# My horse won't come in from the field sometimes!



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

Try this. Everytime she looks at you stop walking and avert eye contact and be "soft in your body" and as SOON as her attention goes elsewhere (she looks away, she turns, she walks away from you) you drive her off. Make that horse trot or canter away from you. For a good while (at least 5 seconds) then back off and if she looks to you, stop moving, soften again. If she keeps looking at you and not doing anything, approach her. If she runs away, make her run faster and for longer time.

This will work but it will take persistence and consistency and a TON of patience on your end too. 

Best of luck! There are other options but this one has given me results 100% of the time. After awhile, if you give them a good rubdown after you've got the halter on, etc. they'll start to walk towards you sometime in the future (not immediately.. it's a trust/respect thing)


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## DancingArabian (Jul 15, 2011)

You can't control how she acts with other people when you're not there. You can train her to be more respecting and come to you - and that may not translate to other people. My horse comes to me 98% of the time and anyone else 0% of the time. He gets his grain in a little plastic bin that someone just sets on the ground in the field and walks away. They're going to have to go through the same steps you do to get her to listen to them and come in.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Horses view a stall as a trap. Some days she's ok with being in a stall and other days she's not. In a field a horse can run from a predator. We see the horse as being safe when stalled but because the horse can see out, in it's mind, a predator can enter. I do it a little differently from Sky. When both eyes look at me, I do soften but if he looks away, I do as well. This draws the horse back. If he turns to leave I immediately turn and leave. This takes the pressure off the horse. When you have both eyes again, soften and approach. You want to keep the energy low to minimize how far the horse goes and how far you want to follow. If the horse is thinking about leaving, take a few steps back as horses are inclined to follow what is moving away from them.


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## huntergrl (Nov 26, 2007)

I have this same catch problem with my horse. I have only owned him about a month and a half and he always came to me in the field. I went on a weekend trip for memorial day and ever since! Well he had to learn that he has to share me and I can't be there constantly because the people I got him from were living right by the barn and always around so he had a bit of a pet syndrome. So I knew he was going through some changes with that and learning more on how to be a horsey instead.lol Anyways so today I got there early so I wouldn't have to spend hours catching him well he started walking away as soon as I got in the stall. What I did was walk one step up and if he didn't move then I went a step back. Then I took two steps and then 2 steps back, I saw a girl do this with him when I couldn't catch him 2 days ago and it worked. Well then I groomed him in his stall without holding on to him and it took some moving around, he even backed me up against a wall clumsily,but he's 0% aggressive so I know I have no worrys there. Anyways I guess I kept trying until he would let me come up and grab his halter and then I would walk away back to the front of the stall because I read that this shows them that we aren't always there to catch them and make them work. He really calmed down about the whole thing after I did this and I didn't take him and start working him until he stood still. It was a long morning but it worked. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but they could definately try this method since it was a strange girl that tried it on him first and it was successful.


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## TimWhit91 (Feb 3, 2012)

Make being caught a good thing. Once you have her make a big fuss over her. Find a treat that she really likes, give her a nice brushing, then put her in her stall. She will start associating being caught with good things. When she isn't letting you catch her, think like a cutting horse. Stop when she stops, always keep yourself in her sight, when she turns, you turn with her. When she stops, looks at you and licks her lips she is ready to be caught.


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## Hjwalker (Jun 7, 2012)

Hey, i would do this but she is on and off lame atm with feet problems (from when i bought her) so making her run won't do her any good!


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