# Horse won't let me put halter back on her!



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

The old halter probably nade her miserable and she wants nothing to do with halters now that she is free of the misery. 

Do you need to halter her right now ? Can you jet her gave a few days of freedom?

When you go to catch her you have basically two options: using grain to bribe her or using the "walking down a horse" technique . Look into some of the threads that describe hie to catch a difficult horse .


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

I never keep halters on a horse anyways. You will find a lot of people don't. Just halter her when you need to then take it back off. Solves a LOT of problems. I'm sure her face is sore too.

I can't really blame her, can you?

As far as catching her (obviously important) there are a lot of threads on that. Just be patient, she is new. Look at the priorities.


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## loveduffy (Dec 22, 2011)

keep the halter off in turnout and to catching her make a game out of it walk out to the field but do not go for her let her come to you and when she does just pet her then walk away and wait for her to come over


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

^I genuinely think that is a great idea. For some horses. Not most. You will be waiting a looonnnggg time. Bring a book, and a jacket, maybe a tent and stove?

Guess it depends on the field lol, but something the OP should keep in mind if she wants to try it lol.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

If I need to catch a horse I have 2 ways that work fairly quickly. #1 is to walk her down. I walk them down into a smaller area like a round pen or turn out pen and just keep them moving until they decide they'd rather stand. The key is to not let them stop their feet even for a minute. #2, is part of #1, walk the horse down into a stall, close the door and get a rope around their neck and then halter them. 

Just walking them down in a field (5 acres or so in my case) can take a WHILE becuase it's hard to keep them moving. Once they move "out of range" you have to catch up before you can keep on pushing them around. Once you get them mental upper hand it's not so bad but until you do, yeah, a tent, a book, a jacket, a stove, a cot,....you get it.


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## Paulsenkristin (Feb 21, 2016)

Thanks for all the input everyone! I'm going to try to leave it off her for a while, her nose is probably still pretty sore from having it on so long. We have a vet coming soon for shots so I will try to work with her to get her used to it before he comes. Thanks again!


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## Cordillera Cowboy (Jun 6, 2014)

I concur with not faltering the horse for the time being. Do work on being able to catch her. The longer that goes on, the more difficult it will be to fix. 

I'm normally against bribery and treats, but most horses that come when called got that way by using food as a motivator. I'm presuming you feed the horse daily. I'd not allow the horse to eat, until it allowed me to touch it, and lead it in some fashion to the feed. I'd go for the withers first, and work my way up to the head. 

If the horse was trained to lead, you should be able to put a lead rope around the neck, at the poll, where the poll strap of a halter goes. Don't clip it like a lariat, just hold it in place. Leave enough slack that you can give a jerk if you need to. If you need a bit more control, you can place a hand on the nose. 

You will need to halter her for the vet. I would sew a thick fleece over the noseband of the new halter. You can continue to lead with a rope on the neck while you gradually get her beck to normal with the halter.

Good luck, and keep us posted.


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## Chasin Ponies (Dec 25, 2013)

Check out these fleece lined halters, I bought a couple of them and they aren't bad quality. The fleece is held on with Velcro, sticks really well and is quite thick. They are on sale for $10.99 at the moment. They will protect her sore nose and prevent further damage.

https://www.horseloverz.com/horse-e...ers/gatsby-nylon-halter-with-removable-fleece

Approach your mare casually (stroll slowly and don't stare at her) in the pasture and then walk away before you get to her. Do it over and over but don't try to catch her at first. Having a treat handy doesn't hurt. See if she will get curious about what you are doing and come to you. Just give her a scratch and a treat if she does and then turn and walk casually away.

You can carry a lead rope somewhat hidden by hanging it from a shoulder, looped loosely. Rub the lead on her neck, see if she will let you scratch around her ears and once again walk away. Be patient and see if she will let you loop the lead rope around her neck. Then take it off her and walk away. You have to get the idea of "catching" _out of her head_. Eventually you can lead her using the lead rope and nothing over her nose. 

Get her to an _enclosed space_ where you can then work on her trust of the halter. Once she figures out she's not going to get hurt (and the soft fleece really helps!) she may learn to trust again.


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## Joel Reiter (Feb 9, 2015)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> Just walking them down in a field (5 acres or so in my case) can take a WHILE becuase it's hard to keep them moving. Once they move "out of range" you have to catch up before you can keep on pushing them around.


When I'm trying to walk down a horse in a larger pasture, I like to amplify my ability to keep the horse moving, so that I can keep the pressure on more of the time. One useful tool for that is one of those leftover corrugated plastic 4x8 political signs. Hold one of those up suddenly and even a horse some distance away will take off. An umbrella suddenly opened also works on some horses, or a lightweight pole with a big balloon on the end. When I'm walking up to the horse, the scarey object is down. The second the horse starts avoiding me, up it goes. Kind of like when Dad said, "I'll give you something to cry about."


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

Yep, my thing is, "First you have to be smarter than the horse.". They're pretty good at evading, so we have to be better at finding ways to make 'em move around the way we want them to.


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

Paulsenkristin said:


> Thanks for all the input everyone! I'm going to try to leave it off her for a while, her nose is probably still pretty sore from having it on so long. We have a vet coming soon for shots so I will try to work with her to get her used to it before he comes. Thanks again!


Work on catching her. Many horses will respond well to a lead around the neck instead of a halter. Just do that. When she's fine (assuming there's not any actual sores on her nose) halter her and handle as normal. BUT I would take the halter off when you are done with her, on and off as needed, don't just leave it on 24/7. She'll be fine for the halter, and with a little work will be fine being caught and may come right up to you!

This is a situation when a treat will help. Pop it in her mouth when you've caught her, AFTER you've put the halter on/lead around her neck, make sure she knows it's because she let you do that.

Note- I would not put the lead up on her poll, just loosely around her neck and train her to follow you, the point I was trying to make was to make the catching mental not physical so much. A lead can work as a halter but if you need to do that just do the halter. I don't think it's the halter specifically that's the issue here. If her nose is sore her poll will be too anyways.


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## Joel Reiter (Feb 9, 2015)

Yogiwick said:


> This is a situation when a treat will help. Pop it in her mouth when you've caught her, AFTER you've put the halter on/lead around her neck, make sure she knows it's because she let you do that.


Right. And it would be a great idea to go through all that -- walk her down, put a loose neck rope on, give the treat, and then take the rope off and walk away. Same thing when you get to the halter stage -- catch the horse, put on the halter, give the treat, take the halter off and walk away. She will reform a lot faster about being caught. You might find you can't go out in the pasture without her approaching you.


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