How to Catch Your Horse

Learn to Communicate Like Another Horse

BY WARREN WECHSLER

Okay. I’m going to make a provocative statement: Don’tlet the horse win. That may sound disrespectful of one of my all-time favoritebooks, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey. After all,one of the habits is to “think win-win.” I think win-win most ofthe time, yet there are many times when bad things would happen if the horsewins—like when you're trying to catch your horse.

Let me explain. When your horses live at liberty in a pasture, whichmine do, and you want to catch one, you could spend the greater partof a day chasing him around trying to halter him. If the horse wins thisgame, even once, the stage is set for hours of frustration down the road.The problem is the way we communicate with the horse when we approach him.

If we approach him with serious intentions and move directly toward hishead, the horse thinks that we might be a predator. Out of instinct, thehorse moves away from us to think it over. If we approach the horse frombehind, we may frighten him and he’ll move away. Watch horses ina herd and you’ll notice that they walk towards each other in seeminglyrandom patterns. The patterns aren’t that random if you know howto watch. Horses mosey in a general direction, stop, come a little closer,stop again, and almost always approach each other at a 45-degree angle,towards the shoulder. Once I learned how to approach a horse and choseto invest as much time as it took to win—meaning to catch a horse—lifebecame better for horse and human.

I learned a lot about catching and winning from my Arabian horse, Chance.The previous owners had a lot of “buts” to share with me aboutChance when I acquired him. “He’s very sweet, but . . . hedoesn’t like to be caught. He’s very sweet, but . . . he doesn’tlike to have a bit in his mouth. He’s very sweet, but . . . he doesn’tlike to trot, he prefers to canter. He’s very sweet, but . . . hedoesn’t like his feet worked on.”

It was clear to me that Chance needed to learn a lot about hiscommunications with humans. He was winning way too often. I wasdetermined to change his patterns of behavior. And it worked. Chancehas slowly learned that it is okay to let me win. Life got very,very good after that.

Early on, I can’t tell you how many times I would approachChance and back off, move closer, back off, until I would get within60 feet of him, then within 30 feet, 10 feet, 3 feet, and thenfinally, right up to him. Several times he would walk off whenI got too close for his comfort. I would stand my ground, not stareat him, turn my body away from Chance, and then start again. Inthe first few weeks, it took up to 45 minutes for me to catch him.But I always prevailed. Now, many months later, not only is Chancenot hard to catch, he approaches me when I arrive in the pasture.Catching him takes all of one to two minutes.

Once in a while, Chance still tests me and walks off, as if he’sthinking, “You want to catch me and work me hard today and I’mnot so sure about that.” I laugh, shake my head, and say to myself, “Chance,you know I’m committed to catching you no matter how long it takes.” Chancewill walk away five or six feet, then turn and look at me as if to say “Arewe going to play this game, or what?” I will move toward his shoulder,not toward his head, or even maybe walk a few steps away from him, thencome around and approach him from the other shoulder, and then he willallow himself to be caught.

Ultimately, I think that when I win this game, Chance wins too. It strengthensour bond, it creates mutual trust, and it allows me to continue to learnby Chance.

P.S. On a practical note, it’s important to be prepared to catchyour horse. If you walk up to him and he is standing patiently, but youstart fumbling with the lead rope and unbuckling the halter, your horsewill get impatient or see your behavior as a signal that you’re notready and take the opportunity to walk away.

Here’s what to do. Hold the lead rope, snapped to an unbuckled halter,in your left hand. The lead rope must not be looped around your hand, butfolded, so that if the horse pulls you can just let go and your hand won’tget caught. Have the halter open with the buckle towards your left handand the open part of the halter toward your right hand, so when you approachthe horse you can slip the lead rope around his neck and then reach overhis neck. Then you can grab the right side of the halter, lift it up overthe horse’s neck as you put his nose into the halter, and bucklethe halter. It’s really quite easy.

A Boy Scout’s motto is “Be Prepared.” It works withhorses, too.

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