I have a friend who always seemed to have a bunch of hard-to-catch horses. Of course, I did observe her throw a bucket at them a time or two when she was trying to catch them, I never did understand that technique and it didn't work well either.

We call our horses and they come, all of them stream up the barn from the 2 pastures lickety split (except sometimes the old guy, more on that later). When we call them they come to the barn, we let them into their stalls one at a time, and they get their grain in their pan, sometimes just handful. For a new horse, we call the horses as usual and a new horse will at least follow up to the paddock. Then I just call "c'mon" and put pan of grain in the paddock for them. As they get less worried about me, they will come right up to me but maybe don't want to go in the barn. I just keep moving the pan until it's in the barn, and then I say (not call) "c'mon" to them every single time. They usually pick up what is wanted within a week or so. We initially always halter when bringing a new horse into the stall, so they learn which stall is theirs, and not to rush through the gate or down the aisle. Since the majority of time I call them they get their grain and go right back outside, they learn that I'm ok fairly quickly. Once they get so they are looking at you and seeking you out, it's a pain in the ass when you have to fix fence because they want to see and help. Generally I put them in stalls or lock them in the paddocks!

My old guy is kind of hard of hearing and his vision isn't the greatest, plus he really doesn't give a rip about his pasture-mates so isn't peer pressured into going with them for no reason. Lots of times I call and everyone comes up except for him, he's oblivious out in the field still, eating. I have to start walking down there and do jumping jacks and all kinds of gyrations until he notices me. Then he trots right up to me. He used to be hard to catch (about 14 years ago when I first got him). If it's dark, I always have a flashlight and when he gets up to me, he likes it if I put my hand on his neck while we're walking. If I take my hand off, he stops and gives me a little nudge. I think maybe he has a harder time seeing in the dark as he doesn't do that in the daylight, he just follows me.