Does "herding" work?

[Fork]

If you can't catch a horse, send him away until he's tired and "gives in." I have never seen this method work, but I've only seen it used in a few cases.

I have been trying join-up, but it's not getting me very far. Grain no longer works because he's caught onto the idea that grain = catching. The only foolproof-ish way is to get him to come to the fence and clip him over the top rail. It's possible sometimes, but slightly dangerous.

What are your opinions on "herding?"

[zoel_222]

It works, as long as you do it right. I've done it lots of times with different horses and it's always worked for me. If your horse is in a gigantic pasture, though, it's pretty tricky.

[Fork]

It works, as long as you do it right. I've done it lots of times with different horses and it's always worked for me. If your horse is in a gigantic pasture, though, it's pretty tricky.He's in a 1-3 acre pasture with 4 other horses. One of the girls I knew had a Quarab that was nuts to catch. She would chase him around the field for hours and hours but the mare rarely gave in.

Is the trick to let them turn around and change directions before sending them off?

[Buckpoco]

Julie Goodnight just did a program on that. Do you have any way to watch archived RFD programs? She did it a few months ago.
Dice was a little hard to catch when I first got him. It worked on him!

[mare]

I did herding before I knew there was a name for it. I use it with all new horses. It's really different than chasing.

Some pastures that we have are more than 5,000 acres. Every horse knows when we got out we are the boss mare and they come in, without crowding, too.

[zoel_222]

At the barn I worked at we had about 6 horses whose owners never worked with them and were terrible to catch. For the first week or two I'd have to do the herding thing quite a bit with them, almost every time I went to catch them. It's sort of a similar concept as join up. You approach him to get the halter on, if he turns away, pins his ears or does something stupid, you push him off and make him move his ass (I usually take a lunge line with me). I do a lot of changing direction throughout the whole thing and keep him moving at a trot or faster. I don't worry about him going too fast as long as he's moving. If he wants to canter, let him. If he wants to gallop, let him. When he's showing signs that he's really tired or trying to stop and turn into you, then let him stop. Give him a minute or two to rest then approach him. If he lets you, halter him. If he doesn't, push him off and make him work some more. Just keep doing it and don't give up. If you go out there and try for like a half hour and then say "well this isn't working" and give up, then yeah, it's not going to work because you quit halfway through. It takes some commitment and can real tedious, but it hasn't failed me yet. The longest it's taken me is about two hours but that's not to say it won't take longer.

It's harder when you have a bunch of other horses running with him, but usually once the other horses realize you're only after the one horse they move to the corner or somewhere away from the other horse and try to stay out of your way.

After you catch him make the experience really nice for him. After he's haltered give him a rub and tell him what a good boy he is and give him some treats or grain. If you can, after you catch him put him in his stall with some food and let him be in there and relax for a while before you go to work him. Better yet, if you can, don't work him every time you catch him. Just bring him in and let him relax and chill and just brush him and give him food, then send him back out.

[Fork]

Excellent! I think I might try this out then. I was a little skeptical at first because it does seem like chasing. The good thing is, I have all day tomorrow to do this and then I'm heading home. I have no plans to saddle him or bridle him yet.

I have been living 200 miles from him since May, but I'm moving back here in 6 weeks. Then I'll be putting the training miles on him. It was difficult because I moved him to the new barn, worked with him for a month and then moved away.

@Buck: I may have RFD on my satellite at home. I'll keep an eye out for it. :)

@mare: How do you do it in that big of a field?

[WashingtonBay]

I'm not a fan of leaving halters on but I'd consider it in this case. A breakaway one.

Or better yet, a leather dog collar around his neck with a foot long lead on it. Something you can grab when he comes for grain.

I don't chase horses if I can help it, not in a big field. My horses have much more endurance than I do. I have seen it work in a small paddock, not because they get tired, because they realize there's no escape. Careful though, to keep it much lower key, no fast pushing, just walk slowly after them. In a small space, they can decide to clear a fence. Not good to push them too hard.

[Fork]

I'm not a fan of leaving halters on but I'd consider it in this case. A breakaway one.

Or better yet, a leather dog collar around his neck with a foot long lead on it. Something you can grab when he comes for grain.

I don't chase horses if I can help it, not in a big field. My horses have much more endurance than I do. I have seen it work in a small paddock, not because they get tired, because they realize there's no escape. Careful though, to keep it much lower key, no fast pushing, just walk slowly after them. In a small space, they can decide to clear a fence. Not good to push them too hard.He clears everything under 4'. He attempted to jump out of the round pen today, but turned around and decided not to risk it.

He has a halter on right now. I think it's a breakaway, but it fits him snugly. If he doesn't have a halter on, he's impossible to catch. I will definitely walk and not run. I think once the owner has to run, it becomes a chase.

[zoel_222]

I will definitely walk and not run. I think once the owner has to run, it becomes a chase.

Yes, forgot to add that part. You're NOT just running around chasing him with the whip like a mad person. I pretty much just walk after them with the whip extended. If they try to stop or slow down something, then I'll do an aggressive stomp or lunge towards them and pop the whip.

[Fork]

Yes, forgot to add that part. You're NOT just running around chasing him with the whip like a mad person. I pretty much just walk after them with the whip extended. If they try to stop or slow down something, then I'll do an aggressive stomp or lunge towards them and pop the whip.Oh, okay! :) That may be my problem with my join-up attempts too. I feel as if I'm not always standing still.

[Palogal]

WHY? is he hard to catch? Is it attitude or is he shy? If he's shy or skeptical and you do this technique you will NEVER catch him. If he's just being a turd, then yes it works :)

[Fork]

WHY? is he hard to catch? Is it attitude or is he shy? If he's shy or skeptical and you do this technique you will NEVER catch him. If he's just being a turd, then yes it works :)LOL good question. He's getting really good to lead, halter, touch, groom, etc. when he's in any other space than his field. He actually trusts me to put my hands all over his body when we're in the round pen or arena.

I'm thinking he is just being a herd-sour turd. :p He doesn't seem to have major seperation anxiety. He doesn't like being the only one in the barn at night, but I've never met a horse who has been happy with that for long periods of time.

[Petra]

I didn't read all the responses. So I'm not sure what others said.
I taught my horse to stop running away by making her run until she got tired.
She would run off as soon as she saw me carrying a halter. I thought you want to run, I'll make you run. We have 5 acres so by the time she got tired I was about to die myself, lol. But it worked great. I only had to do this about 5 times and than she figured out that running away means workout. Especially if I did it when it was really hot outside and she was all sweaty to begin with.

[Kara]

I think he knows that when's he caught he has to do work. Sometimes I would just take something like a treat and a brush.

Bud was hard to catch. So I took food out to the pasture while the other horses where standing around he would get nosey and come and see. He would get his bite and I would walk away. Then he started to realize i was out there brushing or enojoying his company more then work.

[Fork]

I think he knows that when's he caught he has to do work. Sometimes I would just take something like a treat and a brush.

Bud was hard to catch. So I took food out to the pasture while the other horses where standing around he would get nosey and come and see. He would get his bite and I would walk away. Then he started to realize i was out there brushing or enojoying his company more then work.The problem is that it's not even work. He doesn't yet enjoy being brushed because he was never properly desensitized to it, and his previous owner said he didn't really groom him. He doesn't seem relaxed or comfortable when I stand and let him graze. Everything we do when he's out of his field is a learning process. :p

That always worked in the last field because I constantly had treats on me. He'd follow me around and let me pet him, but I couldn't go near his face with a lead rope or he'd bolt.

I will definitely try the herding method and see if I can outsmart him.

[Equine_Woman]

I think it works on a horse that is already catchable. . Not sure yours is to that point. I have really rotten horses that like to run if the trailer is hooked up instead of being caught (only 2 out of 4 do it and they are luckily the ones I never take anywhere) I just increase the pressure and never let them rest until they are resting near me. They both figure out very quickly that it's more work to run from me. .

[natisha]

You can't outrun the mummy

[ownedby7horses]

Here's a site with the information on join-up. It does work with horses who've never been caught or who don't want to be caught or have never even seen a human before.

http://www.montyroberts.com/ju_about.html

I have faith that you'll get 'er done! Also check out youtube and watch different join-up's on there.