Over the years I've come across some horses that are absolute pigs to catch.

As a trainer I've also been asked to catch what are virtually feral horses for people who really haven't a clue!

My last memorable experience was to catch 5 horses (youngsters all between 1 and 3) owned by a woman believes in "letting them have their youth naturally" - So in a 40 acre field with 2 clumps of trees in it!

Anyway they all had appalling feet and couldn't be caught nor handled for the farrier for trimming and so drastic action was required.   Now in this case I had precisely two weeks to get them caught and taught to stand for a farrier booked to come in to trim their feet. Of course ordinarily I would have done precisely as I describe in the link above but in that case I spent 2 days chasing them with ropes until I eventually managed to herd them into somewhere a more appropriate size and then into my horse box to take them away to my premises and to a very small paddock that's a meagre 1 acre and to start working properly on them.

To get them away and out of 40 acres (with trees!) I chased them and herded them into a smaller area I'd fenced off with a lot of electric tape and then ultimately had to manage this small feral herd to separate them off from each other in order to commence working on them properly and I also used food as the lure.

Another frequent "yuck" experience is horses that have been parelli'd - all this "shoo shoo" with a carrot stick and "get out of my bubble"


And I've a mare of my own that was chased rounded up by motorbikes and lasso'd and many other things besides....   oh boy what a difficult and troubled horse she's was!....  but patience and perseverance and using the method I've described has always worked.    By patience I also include the fact you have to reframe and change your intent.    Go in determined to catch the horse and it will be on to you and if it's clever and doesn't want to be caught, it won't be!    So the first stage IMO is always to harness that natural curiosity and get them to come to you and get to understand it's comfort zone.   When it's doing that I might well put a treat on the ground and then walk away.    But I never use treats as a trick to "come here and let me see if I can fling this head collar on and catch you".   Eventually if they come to me nicely and without the scarey "move and I'll run away" eyes then I'll treat them from my hand.   But I'll walk away afterwards and not even try to catch them at that stage.

The aim is to get them to come willingly before you ever get to the method described.

I want my own horses to come when I call them and if I do ever go to meet them I want them to come and follow me in and that's what they all do.   They will also just all go into their own stables. 

Just called them in this photo:

 

Leading them: They're all just loose though I've got a lead rope slung round the neck of the young 18 hand liver chestnut heavy hunter



And having to bring them in properly down the lane usually catching and leading 4 each:  when obviously I always put head collars on.   They're done one at a time though when it's a youngster or one being trained to catch and lead.