Help! My horse is dodging his halter!

[Sue Bible]

Training tips anybodyt? He has just started this -- he is 5 yrs old and not terribly broke, but I'd like to get behind this before it gets totally out of hand, but am not sure what to do. With my other horses I could hold out the halter and they would just stick there nose down in it, but this new one is DODGING me!!! so frustrating.

Any help is much appreciated -- SueB

[Gina Brazil]

Bea...How about you have a peppermint in your hand...ready to give him as soon as he lets you put it on. You have been spoiled with any horse that jumps in the halter...but I don't know why he's started that. You are talking about Buzz aren't you? How broke do you want one? THat horse is an angel !! How was Birdsong? I want to hear all about it. Are you going to 7 Springs? My friend Vicki McCurdy is. I may go to Bucksnort , but not sure yet.

[Sue Bible]

Well HECK YEAH! If I can have a perfect horse, I'm going to have one!! LOL! I know there is a way to get Buzz around dodging the halter, I just don't know it yet. And someone out there does, I'm sure. He learns fast, so he can just UNlearn this halter ducking practice, for sure! But yes, Buzz is getting SSSOOO very very good. He was awesome at Birdsong. He was so very very good. Birdsong was good, but alittle sad. There were only about half as many people there than are usually there for an April ride. I guess maybe the economy??? It was sad that Gary was not there too. We talked about Gary alot.
Yes, I'm going to 7 Springs April 30 - May 3. Janet and Angie, Anne C.'s friends, will be there.
But this is supposed to be about horses ducking halters! Sorry Folks!! Please give any suggestions. And yes, my horse is a cookie hor..... big time! Tell me how to make cookies work for me in this exercise. Thanks!!!

[Laura]

The way I get my horses to take the halter is to feed them outside of the pasture. I have learned that horses are quite motivated by their bellies :)
Just call the horse to the gate, close it with you inside, and hold the halter out. He knows that his head goes in there, and if he wants to eat, he will put it there. I feed mine in stalls, so when they are done, I hold the halter out until they put their heads in again. I HAD to do this with my mare, because she would just hold her head up and I was too short to put the halter on :( Now she will put her head at about my chest level and *zip* the halter is on.
If he wont come to the gate, use food for that, too. The mare also would not be caught in the field, but, since I have fed her outside the pasture, she is the first one up when called. It only took about a week for her to put 2 and 2 together for that one, and I haven't had to walk into the pasture to catch any of my horses in over a year.
Good luck; there is nothing more frustrating than a dodgy horse that refuses to be caught in the pasture >:(

PS- To call them up, my fiancee can do the super loud ballgame whistle, but if you can't do that, the "clickers" that they use to train dogs work really well. You can pick them up at Petsmart.

[Sue Bible]

Perfect. This is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. Very helpful. Thanks

[Laura]

Glad to help :D

Oh, and remember not to push the issue. Make it a choice for him; If he doesn't want to follow your rules to get dinner, then he doesn't eat tonight. Simple as that. An EMPTY belly is even more responsive than a sort of hungry one.

[JIMMY Pretty Hollow Stables]

Check his ears I have had a problem with bug bites this spring in the ears. If not that take a dog coller and put it on him when you get ready to put halter on hold dog coller and put halter on. After a while he will get use to you putting halter on

[Georgia Martin]

I find sometimes a horse gets resentful, if there has been a change in his habit.. once did and now doesn't kind of situation. Horses that the only time they get caught or haltered is when you ride or other work have a tendency to backtrack. I spend a lot of time just going out to the pasture just for a brushing or a pat and scratch session. ... so they don't always associate the halter with working.

I also use the Natural horsemanship- two eyes looking at me.. I cluck (or other noise like smacking my leg as my clucker at times can get awful tired) :) so that the look at me and then I walk away many time before walking up to them and back away many time, same with a halter. I may slip on and slip off and walk away many times and that's all we will do for the day. Just some thoughts.

Georgia

[Georgia Martin]

and I agree with Jimmy.. anytime there is a change in what a horse does now and what they used to do.. could be something as simple as a tick in the ear or what Jimmy said.. so check for reasons for the change in attitude.

[Sue Bible]

This is something that I didn't consider. Over the winter I took him to a different barn for some "boot camp" and bonding / training time. It was a wonderful experience for me, but I'm sure it made him mad, he had to WORK! He stayed in a stall and turned out to some pretty grim paddocks. Where he is now (and where he originally came from before the 'boot camp") was total freedom, lush pastures, and just acting like a horse in a herd. -- 'Resentful' is an interesting twist to this halter-ducking behavior. Maybe that's it....... regardless, it's got to stop now...... I think cookies might be the answer, and, as you said, just halter him up and not require anything of him, then un-halter over several visits. Thanks. I will experiment.

[Georgia Martin]

I had a horse that started bulking at the stall door.. of course it was a small door, but he never refused to walk in before.. so now I'm having all this trouble...?? Well, a few days later I hear something and I got him put up in the stall and I got my stethoscope and listened some more and I could hear buzzing in the beam that was next to the door. There was a nest of Hornets in a hollow section of the beam.. I got some spray and found a hole and unloaded the spray in the hole.. No bulking after that and we got them all killed. He could hear them and I couldn't.. I just got lucky that it was really quiet in the barn and I was really close to the beam at the moment I heard something. Now I know some horseman that would have probably beat him to death for his bulking, but I knew something had to be wrong for him to not want to go in there as not like him. Thought this experiance was a good example!! of horse gone bad. :):) (sorry I have some many posts I seem to think of things after I hit send. :): Take care.

[Jane Grimwood]

With the sudden change in behavior it sounds to me like you may have gotten him to boot camp and you got far enough into it to make him resent it. Until they fully get it they go through an attitude spectrum when training. It goes like this. Good, Bad, Better, Worse and finally got it! You may be on the worse part and quit your training before the "Got it!" part. Check the ears and see if he has insects in the ears. Next go back to your training and continue to work with him. Lot's of rewarding! As an earlier poster put it. Cluck and get the eyes, while disengaging his hindquarters. Get his head without having to put the halter on first. Good Luck!

Derek

[Sue Bible]

I think I finally got a handle on this -- he doesn't get any food or treats till he puts his head in the halter -- my! how he's changed!!! LOL!