalerose]

June comes when I whistle. Slowly, but she does come if she can hear and see me. I don't know what I did to deserve that but I am thankful lol. And I think Jasmine will be the same way, she comes up to me when I'm close enough.
The geldings just haven't been handled in a while, and for some reason they're really spooky, they've been that way since I got them. I think the girl I got them from never desensitized when she trained

 

[KaylorFarms]

Does anyone have any palominos?

 

[ShrekDawg]

I think treats would make it easier to train them. It doesn't have to be permanent - just until they learn to come. Cause right now all he's learning is to run away when you want to catch him. So you could use food or grooming or pats or whatever he finds a good reward in order to teach the behavior you want (maybe come when you call him for example) and then once he knows it for sure you can start giving the food maybe every other time or more sporadically until he gets none. It's a useful tool.

As for them mobbing you like I see you mentioned, this might actually be a good opportunity to work on that. Because they should not be mobbing you anyway, whether you have food or not. They should learn to respect you and your space and calmly stand a respectful distance away, not mob or trample you. Obviously there is training involved too but a simple start to that is simply do NOT give them food when they do that. They ONLY get food when they are well behaved. Once they realize that rude behavior doesn't work, they should stop doing it. But they're only going to do it more if they all get fed for that.

Of course horses are big and it can be scary, but I think rather than simply avoiding food, which would be a much faster and easier way to teach the behavior, you should instead use it but teach respect at the same time. They need to learn to come when called/to be caught and respect anyway if you're selling them or sending them off to training.

Another thing you could try is separating them. So maybe instead of teaching to come when called or using food rewards in the field with all of them, you could start teaching one in a separate area so they don't mob you and learn the behavior a little better. And then once they know it better you could move to the field. You could also maybe start with the horse that is the easiest to catch and/or the herd leader and then once you teach them to come when you call, either to just their name or to a general call for the herd, then the boys should follow because horses are herd animals so you'll ve teaching them at the same time.