Pasture Issues

[farmchick]

I have 3 horses that are just a little over a year old. I put them out to pasture for a few hours with the cattle and then when i go to get them it has been taking normally an hour to catch them. They are all 3 well mannered and decently trained.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Food in a bucket does not work either we tried that last night. lol

 

[Alan]

This is a tough one it's not the horses aren't well mannered it's the grass is always greener... I can't go in if you can't catch me, just like a little kid.

You might try this, after you turn the horse out wait about 1/2 hr then take a lawn chair, a book, and a noise maker (like car keys) out to the middle of the pasture or well away from fences. sit down turned away from the horses so you can see them out of the corner of your eye. Read your book (you may be there for an hour) and every once in a while rattle the noise maker but not so the horses can see you doing it, don't let them know excactly where the noise is coming from. Horses are so curious they will come up to you after a while and if they feel you are ignoring them it makes them that much more curious. When they do come up to you make sure you make it a positive reward, a treat, like a chunk of carrot or apple (I hate treats, but thats another topic) but don't try to catch them just pet them a little and let them do thier thing. You're trying to train the yearlings to want to come to you. Don't reach out to them, have patience and let them make contact with you or at least put their noses a few inches from you. I try not to have to reach out to them, I just want to lift my hand to make contact if they are close enough and haven't made contact. I also don't let the horse do things that I wouldn't let them do in hand, such a start biting me or the chair. Don't hit them just push them away, your trying to train them to love to come to you.

Two more things, first when you are ready to catch one up pet it's neck with the lead rope in your hand then drape it over the neck and grab the other end under the neck so you have the neck caught up then put the halter on or clip into the halter that you left on (which I'm also not a fan of, I fear horse getting the halter caught on fence or tree limbs). Second is always be aware of saftey issues while sitting in the chair, young horse tend to want to play and may turn quickly and kick out. So don't let them get you in a tight spot. I do this in the early part of training to gain trust with horses.

Just another method hope this helps.
Alan

 

[msscamp]

I have 3 horses that are just a little over a year old. I put them out to pasture for a few hours with the cattle and then when i go to get them it has been taking normally an hour to catch them. They are all 3 well mannered and decently trained.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Food in a bucket does not work either we tried that last night. lol

Grain in the bucket doesn't work because they don't know what it is. The next time you have them in the corral, put a little grain in a bucket, shake it, and when they come to you give them a mouthful. It sounds like they are in the corral more than on pasture, so do this a couple times throughout the day and they will know what that shake means and come to you in the pasture.

PS I would also be careful putting 3 yearlings out with the cows. Yearlings tend to be playful and have high energy levels. Should they get to running and playing, they could very easily run your cows through the fence. We never put more than one horse out with the cows at any one time for that very reason. We usually never put the horses out with the cows period, the horses had their own pastures.

 

[farmchick]

Thanks for the advice. We have been putting the horses out with the cows for a month now and have done it in the past and never had a problem. They seem to be a team after a few hours and just go do their own thing. Even when we are in there chasing the horses around the cows don't do anything but follow us around.

 

[msscamp]

I support what works!

 

[Alan]

I'm with ms on not putting horses out with the cows (although lots do it). Ours too have thier own pastures, each have large turnouts. I should add with my method you should only work with one horse at a time in pasture you want them to focus on you not the other horses.

Not to start an argument, but I find it hard to believe that if your horses ever ate grain from a bucket or out of a bucket they would not know what it was. Now if they never had grain from a bucket it would be a different story.

As most people with horses know, there is many different methods of training to get to the same goal, ie., loading in a trailer.

Alan

 

[msscamp]

Not to start an argument, but I find it hard to believe that if your horses ever ate grain from a bucket or out of a bucket they would not know what it was. Now if they never had grain from a bucket it would be a different story.
Alan

No argument, but it has been my experience that when a horse is in the corral there is no need to shake the bucket. There is nothing to distract/compete with their attention, plus they are used to having people approach/pet/scratch/feed in a corral. However, in the pasture there is green grass, whole other situation. Unless they are familiar with/able to correlate the sound of the grain being shaken with the taste of said grain, they are likely to ignore it as they are busy eating all that green grass. Case in point, one of our horses - actually several of our horses - have never been on pasture because we don't have pasture where we are now. Although they have been fed a mouthful of grain out of a bucket from time to time, when one of them jumped his run fence, he didn't have a clue what shaking that bucket meant. Where horses are concerned, in the corral and in the pasture are two totally different things most times.

 

[Alan]

Not to start an argument, but I find it hard to believe that if your horses ever ate grain from a bucket or out of a bucket they would not know what it was. Now if they never had grain from a bucket it would be a different story.
Alan

No argument, but it has been my experience that when a horse is in the corral there is no need to shake the bucket. There is nothing to distract/compete with their attention, plus they are used to having people approach/pet/scratch/feed in a corral. However, in the pasture there is green grass, whole other situation. Unless they are familiar with/able to correlate the sound of the grain being shaken with the taste of said grain, they are likely to ignore it as they are busy eating all that green grass. Case in point, one of our horses - actually several of our horses - have never been on pasture because we don't have pasture where we are now. Although they have been fed a mouthful of grain out of a bucket from time to time, when one of them jumped his run fence, he didn't have a clue what shaking that bucket meant. Where horses are concerned, in the corral and in the pasture are two totally different things most times.

I agree with your point but what I'm saying is you can train your horses to come to you in the pasture or turn out or what ever, just simply make the horse want to come to you. I agree if you have a horse on fresh green pasture and you have a grain bucket, to the untrained horse the pasture always wins. Your training your horse to want to come to you when it see's you. It takes a while and as I did not say until my second post it probably won't work with multiple horses in the pasture. I usally start this training in the arena or round pen, but I have done it in a large turnout (about and acre). It works well after you bond with your horse.

Just a another method.
Alan

 

[msscamp]

Sorry, we appear to be taking different routes to the same ending.

 

[biscuit35]

I don't have my horses in with any cattle, but they were also kind of hard to catch, i basically did what Alan mentioned, i'd go sit in the pasture with them until eventually they would come up to me, generally i would have a treat in my pocket and after talking to them and petting them for a few minutes i would give them the treat and then come back to the house, after they realized i wasn't there to catch them or really do anything besides hang out and give them a treat they started coming quicker, i used to do that a couple times a day, now when they see me they come to me right away.