Haltering a Pasture Sour Mare

Question
QUESTION: "First my background, as a teen & young adult I worked at the Kellogg Arabian Ranch in Pomona. Neither my cousin or I were students at the time but we both worked at the stables mucking stalls, grooming and working potential jumpers through gait training/conditioning.
About 3 years ago my husband purchased a beautiful blonde registered AQHA 3 y/o mare (Bella). He was told she was "rider ready" when he made the purchase. Unfortunately, that winter I fell & broke my back so was only able to have rudimentary interactions (occasional feeding, treats, scratching/grooming etc.) over the following couple of years.
I have completed my rehab and for the past year have attempted to get this now "pasture sour" mare to accept a halter or any ground work at all. I have read several of Julie Goodnight's articles but, find I am at a loss. We have both attempted to "walk her down" with halter in hand. But, other than some great cardio and exercise, this has not had the desired result.
My husband has now purchased a pasture mate for Bella. A very affectionate chocolate brown donkey (Pedro). At first there was the usual "who is dominant" tussle. But, now things have settled down, the "kids" crowd my husband & beg for attention but, if I am out in the pasture Pedro is the attention hound & Bella has to be wheedled & begged to come within arm's reach of me. I am at a loss. All my previous experience has been with animals with some training. I used to believe the girl who sold Bella to my husband exaggerated her training level, since once her halter was removed (shortly after her arrival) she has not allowed another one on her.
While I realize the answer must need brevity, other than selling her or hiring a very costly trainer . . . any suggestions? She seems to almost be green, again, just older & more set in her ways.""

ANSWER: How big is the pasture, and do you have a smaller area to get them in, even if you have to feed them for a while to get them used to coming in there?

And once you have her shut in there, turn the donkey out of there.  You don't want to end up with a buddy sour horse too.

If the donkey is dominant, that would explain why the mare is standing back at attention time.

And I am correct in that the mare hasn't been haltered, or worked with at all then, just petted or fed?  You haven't been able to catch her at all, for shots or farrier work either?

Okay.

First thing, if you can get some corral panels, like for a round pen, set them up so that you can feed in there.  Do not let the donkey stay in there with her.  He must go out.  You can also use cattle panels, or put up a smaller area with Redbrand wire, or non-climb wire for horses.  It doesn't need to be huge, even 12x12 will work, but 20x 20 or even a 40 ft round pen, if you can swing the panels needed.  But get something up so that you can get her more contained.

The problem with "walking one down" to me, is that if the horse has never been used to being caught, then this just compounds the problem, allowing the horse to walk you down, but rarely them.  While this worked for the Indians years ago?  They had days to devote to it, and I am assuming you don't.

And before I would walk one down, (that WAS used to being caught and was just being a butt) I would borrow someone's golf cart and ride that, while waiting for them to give up.

Here, with this mare, I am not sure that she has ever been used to being caught haltered or worked with at all.  So I will just go from what I think will work...

Get her separated first.  Feed her and water her in there.  Don't try at first to halter her, just feed/water/hay.  Make her back off of feed/hay until YOU decide she can approach.  Don't pet her, or baby her, or give her treats period.  Just business at all times.  Go in, make her move off you when you put feed out, then YOU decide when she can approach, and leave the pen.

After a couple of days or so of this, walk toward her shoulder, and give her a pat, if she will stand.  If she backs up or moves off, encourage movement.  Don't go crazy here, just cluck and scoot her a time or two around pen, and then feed, and leave.  Continue this, and it may take a while, to get her to stand when you approach her.  It should not take long, and if she moves away, make her circle pen, each time adding a couple of times around it.

Always approach at her shoulder, a head on approach is a threat to a horse.  Read her carefully, sometimes she may shift weight slightly, but if you slow your approach, she may let you pet her once.  Don't go crazy, and keep distractions to a minimum here.  Don't talk much, and what you do say needs to be business words, not "friendly babying words" and no treats.

In about a week, before you feed, go in with lead rope over shoulder, and move around pen, and make her circle it for you.  Make her switch directions, and give verbal cues, and hand cues to get her associating you as boss here.  Don't run her ragged, maybe 10 minutes, even less, just don't get crazy with this.  You aren't to wear her out, just make her move when you say so.

Then feed her.  Again, don't back off pan until you decide to.

Periodically, find something to do in the pen, adjust your gloves, polish rocks, stare at the sky, but with your back to her.  Do be aware of where she is, but seemingly IGNORE and her curiosity should make her approach you.  Just move away slowly then.  Do this several times, each time you can.  Eventually, and this won't take long, she should be standing close to you, and pat her, once, semi firm, and maybe say "good girl" and then ignore her again.

Once she is standing for a pat, (1) and a good girl, begin a scratch on shoulder routine with her.  Maybe run your hand down her mane.  Don't get grabby, or rush this.  Also work on both sides as you can.  Stay in shoulder area.  As she gets used to being touched more, work the lead rope into it, rubbing her with it.  Make it part of the "feel good" things.  Ignore her again.  Alternate this, walking away and working on things, even bringing a lawn chair to sit and read in, will get her interest too.  The more you ignore her during such times, the more she will feel you are in charge of things.  

Once she is standing for pats, and rubbing, begin reaching up under neck and patting off side with your hand, progress to doing this with the rope in your hand too, but don't try to catch her yet.  Also work on moving her over with a light touch on her shoulder, and always use voice commands, like "move over" or "swing", and make sure to work from both sides.  This makes her realize that you are boss, and she must move.

When she is standing for your reaching under her neck, then begin laying arm lightly over neck and patting off side, and then add rope.  Again realize this will take time.  The worst thing you can do is to rush, and have her learn she can pull away from you, so don't let that happen if you can avoid it.

Gradually, begin circling the rope around her neck, and using it to move her towards you gently, just one step, and then remove rope slowly, not a jerk.  And move her sideways, not forwards, and just a step here.  You may have to slow up, back up and start over, but don't get in a hurry, and if she acts up, then send her around the pen.

And work up too, since I hadn't mentioned it yet, to her working maybe 15 minutes in round pen, at a walk or trot.  Don't try to get her to cantering, as that can build up too much steam.  If she canters okay, but then back off with the pressure.

This is kind of like using a pressure cooker, you need to know when to add heat, or pressure, and when to back it off. Watch her, and she will tell you that.

Begin carrying the halter too, once in a while, and I will come back to haltering correctly in a minute, as I don't know if you were taught to correctly, so will touch on that.

Keep all of this up, until you can lay rope over neck, nearer the shoulder area than the head, and move mare to and away from you with it, without a panic.  As you are comfortable with this, and she is, begin rubbing face, always with you standing at shoulder area, rather than in front of her, as that is a "prey" move.  When she is calm about you touching jaw/face area more, take rope and loop it over nose, and move her head slightly.  Just a slight movement, nothing big.

Keep up the round pen movement too of course.  But work on the rope on neck and then around muzzle and then make a "halter" out of rope, not tying it or anything, but just the loops.  And don't pull tight, just make, and then unmake.  And movements need to be slow and deliberate here.  Nothing whizzing by, or getting upset.

Also, as she calms to this, begin moving hand up on mane until you reach poll, and she will stand for this.  This will enable you to place headstall over to buckle halter.

Begin rubbing her with halter, like you did rope, over and over, and gradually, if you have done homework with the "rope halter" you can slip the halter on her.

For haltering, stand at shoulder, facing forwards, with head strap in right hand, and buckle end in left, come under neck, and bring strap up over poll, as you bring noseband up, by raising the buckle end to meet headstall strap.  

The smaller area, and the separation from the donkey is very important.  You simply cannot do anything with this horse in a large area, and she will be more interested in her donkey friend than in doing what you want, hence the parting.

An alternate method, and you will still need a smaller area to leave her in while you work with her, is to get someone to come and hem her up, or rope her down, but that could cause some problems, and you may not have someone who does this.

But this part here, if handled right, will set the tone for the rest of her training, and you should be fine.

I also recommend you locate Mark Rashid's books, at least the first 4 or so, Considering the Horse, and the next 3, as I think they are the best ones for giving insight into a horse's thinking.

Please let me know how this is going, I am interested and willing to help anytime.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: We will follow up with your information and suggestions. She has worn a halter before but not since my injury. The irony is she acts like the dominant mare but, Pedro is just a total attention hound.

The pasture she is in is 3 ac, so my husband wishes he had thought of the golf cart idea before the attempted 'walk-down'.

We have started haltering Pedro and taking him to a different pasture, my husband usually walks him around and generally entertains him while I am working to A) Present a non-threatening/non-predator presence B) Just get her to approach and allow a small touch then leave on an up note before she walks away or runs

I will work on the round pen, we had one (borrowed) briefly but my PT advised against trying to do any extended standing or walking at the time. So, we dropped that knowing any work needs several hours planned ahead.

Thank-you so much for your complete and thorough answer, we've rated you a 10 all around.

Answer
Forget the non threatening or non predator approach.  She needs to think you are the bogey man.

Not in a "let's go crazy" mode, but in a "hey this person is not happy and I had better behave mode.

You might inadvertently be making this worse too, by acting non threatening.  She might be reading you as a sneaky, evil person?

Walk out there with intent on your brain, and fire in your eye.

Start in a nice mode, giving her a chance to be caught.  But if she leaves, then make her move.

And I don't really think that the walking away after touching sticks with her long enough to accomplish anything, but who knows.

But getting her in a smaller area, like I said, even buying a couple of cattle panels, 20 dollars, or a couple of corral/round pen panels would let you hem her in.

And once you have her in smaller area, make sure to keep her focused on keeping that rear away from you, that will keep her facing you and make her respect you.

And if you get pen back, keeping in mind that you might need to get up quick, so might want chair outside?  But sit and read, or do something, with a sense of where she is, but not watching her, and she may get curious and approach you.

Thanks for the rating, and hope mare gets her act together for you.  Aggravating type to deal with for sure.