# Handling the Unhandled



## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Assuming this is a completely wild horse, assuming I was doing things just as I wanted, without time constraints or such...

I'd want a pen that was big enough that the horse didn't feel too trapped - ie half arena size at least. I'd start out just hanging out in the pen. Not trying to approach or necessarily even looking at the horse to begin with. Go in there to 'do stuff'(pick poo, change water, sit & read... whatever) and wait for the horse to become comfortable in my presence, and approach me. Reward him & don't put more pressure on him when he does. *I like to use a good scratch or such as a primary reinforcer/reward generally, but if he's too wild/touching isn't rewarding to him, a food treat is a good option.

Once the horse is relaxed about me moving around him & learned approaching me is rewarding, then with 'approach & retreat' I'd get him used to me reaching out to touch him. Once he's confident about me touching him... and hopefully comes to see the pleasure of a good scratch or rub with human hands, then I'd introduce ropes. It should be a relative non-event if he already allows touch all over without. Get the horse confident with ropes rubbed, dangled & draped on him. Including around his head & nose. 

Then I'd start halter training, using a soft, light halter and a long rope, in a smallish pen(but big enough to move around). That way, they can get used to feeling light pressure from the halter without them getting to the end of it & coming up against hard & panicking or getting loose when feeling pressure. Once they accept and then learn to yield to(get out of) that soft pressure, then I will halter them in bigger areas or in the open & training progresses as with any other 'tame' horse.


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## Incitatus32 (Jan 5, 2013)

What loosie said. However, I recommend reading and/or talking aloud so the horse gets accustomed to your voice. Silence has a place but so does talking! Another thing I recommend is simply holding out your hand and letting the horse smell you for a while before going to touch. I try to always make the horse come to me instead of going to the horse.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

I have never just 'hung out' with a horse in my life. I have always just waded right in and started working with one.

I've always gotten a halter on any way I could. I've used a chute if I had one. I've made a chute from a couple of portable panels fastened to a square pen in such a way that the horse can be trapped between the fence, a corner and the panels. [This is how we catch unhandled foals, too.]

I hate roping them, but if there was no other way to get a halter on, then they got roped. 

Once a horse has a halter on, they can drag a long rope in a stall or very small pen. [Our catch pen is 20 X 20 and I can run a horse into it from almost any field and from our arena.] I'll catch them by the rope and within a week, I can touch one, lead it and start handling it. Then, I just go on from there.

I have never seen any better outcomes from taking a long time. As a matter of fact, the outcome I wave watched have usually been a lot worse. Taking a long time does not make it better. It just makes it take longer. 

The sooner I can get one gentle to handle, the quicker I can deworm it, doctor it if need be, castrate it if it is still a stud. There are just a dozen reasons to get one gentle as quickly as possible and I cannot think of any good reasons to make it take a long time. JMHO Cherie


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## Mercy98 (Jul 25, 2013)

Cherie said:


> I have never just 'hung out' with a horse in my life. I have always just waded right in and started working with one.
> 
> I've always gotten a halter on any way I could. I've used a chute if I had one. I've made a chute from a couple of portable panels fastened to a square pen in such a way that the horse can be trapped between the fence, a corner and the panels. [This is how we catch unhandled foals, too.]
> 
> ...


Politely, I have to disagree....they have to know they can trust you and that you wont hurt them. I understand it makes it easier to care for them, but it also takes that much longer to earn their trust after they have been forced into accepting a halter, etc. I've trained 6 mustang yearlings, and they all responded very well to patience, working slower, and not forcing anything. They want to please you as much as possible, but we also need to show them we are there to help them....


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Cherie said:


> ... I'll catch them by the rope and within a week, I can touch one, lead it and start handling it. Then, I just go on from there.
> 
> I have never seen any better outcomes from taking a long time.


Interesting you appear to disagree with my approach due to it taking too long, but it takes you a whole week to be able to touch it?? In that case, *initial* time has nothing to do with it, because it's only taken a day or few with my approach, for the horse to be *confident* about being touched. Just because it's *perceived* as quicker doesn't make it better either... or quicker, it would seem.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

Yes, but in a week one is leading, tying and I can touch it anywhere. Some are already following me around and letting me catch them out in a field or big arena by then.

We teach them to 'give' to the halter the day we corner them and put the halter on. Many are pretty well leading within an hour of putting the halter on.

I, too, have trained many mustangs -- mostly ones that I also caught. Many of the horses brought to me to train in the early years that I had a public training stable were untouched when they came and were 6-8 years old. Those were the easy ones. The tough ones were the ones that people had already 'tried' to break and failed.


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Mercy98 said:


> Politely, I have to disagree....they have to know they can trust you and that you wont hurt them. I understand it makes it easier to care for them, but it also takes that much longer to earn their trust after they have been forced into accepting a halter, etc. I've trained 6 mustang yearlings, and they all responded very well to patience, working slower, and not forcing anything. They want to please you as much as possible, but we also need to show them we are there to help them....


 I disagree. Getting a halter on them by either roping them(correctly) or running them through a chute, like the BLM does, again if done correctly has no effect on the time or ability of the horse to trust.
Ranch bred colts are typically are run loose until their 2 + year, then brought in roped, haltered and taught the basics of giving to pressure a.k.a. leading in the first day. To those who say that trust is compromised I dare those to walk out in the horses here and tell me which of those horses trust has been destroyed by those methods.

Trust issues come from improper handling, a symptom of the handler not being able to read a horse and the lack of knowledge to deal with the situation/horse at hand. Time it takes is also due to the individual horse's personality and the ability of the handler to accommodate which goes to the afore mentioned.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Cherie said:


> Yes, but in a week one is leading, tying and I can touch it anywhere. ...
> I, too, have trained many mustangs -- mostly ones that I also caught. Many of the horses brought to me to train in the early years that I had a public training stable were untouched when they came and were 6-8 years old. Those were the easy ones. The tough ones were the ones that people had already 'tried' to break and failed.


I am assuming I've had far (far?) less experience than you with wild horses - have trained only a handful of truly unhandled ones. But agree with the above completely. Yes, unhandled horses are far easier than stuffed up ones! Yes, it has generally taken me a few days to get the horse haltered & basically yielding. I was just trying to point out that taking more time to begin with doesn't mean it takes longer. Or that it's a bad job because I prefer to... fluff around in the beginning.:wink:


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## Mercy98 (Jul 25, 2013)

loosie said:


> I am assuming I've had far (far?) less experience than you with wild horses - have trained only a handful of truly unhandled ones. But agree with the above completely. Yes, unhandled horses are far easier than stuffed up ones! Yes, it has generally taken me a few days to get the horse haltered & basically yielding. I was just trying to point out that taking more time to begin with doesn't mean it takes longer. Or that it's a bad job because I prefer to... fluff around in the beginning.:wink:


EXACTLY what I meant by my last post!!


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

I am not saying it is wrong to take longer. I am not saying it is better to just wade right in. Whatever works for someone is how they should do it.

What I am saying is that I do not think you come out with a better horse when you take longer. If you know what you are doing, you do not force a horse and you do not scare it and you do not 'make' it comply. My personal observations have been that, when handled right, they learn to trust a person and depend on that person for direction must faster than the horses that are babied and people sit around with trying to convince the horse that they are their friend. I think a lot of people look at it through a person's eyes and reasoning and horses just do not think like that.

When a horse is uprooted out of their herd and their comfort zone, they do not want a friend. They want a lead horse that they can trust to keep them safe. Three or 4 hours of handling with a halter and lead-rope on one can teach that horse that you are their safe new 'lead horse' and they want to stay close. That 3 or 4 hours can be spent in one day or over 2 or 3 days, but in no time at all, they nicker when they see you coming and will go anywhere with you. I can usually lead one up into a trailer or into a stall through a narrow door. It has nothing to do with force and everything to do with good horse handling.


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## Mercy98 (Jul 25, 2013)

I don't let a horse "sit around" I give him time to settle in and then I give him a job to do without terrifying him. I don't immediately get a halter on, but i do get him to move his feet, back up, etc., without a halter to establish that I am the leader in the relationship.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

When we bought a pony or a horse that was either just not handled or had come off the UK moorlands through the round up sales they got funneled into stables where they had other trained horses around them until they were used to being haltered and led, from there they went into a small corral with one other easy to catch horse until they were OK with that
When they have to rely on a human for food and water they soon learn to trust you because they need you.
A week is the longest its ever taken to have one behaving like a normal youngster


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