uncatchable yearling filly

Question
Hi, I purchased a Q.H. filly about a month ago. She was born in August. She was never handled before and it took my husband over 3 hours to get a halter on her and she was in a stall!!! She got so sweated up from all this and evenmore afraid. We turned her out with my 2 colts (they are all the same age)in our riding areana. I have not been able to work with her since we brought her home since my area in Wisconsin got us over 100 inches of snow. OK now I am trying my hardest to make friends with her. She still has a halter on which I don't like. But I can not even get near her. Only a handful hay makes her come and then she is off in a second. This is not my first weanling/yearling. I have had over 50 here in the 6 years. But she stumps me, she won't even look at you. She don't eat grain either. Any ideas on how to catch her? We are still slick now with ice, mud, muck and snow. I hate to chase her and have her slip and fall. She does become frantic and will try to jump. Thanks

Answer
Hi Jeanne

Thanks for asking me to try to help, this is not going to be easy and you are going to need vast amounts of patience here.


First of all you need to win her trust.  Imagine you have been taken away from all that you know and those that you love and left with complete strangers, this is her reaction to this situation, its the fight or flight reaction.

Now to win her trust you are going to have to spend time out with her, not necessarliy trying to catch her, just stand  near the colts, let her see you fussing and playing and rewarding them, curiosoty is something she will not be able to overcome, she sees them being played with and trusting you then she will come round.  when she does approach you, don;t make any sudden moves, in fact don;t even attempt to touch her, make no eye with her, you need her to approach you in your space and  for you not to invade her space, if she takes off then do not chase her just repeat the steps until she comes right up to  you and starts to be inquisitive, have a carrot or piece of apple in your hands even a mint if nothing else, let her investigate you and check you out first of all.  She needs to know that you are not going to hurt her and that she can trust you

When you can calmly and safely approach her, just rest your hand on her neck, again no sudden moves, just speak slowly and calmly in avery soft voice, praise her constantly and let her adjust to having you in her speace. Again you may need to repeat this over and over again until she feels comfortable and safe.  Then when she is able to accept you  only then try to take the halter off her.  When the halter was put on she  had a traumatic experience an she will remember this and associate humans with something relatively unpleasant.  As I said this is going to take plenty of patience and time and you cannot hurry this along at all or you risk scarring her  perception of humans for ever.  One more thing I do not feel happy that she is with two colts, if they had been geldings then I would be happier.  Can you possibly move her to a space of her won or will she fret  more if taken from the colts, otherwise you may end up with an in foal youngster and that is not what you want at all.

Good luck and please  let me know how things are progressing, if you need anything more then please email me  and I will try to answer the question for you